Chapter 173. Untolds

All the color drained from Esmeray’s face, her jaw clenched. Ascian~ After six years she was hearing that name out loud. Esmeray had a suspicion that the Ascian Ghaliya was talking about was the same Ascian who had destroyed Esmeray’s childhood.

The sound of that cursed name was enough to rip the air from her lungs. It clawed through her chest, pulling long-buried pain to the surface. The dungeon around her seemed to shrink, its shadows pressing closer, whispering memories she had spent years trying to drown.

“What is your mother’s name?” Her voice came out harsher than intended.

“Niume from the House of Untolds.”

Esmeray’s lungs collapsed, for a moment she forgot to even breath. . .

Niume~

Her pulse faltered, and she swayed as if struck. The name echoed like a ghost in her skull, pulling her backward into the fog of her youth—the laughter of a sister who had once braided flowers into her hair, the sting of betrayal that had followed.

Now ga