Chapter 33 · Frontier Lord - Chapter 33: The Writ at the Gate

The scroll hit the ground at Ava's feet before the messenger even bothered to bow.

She looked down at the rolled parchment, its wax seal already cracked, then back up at the man in Windstone blue standing just outside her fence line. Behind him, two rows of soldiers. Council steel and her father's personal guard, mixed. Torches lit their faces in the pre-dawn gray.

Rain was already beside her, hand on his sword hilt. Sera stood three steps back, eyes tracking every soldier.

"Lady Ava Windstone." The messenger's voice carried across the cold air. "Lord Cassian Windstone, acting on behalf of the Royal Council, demands your immediate compliance with the terms outlined in the writ. You have until dawn to respond."

Ava bent and picked up the scroll. The parchment was heavy. Expensive. The kind her father used when he wanted something to feel official and final.

She unrolled it.

The first line made her jaw tighten.

*By order of Lord Cassian Windstone and the assembled Council of the Realm, Lady Ava Windstone is hereby summoned to relinquish all claim to the territory known as Windstone Hollow and to surrender governance of said land and its occupants to Crown authority,