Chapter 79 A Newborn Secret
The silence after the attack wasn't peace.
It was exhaustion.
My body began to take its toll.
First came the cold, even with the fire still burning in some parts of the camp. Then, a sudden dizziness... My breathing became short, irregular, as if there wasn't enough air.
"Conrad..." I called softly.
He was beside me in seconds, watching me closely, his hand on my face. His arms wrapped tightly around me, but his expression changed as soon as he looked at me closely.
"You're freezing," he said. "Maya, look at me."
I tried to answer, but an intense nausea rose, forcing me to turn my face away. My body trembled. It wasn't like before. It wasn't just exhaustion from using magic.
The mark on my chest pulsed... differently. It didn't burn. It protected.
I instinctively placed my hand on it and, at the same time, another sensation spread through my abdomen. A gentle warmth. Ancient. Familiar in a way that didn't come from the Rift.
My heart raced.
"This isn't just a reaction to the shadows..." I murmured, more to myself than to him.
Conrad frowned. "What are you feeling?"
I closed my eyes. I took a deep breath. I let the energy flow without trying to control it, without consuming anything. Just listening.
And then I knew.
It wasn't a vision.
It wasn't a voice.
It was certainty.
I opened my eyes slowly, the world still spinning slightly.
"Conrad..." My voice came out weak, but firm. "My body isn't rejecting what I did."
He pressed me closer to him. "Then what's happening?"
I swallowed hard, feeling tears welling up—not from fear, but from something bigger.
"I didn't consume the shadows alone." I placed my hand on his chest, then down to my stomach. "I'm not alone." The air between us shifted.
His eyes widened slowly, as if he understood even before I said it.
"You mean..."
I nodded.
"I'm pregnant."
The world outside was still in chaos. People were still afraid. The erasers still existed.
But there, in his arms, I understood something with frightening clarity:
The Rift had awakened.
The kingdom was crumbling.
And yet, life had chosen to be born.
Conrad said nothing for a few seconds. He just held me, as if any word could shatter that moment, too fragile for the world we lived in. His hand trembled slightly on my back before rising to my face.
"Are you sure?" He asked softly, not out of doubt... but out of care.
"I am," I replied. "My body has never reacted like this. The magic didn't hurt. It protected."
He closed his eyes for a moment, resting his forehead against mine. When he looked at me again, there was fear there—and something deeper, almost ferocious.
"So they weren't just attacking you," he murmured. "They were threatening everything."
I nodded. The weight of that truth fell upon me harder than any shadow ever had. I had gone to save the people... and I had almost exposed something I didn't even know existed.
"This changes everything," I whispered.
"It does," Conrad agreed. "And it makes you even more vulnerable."
I looked outside once more. Some people were still crying. Others watched the castle with eyes full of questions. They had been saved by me—but they didn't know the price.
"I can't tell anyone," I said. "Not now."
"No," he agreed immediately. "My mother would use this. Selena would use this. The council would use this."
The way he said the names made me shudder. For the first time, these weren't just political threats. They were real risks.
"The erasers felt it," I added, placing my hand on my stomach again. "When I consumed their energy... something reacted. As if they knew."
Conrad took a deep breath. "Then we'll protect them. You. And him... or her." A near-smile appeared, too quickly to be genuine. "Not even the Link foresaw this."
The mark on my chest pulsed softly, as if confirming it.
Inside the castle, bells began to ring—not in celebration, but as warnings. Shouts echoed in the lower corridors. Hurried footsteps.
"They'll demand answers," Conrad said. "About the attack. About you."
I straightened my body, even though the fatigue was still present.
"Then let them demand them," I replied. "I've already survived the trial. I've already crossed the Rift. Now... I'll survive them."
Conrad squeezed my hand.
The ringing of the bells echoed through the castle like an open wound. It wasn't a call to unity. It was a summons. The kind that precedes decisions made without mercy.
A newborn secret needed to survive in a place where truths were used as weapons.
"You need to rest," he said, closing the door behind us. It wasn't a request. It was an order disguised as care.
"Resting won't stop what's coming," I replied, sitting up slowly. My body still vibrated, as if part of me were somewhere else. "They felt it. The erasers... and others will feel it too."
Conrad knelt before me again, as he had done so many times when the world seemed too big. "Then let's be quicker," he said. "Before fear becomes decree."
I closed my eyes for a moment. I saw the fragment of the Moon, now preserved, pulsing in my memory. I saw the Link. I saw the future that wasn't fixed. Nothing ever was.
When I opened them, I felt something new. Not naive hope. Responsibility.
"This kingdom isn't ready for what's to come," I murmured. "But I can't protect it by pretending nothing has changed."
"You don't have to do this alone," Conrad replied. "You never did."
A dry noise echoed outside. Footsteps. Restrained voices. The castle awoke in layers, as it always did before an internal confrontation.
I stood carefully. The weakness was still there, but now it came accompanied by something firm, profound. Instinct. Protection.
"They'll try to reduce me to a symbol," I said. "Or to a mistake."
"And they'll fail," he replied. "Because you are a fact."
I smiled slightly, despite everything.
Outside, the people were beginning to reorganize after the attack. Some looked at the walls with gratitude. Others, with renewed fear. None of them knew that, while shadows tried to consume what remained, something new had chosen to stay.
I placed my hand on my stomach once more, silently.
It wasn't a promise of peace.
It wasn't salvation.
It was continuity.
And, as the castle prepared for another night of dangerous decisions, I understood with frightening clarity:
The Rift had taught the kingdom to fear the end.
But no one ever prepared it for what happens when life insists on beginning.