Chapter 1
I was the Golden Thread, gifted with the ability to see each person’s fated match.
In the three years since I took up this calling, every couple I had matched had lived in perfect harmony, their love the envy
of the realm.
In my previous life, Queen Isolde summoned me to the palace to discern the fated match of Crown Prince Alaric Valdris,
who was suffering from the Crimson Thorn Curse.
That very day, a Ribbon of Living Gold appeared between our fingers, linking us together. It pointed to me as Alaric’s fated
match.
I eventually married Alaric, and the King appointed him as heir to the throne, entrusting him with great responsibilities.
But on the Eve of Coronation, Alaric used the Ribbon of Living Gold to bind me–pregnant at the time–together with a
group of beggars.
“Did you know Lyanna is carrying my child? If you hadn’t goaded the Queen Mother into believing that you were my Destined Consort, Lyanna never would’ve thrown herself into Sapphire Lake and perished with our child.”
“You call yourself my fated match. Did your visions tell you this day would come?”
Ignoring my desperate pleas, he forced me to drink a Draught of Nightshade and tossed my bloodied body into the Ruined Chapel of Saint Erasmus, where he left me to be violated and killed.
When I opened my eyes again, I had returned to the day Queen Isolde summoned me to the palace to find Alaric’s fated
match.
Seeing him now, surrounded by murderous energy and doomed by fate, I fell to my knees without hesitation. “I’m nothing but a lowly thread–reader, Your Highness. How could I dare glimpse the fated match of a crown prince?”
But Queen Isolde refused to give up.
“Even the notorious Duke of Ronmere abandoned his debauchery after you guided him to his fated match. Now he lives in peace and harmony with his duchess, the rumors of mistresses have ceased, and he has repeatedly pacified the northern borders on His Majesty’s behalf. How could you possibly fail to read Alaric’s fate?”
“Or is it that you refuse to read it for my son?”
Hearing the displeasure in her tone, my palms were slick with sweat. I lowered myself again in deep obeisance. “Thread–reading is about following the will of the heavens. But Your Highness, as the Chosen One, bears a destiny beyond mortal grasp. How could a mere thread–reader like me hope to unravel it?”
No mother disliked hearing praise for her child’s greatness.
As expected, Queen Isolde’s expression softened, though she still frowned in thought.
She had summoned me so urgently because Crown Prince Alaric had become deeply infatuated with a dancer named
Chapter 1
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Lyanna Rosevale. He spent nearly every day in her company and had even declared his intention to make her his consort.
Queen Isolde, recalling how I had helped Ronmere choose a wife and change his fate, had decided to enlist me again.
In my past life, this was the moment I discovered the Ribbon of Living Gold that connected me to Prince Alaric. I had
thought it a divine sign, but it led only to a gruesome end.
Just then, the doors of the hall burst open. Prince Alaric entered in haste, holding Lyanna Rosevale’s hand.
“Mother, please don’t listen to her lies. Lyanna is my true destined match. That woman–Elira Vethorne–is nothing but a
fraud.”
1 looked up.
He wore a black and gold ceremonial robe, but the tenderness I had once seen in his eyes was gone. All that remained
was calculation and coldness.
In that moment, I knew with certainty: he, too, had been reborn.
Queen Isolde’s face darkened. “Alaric, watch your words. Elira Vethorne has not yet spoken her reading. How dare you
speak so harshly?”
Alaric paused, then locked his cold gaze onto me.
I kept my eyes lowered and spoke quietly. “This humble thread–reader is powerless.”
A flicker of cruel amusement passed through his eyes before he smiled.
“Mother, I have already consulted the Sacred Seer of Windspire. The master confirmed that Lyanna is my destined one. If I
marry her, within a single moon, I shall be declared Heir Apparent.”
Queen Isolde looked intrigued. “Is that so?”
The seer folded his hands in prayer and intoned theatrically, “Lyanna of House Rosevale carries the mark of Celestial Harmony. When joined with His Highness, the stars will align, and fate shall be fulfilled.”
The moment I heard those words “Celestial Harmony“, I nearly laughed aloud.
Alaric’s fate was now so steeped in calamity that Lyanna, far from being his salvation, was his destined doom. If he didn’t
sever their bond soon, he would not live long.
Still, Queen Isolde hesitated. Lyanna’s lowly birth and status as a dancer hardly made her a fitting consort.
But Lyanna was ready. With tears in her eyes, she knelt. “Your Majesty, I am already carrying His Highness’s child. If 1
cannot be his consort–then I would rather die.”
At her words, Queen Isolde rose abruptly.
Bloodlines were everything to royalty. And with the King having only two sons left–Alaric and Prince Alexander Theron-
she understood what this meant.
Theron had been frail since childhood and, after suffering the effects of a witchcraft curse, was left too weak to father
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children. Though the King favored Theron, he had not named an heir for this reason.
Now that Alaric had fathered a child, the throne would almost certainly be his.
Queen Isolde clutched Lyanna in excitement. “Quick, summon a physician!”
A moment later, the doctor returned with confirmation: she was indeed one month pregnant.
Queen Isolde was overjoyed and immediately approved the union.
As for me, I was politely but firmly dismissed from Solaris Hall.
Just as I stepped out the doors, the Ribbon of Living Gold that had once bound my fingers to Prince Alaric’s-
snapped.
he thread snapped.
Chapter 1
