Chapter 74: emptiness (but still a shadow).

ONE WEEK EARLIER

Three days had passed since Firelight.

Damian sat beside Prince Leon in a stately room on the third floor of Rossheim Palace. Gunther smiled gently at the younger prince as he placed a cup of steaming tea and a plate of biscuits on the table. The butler bowed at their guests before stepping back to the edge of the room.

"Your Highness, I think I speak for the entire Order when I say that we're truly blessed to see you safely returned to Rosweiss."

Opposite the princes sat two people garbed in the heavy white robes of Holy Order of the Flame. Both wore heavy iron chains around their necks, symbolizing the supposed martyrdom of their chained Angel. The woman—Diana—appeared to be in her early fifties, had a kind and motherly face, and wore the red-dyed chains of a bishop.