The air was thick with silence.

  Selene stood alone in the highest chamber of her castle, a place where time seemed thinner, stretched, waiting. The walls hummed faintly with power, and the air shimmered as if reality itself was holding its breath.

  She had been hearing it again—the whispers.

  Soft, drifting through the edges of perception, but never quite there.

  They had started after she claimed Fenric.

  That was new.

  Before, the whispers had been faint, distant, unknowable.

  Now, they were focused.

  Watching.

  Waiting.

  ---

  She closed her eyes.

  Reached out—not physically, but through the web of power she had woven.

  The whispers did not retreat.

  Instead, something spoke back.

  It was not like before.

  It was not madness or hunger or something from the depths.

  This was… something else.

  Something knowing.

  A voice—not like sound, but like a thought too large to fit in her mind.

  “What changed?”

  Selene’s breath caught.

  Not because of the words.

  But because she was not supposed to be able to hear them.

  ---

  The world shifted.

  For the first time since coming to this world, Selene felt disoriented.

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  Not because of power.

  But because of perception.

  The castle around her faded, not into darkness but into clarity.

  And standing before her was something she did not have the words to describe.

  It was not a Fae.

  It was not of the Boundless Continent.

  It was not even a presence in the way Eternity was.

  It was the Watcher.

  Something she didn’t know, couldn't know, yet knew.

  Not a name. A title.

  And it was studying her.

  ---

  Selene did not move.

  She had faced warriors, raiders, fae, and kings.

  But this was different.

  The Watcher was not an enemy.

  It was not a threat.

  It was a question given form.

  ---

  “You were supposed to be human.”

  The words resonated, not like speech, but truth pulled from reality itself.

  Selene remained still.

  “I am Fae,” she said.

  A pause.

  “Yes. But you were not meant to be.”

  She narrowed her eyes. “Why?”

  The Watcher tilted its head.

  “You were given a Fae Arm, and the System had to adjust. It has done this before.”

  Selene’s mind raced.

  Before?

  “You’ve watched this happen?” she asked, her voice even.

  The silence that followed was not empty.

  It was considering.

  “I have watched ten thousand thousand times.”

  Selene exhaled slowly.

  Then why was this time different?

  ---

  The Watcher continued.

  “Every other time, the System assigned a Fae Subspecies. One that was loyal to humans. The process is simple. A Fae Arm is granted. The System adjusts. The assigned subspecies remains bound to human will.”

  It leaned forward—not physically, but in understanding.

  “This time… it did not.”

  Selene’s heart slowed.

  The System had not assigned her a subspecies.

  It had made her Fae.

  Not bound.

  Not adjusted.

  It had changed her.

  Because it had to.

  ---

  Selene took a breath.

  So that was why the others followed.

  Fae only obeyed those stronger than them.

  The System had been forced to classify her as more powerful than any Fae in her court from the moment she was created.

  Loyalty could not start at zero.

  So the only option was to change the definition of what she was.

  ---

  The Watcher studied her.

  “I ask again, Queen of Balance,” it said.

  “What changed?”

  ---

  Selene thought.

  And for the first time, she felt uncertain.

  Because she didn’t know.

  She had done nothing.

  She had simply existed.

  Yet something had changed everything.

  She met the Watcher’s gaze.

  “I don’t know.”

  The Watcher was silent.

  But its presence shifted.

  And then, it said something that made her blood turn cold.

  ---

  “This iteration is extremely unique.”

  Selene remained still.

  “You were not meant to be Fae. And the Ancient One was not meant to wake.”

  ---

  Selene’s thoughts froze.

  The whispers…

  “The thing that’s stirring,” she said carefully. “The thing that watches me. That’s not you.”

  “No.”

  ---

  She was not alone.

  There were two forces at play.

  One was the Watcher.

  The other?

  The thing that had been waiting beneath the Boundless Continent.

  Selene clenched her fists.

  “What is it?”

  The Watcher did not answer.

  ---

  The castle returned.

  The moment ended.

  And the whispers faded.

  Selene stood alone in her chamber.

  But she was not the same.

  She had always known she was different.

  But now, she knew something else had noticed.

  And whatever had been sleeping was waking up faster than it should have.

  ---

  She exhaled slowly.

  Balance was shifting.

  The Continent was watching.

  And so was something far older.

  For now, she had no answers.

  Only one certainty.

  She would be ready.