The moment the bracelet fell into her palm, its cold, peculiar touch and the indescribably deep fluctuations within it made Eliza's fingertips curl ever so slightly. The aftershocks of her shock had not yet fully settled in the depths of her violet eyes, but more than anything, her mind was racing through a cold, rational analysis.
Yes, she knew.
From the moment Leon had produced the bracelet wrapped in old beast hide and begun telling the legend of the "Oath of Starfrost" in that deliberately crafted, desolate tone of the Northern Frontier's snow and wind, Eliza had known he was lying.
"What about the first ancestor receiving a divine revelation on the Eternal Frost Holy Mountain"? "The core of a meteorite from beyond the heavens fused with ten thousand years of ice"? "Three generations' painstaking effort to forge it"?
The story was riddled with holes.
As a central figure in the marriage alliance, she had studied the history and traditions of the Hohenzollern Family countless times in Aunt Margaret's study and the Windsor Family archives. The Hohenzollern Family's symbol was the giant bear, and the source of their strength was closely tied to the land and bitter cold of the Northern Frontier. They did have some connection to the stars, such as the North Star serving as a guide, but there was no far-fetched legend about forging something "with the stars at its core." More importantly, if the Hohenzollern Family really had such a heaven-defying heirloom involving a "divine revelation" and a "meteorite from beyond the heavens," how could it have remained unknown for centuries, with no record of it in her teacher's notes or the Windsor Family's intelligence network? And why would it be brought out by a universally known family "failure" at such an awkward moment?
Besides, she