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🖤 The Villainess Just Wants to Sleep

Chapter 12: The Queen's Warning

> “Power does not need to shout. It smiles as it buries you.”

— Queen Seraphine

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The glass garden behind the palace was quiet after sundown.

Moonlight spilled through curved crystal panels. Ivory vines bloomed along the trellises. It was a place of beauty — and strategy. Nobles met here when they didn’t want words to echo through halls.

Kaelaira had been summoned alone.

She walked softly, steps soundless against marble tiles, her hands clasped, her face composed. She recognized the scent of the flowers.

> Seraphine lilies.

Cold. Toxic. Always beautiful before they kill.

At the far end of the garden, beneath the moon-drenched archway, stood Queen Seraphine.

She didn’t look up immediately.

She waited.

Controlled. Timed. Royal.

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“You called for me, Your Majesty,” Kaelaira said, bowing low.

Queen Seraphine turned at last. Her golden robes shimmered like the night sky.

She studied Kaelaira for a moment — not with hatred, but with sharp calculation, the way one would examine a blade before deciding whether to use it or break it.

> “I did not call you here to scold you,” the Queen said, voice smooth.

Kaelaira didn’t answer.

Seraphine’s smile was small.

> “You are brilliant, child. That’s not praise — it’s fact. Your words have begun to reach the ears of the Empire’s elite.”

> “And that concerns you,” Kaelaira said, not as a question.

“Of course it does,” the Queen said. “The court is not built to hold two suns. And you burn quietly… dangerously.”

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Kaelaira tilted her head. “So you’ve come to warn me.”

Seraphine’s fan opened with a whisper. “To guide you.”

> “Know your place, Lady Kaelaira. That brilliance of yours? Use it well — in shadows, not in throne rooms. In service, not ambition.”

Kaelaira’s eyes met hers. Calm. Clear.

> “I have no ambition, Your Majesty.”

The Queen’s smile widened — cold as ice.

> “Good. Keep it that way. Because if you ever do… you will not just face exile. You will disappear. Quietly. With silk and wine and no body left to bury.”

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A long silence passed.

Then Kaelaira bowed again, flawlessly.

> “Thank you, Your Majesty,” she said sweetly. “For your… care.”

She turned and walked away, steps still measured, back straight, expression unreadable.

Only when she exited the garden, her shadow swallowed by palace walls, did she whisper to herself:

> “She thinks I burn. But I don’t.

I freeze. And ice doesn’t bend. It breaks.”

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Back in the garden, Queen Seraphine stood alone.

She stared at the lilies and muttered, “That girl… was not raised. She was tempered.”

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End of Chapter 12

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