1. The Emerald Party

SAGE “Duke Satorr, by the order of His Majesty King Kazemir, you are arrested on charges of treason!” the cold voice of the man with long white hair dressed in navy and silver sounded like thunder on a calm day. He was looking at my father and so did the royal guards that came with him. They all had their hands on the hilts of their swords and I could sense that some of them were ready to summon their elements if they had to. This wasn’t a joke. My heart started to beat faster as I saw Dad’s concerned face. He wasn’t shocked, he did not try to resist them. He almost looked like he expected them. And that started to bother me. Why? The Emerald Duchy of Satorrs was always loyal to the crown! Who would accuse us of treason?! A wave of gasps and whispers ruptured through the huge marble hall we were in. Our yearly End of The Fall Ball was a success as always. Literally everyone who was important in any way was present here tonight. Everyone but my fiancé, Dorian. For some reason, he was very late today. And I was already annoyed that I had to start the ball with someone else. Neil Fergusson was the first one who offered to step in and I had to agree, even though I never liked the guy in the first place. My friends were saying that Dorian would appear any minute with apologies and a gift to make up for everything. My enemies were giggling and making snide remarks. But I did not care about any of that anymore. There was only one man in the whole wide world who I cared about right now and it was my father, The Emerald Duke Roland Satorr. And right now he was accused of something absolutely unspeakable. Something that could seal his fate in the worst of senses. “Would you explain yourself, Winter?” my father asked calmly, handing his glass to one of the knights next to him. And I stepped away from my friends to get closer. I wanted to see the face of the man who tried to humiliate us like that. This was probably someone from one of the fractions who opposed Dad in court trying to play some tricks! Politics was a dirty business and unfortunately, our family was always in the centre of it. “I am not the one who has to explain myself at this point,” the man with silver hair said, looking straight into my father’s eyes. He looked like he was military and had a very handsome face. One would even call it was perfect probably. But for me now this was the man that I hated the most. How could he be doing this? And in such a way - in the middle of a celebration with everyone present! Surely, it was a mistake! And soon everything would clear out. However, people would never forget that ball. “I have a royal order,” he produced some kind of paper and one of daddy’s knights took it from his hands studying it carefully. When he was done, he looked at my father with clenched lips, signalling to him that the paper was real. I almost choked on the air as I came close to the men and stood right before my father, facing the one person who came here to destroy my family. I was much smaller than him. The top of my head barely reached his shoulder. But I still had a lot of determination to put him in his place. “You cannot be serious!” I tried not to give away how furious and at the same time terrified I had been, “Do you know who this is? This is the Emerald sword of the kingdom! He is the Duke of…” “Sage,” my father placed his hand on my shoulder and I turned to look into his eyes. He shook his head lightly, telling me not to make a scene without using any words. And I knew exactly what he meant. He taught me better than that. He taught me to keep our family’s honour even at the worst of times. And, unfortunately, today was the first day when I had to use this knowledge and training in real life. “Arrest him,” the man in front of me, Winter, if I was not mistaken, ordered coldly. Gods, I hated that man! “Daddy!” slipped off my tongue as two royal guards went past me and started twisting my father’s hands to put magic blocking bracelets on them. Gasps filled the room again and some lady lost her conscience, falling right into the hands of a count who stood next to her. What a coincidence! “Sage, it’s going to be fine!” my father said as the men didn’t even try to be nice to him, “Stay at home and let the Emerald knights protect you.” It was incredibly hard to breathe. But I stood strong. “I am afraid that will be a problem,” the man in front of me said with no emotions in his voice. How could someone possibly be so cold? “What do you mean?” my father gritted his teeth. “All your knights are under arrest too,” Winter said and got out another piece of paper from the inner pocket of his navy coat. And this was when more royal guards stormed into the ballroom, pushing people around as they were targeting men in emerald cloaks. They were seizing everyone I could trust. Everyone who was supposed to protect me. The realisation was getting to me very slowly. It was an attack on the whole house. And there was absolutely nothing that I could do. “The house is arrested too,” the man with silver hair said, “And so are all of your assets. You can only take your personal belongings and you need to leave this place within one hour.” “You demon!” my father shouted. This was the first time he raised his voice like this in the presence of other people. He never lost control before. “If you as much as touch my daughter…” “No one will touch your daughter, Satorr,” Winter looked at my father coldly, “I give you my word. She is under my protection and…” The sound of a slap echoed through the room. A few seconds passed before I realised that it was my hand that connected to Winter’s face, leaving a red mark on it. My whole palm was aching from the impact and I probably hurt myself more than this globe of ice. But it was SO worth it. “I don’t need protection from the likes of you!” I hissed at him, pressing my hand to my chest as it was pounding. I waited for him to reply, to say something. But he stayed quiet. However, for the first time since he came into my house with the desire to ruin it, he locked eyes with me. I expected to see hatred there. Or anger. Or at least guilt if he had a heart. But all I saw was ice. That man was stone cold. “As you wish,” he replied without a trace of interest or emotion, “Remember that you have one hour to leave this place, my lady.” At this time guards were already taking my father away, while the rest were putting the magic blockers on our knights. “Sage!” Dad turned to look at me one last time, “Don’t meddle into this! I paid for the Academy for you already! Go there!” He wanted to say something else but they did not let him finish, dragging him away forcefully as if he wasn’t the hero of the country who saved us all years ago. I stood there, frozen and trying to keep myself from a wave of hysteria that was about to wash over me. From the corner of my eye, I noticed that the guests were leaving. None of them stopped to speak to me, not even my best friends. Although all of them were throwing curious glances at me. Those prying eyes... They all wanted to know what I was going to do now. I had no protection anymore. No one to turn to. Ever since I died in my previous life and was reborn in this body and in this world filled with magic... It was only Dad and me… AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hi, guys! The new journey begins today. Prepare for the rollercoaster that Sage is about to give you ;) Remember that this is Book 2 in The Ruptureverse series. Book 1 is Dragon's Ice. The events of this book take 5 years after the events of Dragon's Ice. This book, however, can also be enjoyed as a standalone story. All events, characters etc, will be explained in due course. But if you can't wait - you may get a fuller experience faster if you read Dragon's Ice. P.S. Sorry for the delay. I was rewriting this chapter several times. Tell me what you think about it. Another not great new is that after careful consideration, I will not be able to update this book daily this month. It will be updated 2-3 times per week and daily updates will start on the 1st of February. This book has big shoes to fill and I want to do it right. I hope you understand.