CHAPTER 91: LUCK ON HER SIDE

"Do you know how easy it was to slip through when she believed it was just a harmless fantasy novel?" Elyndra puffed out her cheeks dramatically, mocking every inch of Seraphina’s innocence.

Vivian’s reflection tensed, her outline in the glass flickering with restrained anger.

"It was meant to prepare her," she said quietly. "To guide her toward the truth of who she is. Not to be used like this."

"Oh please." Elyndra scoffed, flicking her wrist. "She barely reads fantasy. She skimmed a few lines, maybe a paragraph... and that was enough."

Her smile sharpened with satisfaction.

"Enough for me to mimic a system. Enough for her to trust the sweet little hologram that helped her survive the strange world. Enough for her to believe she’d transmigrated into a fictional world."

Vivian’s reflection trembled, a thin crack of fury running beneath the surface.

Elyndra laughed softly, "Why are you getting mad at me?" She tilted her head. "If you think you’re the only one who can receive the Oracle’s foretelling... Vivian, darling, you are wrong."

Vivian’s eyes widened. Her voice dropped, anger shaking through every word.

"I didn’t ask for one! The Oracle told the queen about her fate... not me! We fairies were NEVER allowed to ask the Oracles anything. Not after what we did."

Elyndra snorted, "We? Not we, Vivian."

She jabbed a finger toward the mirror.

"It was the older generation who committed the crime. They betrayed the phoenix court... not you. So why should you carry their blame forever?"

Vivian inhaled sharply. Her eyes glistened with a pain decades old.

"Because consequences pass through blood," she whispered. "Because the queen believed in atonement. Because I owed her everything after what my family destroyed."

Elyndra shrugged lazily.

"And you repaid that debt by hiding her daughter in the human world, living quietly, pretending to be one of them."

She smirked wider, "You even believed that was good enough for redemption."

Vivian’s jaw tightened.

But before she could speak, Elyndra lifted a finger, "But do you know what’s truly amusing, Vivian?"

Vivian’s reflection stilled and said nothing.

Elyndra leaned casually against the vanity table, crossing Seraphina’s arms as if lounging in her own skin.

"You want to know how I learned about her? About the prophecy? About the rare bloodline?" She clicked her tongue, "It wasn’t difficult. The Oracles saw it."

Vivian’s breath hitched.

Elyndra continued, voice dripping with satisfaction.

"You see... Vaylen was quite desperate back then. His daughter was sick... very sick. Sick enough that he actually made a deal with me, because he thought I could help her."

She laughed, a cruel, mocking sound. "I swear, phoenixes are born dumb." She stifled her laughter, still shaking with amusement.

"All I asked was for him to visit the Oracles and request a foretelling of his daughter’s future. Just that." Her lips curled, "And he actually did."

Vivian’s reflection wavered, trembling from the truth she never expected to hear.

"At that time..." Elyndra sighed dramatically, crossing her arms in Seraphina’s body as if recounting an inconvenience, "I was planning to use his sick daughter’s body as a vessel. Simple. Clean. I saw the opportunity... the crack in her core."

Vivian’s nails pressed white against the glass.

"You... you can’t possess a phoenix! That’s impossible—!"

"Oh, obviously... I can." Elyndra tilted her head, scoffing with a cruel smile. "Surprise, right? Want to guess how I did it?"

Vivian shook her head, fear scraping her voice raw. "Elyndra, phoenix vessels reject anything that isn’t—"

"A perfect match?" Elyndra cut in with a mocking gasp. "Aww, Vivian, you’re so behind on the times."

She tapped her chest.

"I don’t need a perfect match. I just need a broken one."

Vivian froze.

Elyndra let out a soft, delighted laugh.

"That dying phoenix girl?" Elyndra traced a lazy circle in the air with Seraphina’s finger.

"Her core was fractured. Weak. Vulnerable. She wasn’t rejecting anything. She was hanging on by a thread."

Vivian’s eyes widened in horror.

"So yes," Elyndra went on, lifting her shoulders in a careless shrug. "I tested it. Her father was so desperate so he would have agreed to anything. And I?"

She tapped her temple, "I acted like a kind, guiding spirit. A harmless little system whispering solutions."

Vivian trembled, "Elyndra... you didn’t—"

"Oh, I did." Elyndra snapped her fingers sharply. "That’s how I broke the code. Broken core, broken flame... no resistance. I slipped into her body like water through a crack."

Vivian’s reflection flinched as if the words themselves were blows.

"But," Elyndra continued, smirking wider, "the moment I got in... I realized something."

Her voice dipped, hushed with dark amusement. " I could do the same to the true-blood phoenix when the time came."

Vivian froze.

Elyndra’s eyes gleamed, pride curling through her words like poison.

"I waited for half a decade," she said. "Living in that girl’s body. Wearing her face. Everyone thought I was the true Lady of the Blaze... the perfect one..."

Elyndra’s smile stretched, sharp and satisfied. "No one suspected a thing. Not her father. Not the clan. Not the servants fawning over their precious miracle child."

Elyndra clicked her tongue with mock sympathy. She paused, then her eyes glinted with darker amusement.

"Oh right," she said lightly. "Actually... when that phoenix arrived... Do you know what surprised me the most?"

Vivian swallowed, bracing herself, "What...?"

"How identical they look..." Elyndra hissed, narrowing her eyes as she leaned closer to the mirror. Her gaze sharpened.

"Tell me, Vivian. What did you do? Why do they look the same?"

Vivian’s reflection froze.

Elyndra smirked, instantly knowing that she hit the spot.

"Celeste... Vaylen’s precious little phoenix. And Seraphina... the hidden true-blood heiress." Her voice dripped with suspicion, "Two completely different bloodlines. Two completely different fates. Yet they have the same face."

Vivian shut her eyes tightly, her lips trembled.

Elyndra tilted her head, watching every twitch of Vivian’s expression.

"You didn’t answer," she whispered, pleased.

"Did you disguise her? Did you cast something? Did the queen? Did the Oracles?"