When duty is ingrained in the blood, the only choice is to fulfill. Or so most people believe.
But there was always another choice. For Lady Celestine and Lord Matthias of House Veyne, that choice was to run away and go into hiding.
In their world, duty was not something learned. It was inherited, etched into bone and written down in blood.
Before one was even born, their fate was determined and to be born into a royal bloodline like Celestine and Matthias, meant that you had to give up everything you wanted and surrender yourself into something greater: the throne.
The system had existed for the longest time. But then talks and whispers arose of wanting change. No longer wanting to feel burdened with a destiny that was decided for them, many wanted to be out.
For generations, House Veyne fought for reformation, even when little by little, everyone who stood by their side had passed. They fought to restore equality and wanted to protect humans. But when another life grew inside Lady Celestine, they were no longer fighting for themselves.
Suddenly, the ideals they believed in no longer seemed worth it, especially if it meant endangering their child's life. Principles felt different when measured against a heartbeat and for them, the fight was now like a sword pressed against their daughter's neck.
So they abandoned the lives they once knew. Stripping themselves of their names, their titles, and their identities. They stepped away from the court and chose obscurity amongst the humans, believing that one day, their daughter will be able to live a normal life.
House Veyne, once the most powerful pureblood lineage, was gone and lost.
But they were wrong.
Because blood does not forget, especially not one that carries the next veinmark.
It lingers beneath the skin. It waits in silence. It remembers what it was meant to become.
You can bury a name. You can burn records. You can erase a lineage from every council archive that ever mentioned it.
But you cannot silence what runs through the veins.
And the throne, no matter how distant, always listens for the echo of the veinmark,
One day, it would find her.
One day, it would demand what her parents tried to protect.
And when that day came, the choice they once made would no longer belong to them.
It would belong to her.