"Samira," Ashlynn said, once Isabell had helped the pregnant woman to make her way to the top of the dais. "What I’m about to ask you isn’t fair, but it’s your choice to make, and I will support you either way."

"Lady Ashlynn," Samira said awkwardly as she felt the weight of the hall’s eyes falling on her once again. "You’ve already done so much for me. Whatever you need, you only have to ask..."

"No, not this time," Ashlynn interrupted, shaking her head at the young mother-to-be. "This time, if you need to tell me no, then you tell me no," she said sternly. "You don’t owe me anything," she added gently, placing a hand on the young woman’s shoulder. "Your first obligation is to the child you carry, not to me, so you need to do what’s right for them."

"Lady Ashlynn," Samira said hesitantly, placing one hand on her belly and biting her lower lip anxiously. "You’re scaring me a bit," she said as she looked into Ashlynn’s hardened, exhausted eyes. It was clear that whatever this was about weighed on her greatly and that it concerned her child... 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

"No, no," she said, her eyes going wide as a terrifying thought occurred to her. "You can’t mean to..."

"No! No, never that!" Ashlynn said quickly. "Never that," she repeated. "But I won’t lie to you, there is a danger to your child. This throne’s curse," Ashlynn said, gesturing to the abomination that had been carved from the trunk of a sacred Ancient Oak. "It’s linked to the Lothian bloodline. Owain could draw on its power because he was Odhran Lothian’s descendant, and the same would likely be true of your child..."

"I know you want nothing to do with the Lothian name," Ashlynn said softly. "I want that freedom for you, and for your child as well. I want to break the Lothian line by destroying the throne and its binding on your descendant’s fate... But I cannot promise that it won’t affect your child."

"Ignatious believes that we should act now, before your child is born, so the curse can never find them," Ashlynn explained. "But even he isn’t certain, and neither is High Priest Aubin."

"So this, this thing," Samira said, pointing at the throne with a shaky hand. "If you don’t destroy it, it will curse my child. But if you do destroy it, it may still hurt us? Before they’re even born? How, how is that..." she stammered, her eyes filling with tears. "He’s dead, and he still..."

"I know," Ashlynn said, wrapping her arms around Samira and pulling her close. Between Ashlynn’s armor and Samira’s belly, it was an awkward embrace, but Ashlynn wrapped more than just her arms around the pregnant woman, and soon, a faint scent of crisp, clean evergreen filled the air, offering both comfort and support to everyone on the dais.

"I just want to be free of him," Samira said, blotting the tears from her eyes. "Please... Whatever it takes. I, I was ready to run away through the wilderness and the snow to escape the Summer Villa if that’s what it took for us to be free," she added as she stroked her belly.

"It, it was never going to be easy or safe for us," Samira added as she gathered all of the courage she had in her heart, remembering the promise that she’d made to Noomi to raise their children together. "But if I can’t be free of him and this, this curse...."

"All right," Ashlynn said softly. "Stay close to Isabell and Ignatious," Ashlynn said as gently as she could. "Let me take care of the rest."

Ashlynn drew a deep breath before she turned to face the crowd. What they were about to see was nothing like the miracles of the Church, and if they didn’t understand what she was doing, she shuddered to think about how they would respond.

"Everyone," Ashlynn said loudly, forcing back the exhaustion that dragged at her and the pain from her wounds to do what needed to be done. "There are some secrets you need to understand, and it all starts with the sacred tree that was chopped down so that Leon and Odhran Lothian could build this... This abomination," she began.

She kept her explanation as brief as she could, telling the people that the power of the throne was bound to the Lothian bloodline, and that it had been built to harvest strength and good fortune from the people who had received trinkets and gifts carved from its wood. She told them it was how Owain came to possess the strength to become the greatest swordsman of the age, and they had all borne the cost of Leon and Odhran’s schemes.

"Now, it’s time to put an end to it," Ashlynn said. "To free you all from the tyranny of Lothian rule and to ensure that this power can never rise up again," she said as she pulled a small pouch out from underneath her armor, reaching in to withdraw an oversized acorn that glittered and pulsed with emerald green, midnight blue, and lurid crimson light.

"From death comes life," Ashlynn said, her voice ringing off the walls of the great hall. "This is a cycle as old as time. To bring about the end of something so dark and twisted, let it nourish something bright and pure. This is no ordinary acorn," Ashlynn explained as she held the pulsing acorn up high above her head.

"It was collected from the very same tree that gave birth to the one Odhran, and Leon chopped down," Ashlynn explained. The statement was true, even if it was incomplete, and right now, it was enough for the people to understand the source of something extraordinary, even if they didn’t know how the Blood Acorn had come to be.

"Tonight, in the hopes that something shining and bright can rise up from the darkness and death of my husband’s legacy, I will plant this seed," Ashlynn said. "To give rise to something new..."