Ticking Gown: The Enchanter's Fatal Gift

The Solarien family had two daughters.

Aurelia, the younger, was their pride and joy, soon to marry Duke Lysander beneath a reputation she had never earned: the so-called genius enchantress.

I, Vespera, was nothing more than the family's hidden workhorse, locked in a basement and valued only for what I could produce.

For years, I churned out enchanted gear to fund their lavish life while they used me as a stepping stone for Aurelia without a trace of guilt.

I let them bleed me dry, clinging to the faint hope that they might someday treat me like family.

Then, on the eve of my wedding, my parents stole the gown I had spent three years pouring my blood and sweat into, all so Aurelia could make a grand impression.

They threatened my fiancé's life and forced me to cut my wrist, using my blood to reverse the runes and attune the enchantment to her instead of me—even though the backlash could cripple my magic for life.

The moment I watched my blood soak into that gown, I gave up on my family for good.

For all the family pride they fought so desperately to protect, there had never been room for me.

As the last grains of stardust melted into the ice-blue silk, the final warding rune flared to life.

I exhaled slowly and wiped the cold sweat from my forehead.

I'd spent three years creating the Starbound Ward-Gown, even risking my life to gather aurora grass in the Shadowmere Forest and draining nearly every drop of magic I possessed.

But it was worth it.

Next month, I was marrying Kaelar—a penniless border soldier with no title or influence.

I didn't care. I only wanted to walk toward him in this one-of-a-kind gown with my head held high.

BANG!

The workshop door flew open. My mother stormed in, Aurelia at her heels.

Aurelia's fortune's worth gold-threaded dress looked painfully out of place in the dim, cramped basement.

She didn't spare me a glance. The moment she entered, her greedy eyes fixed on the gown stretched across the loom.

"Oh my God..." she breathed, unable to hide her greed. "Mother, it's more beautiful than anything in the capital's finest auction house!"

My mother strode over and shoved me aside, then ran a hand over the silk.

As the powerful warding magic surged beneath her fingers, her eyes narrowed with satisfaction.

"Not bad, Vespera." Without looking back, she issued her order. "Pack it up. Have it delivered to Aurelia's room by morning."

I stood frozen, my fingertips still trembling from the magic I'd poured into it.

"Mother, that's my wedding gown." I held her gaze. "I'm marrying Kaelar next month. I made it for myself."

"You?" My mother looked at me as if I'd told the world's biggest joke, her eyes dripping with scorn.

"You're marrying a landless knight. What use is a gown like this at the border? His soldiers won't know silk from sackcloth."

She pulled Aurelia forward and raised her voice.

"Aurelia is joining the ducal household. She'll stand among royalty and the highest nobility. Without a dress worthy of that circle, the family will be humiliated. Aurelia will be humiliated."

My heart sank like a stone.

In all the family pride they fought so hard to protect, I didn't even exist.

"Didn't the family already spend three thousand gold on her dress?"

I clenched my jaw. "I gathered every material myself. I risked my life for them. I spent three years carving each rune. The family didn't pay a single coin. Why should I give it up?"

"Vespera, how can you be so selfish?"

Aurelia's face crumpled instantly, tears sliding down on cue—perfectly timed, perfectly false.

"I know you've never liked me, but we're sisters. I don't have your gift for magic. The noblewomen in the duke's circle already whisper about me."

"If I had this gown, they'd have nothing to say. Can't you do this for the family's honor?" Her voice broke with fake sobs, but her hand clutched the gown's edge with undeniable entitlement.

"Let go." I fixed her with an icy stare.

"Vespera! How dare you speak to Aurelia like that?"

My father, Earl Solarien, stormed into the workshop, clearly having heard the argument. He looked at me as though I were a stray dog biting the hand that fed it.

"Aurelia only wants a dress, and you're making a scene?" He jabbed a finger at me, his voice rising. "If this family hadn't fed and clothed you, where would you be? You eat our food, live under our roof, and now you're quibbling over one small sacrifice?"

"A small sacrifice?"

I gave a cold laugh. "Have you forgotten? I made every enchanted weapon this family has sold over the past three years, alone in this basement, working night after night without rest."

"You've made tens of thousands of gold from my labor. Even the flawless manacrystal crown on Aurelia's head was bought with my blood. I don't owe this family another thing."

Crack!

The slap snapped my head sideways.

My ears rang, and the taste of blood flooded my mouth.

"You ungrateful little wretch!" My father shook out his stinging hand.

"Your little trinkets would be worthless without the Solarien name behind them. No one would look twice at them without my title! Aurelia's marriage into the ducal house is an honor to this entire family. You're marrying a nobody, and you think you have the right to bargain with us?"

I didn't lift a hand to my burning cheek. I simply looked at the three people before me.

My furious father. My cold, calculating mother. And Aurelia, hiding behind them with a small, satisfied smile playing at her lips.

This was my family—the people I'd bled myself dry trying to prove myself to.

"Vespera, if you really can't bear to part with it… never mind."

Aurelia's face crumpled into pitiful innocence. She tugged timidly at our father's sleeve.

"I'll wear the ordinary dress to the engagement. Even if the ducal household mocks me for looking like a beggar, I'll endure the humiliation."

"Don't even think about it! I won't let them look down on you!"

My mother pulled Aurelia behind her and turned on me, her eyes cold and venomous.

"Vespera, you're handing over that gown, whether you like it or not. Say one more word, and I'll send men to the border before dawn. Kaelar will be dead by tomorrow night—and your wedding will never happen."

My whole body went rigid.

For the sake of Aurelia's empty vanity, she was willing to hold Kaelar's life over my head.

I looked at the gown stretched across the loom, its celestial silk glowing with a faint blue light.

It was meant to be my armor. Now it was the blade pressed to my throat.

"Fine."

My voice echoed through the basement—flat, hoarse, and utterly devoid of feeling.

I swallowed the blood in my mouth, along with the last shred of hope I'd held for this family.

I closed my eyes. When I opened them again, nothing remained but silence.

"Take the gown."