KAELEN: (Voice shaking, pulling his leather gloves back on) Get away from me, Lyra! Do not look at me! Do not let your skin touch mine ever again!
LYRA: (Taking a step closer) Kaelen, stop! Look at me! They want you to be scared. They want you to run away and hide in the dark like you did for thirty years!
SIENNA: (Smiling and fixing her hair) Listen to him, sister. Walk away. Every time he feels love for you, the bad spell pulls tighter on your heart. The spell feeds on love, Lyra! The more he cares for you, the faster you die!
JULIAN: (Holding a small knife) It is a great trap, is it not? If Kaelen touches us and kills us now, he proves to the people he is a crazy monster. But if he stops to keep you safe... I stick this blade in his heart and take the crown anyway!
LYRA: (Stepping right in front of Julian’s knife to protect Kaelen) You forgot one big thing, Julian.
JULIAN: (Laughing) And what is that, poor orphan girl?
LYRA: My mother did not just give me a curse. She gave me Sun Blood!
[SOUND: Lyra grabs the sharp silver blade with her bare hand!]
[VISUAL CUE: Golden glowing blood drips from Lyra’s hand onto the floor.]
SIENNA: (Screaming in fear) Lyra, what are you doing?!
LYRA: (Strong voice echoing in the room) The curse feeds on bad magic. But Sun Blood is not food... it is poison to bad magic!
KAELEN: (Gasping in pain and surprise) Lyra! No! You will hurt yourself!
LYRA: (Whispering tightly) Trust me, Kaelen. I survived twenty years in a house of bad people. I am not dying today. Hold my hand!
KAELEN: (Voice clear and strong) The dark magic... the fire in my skin... it is going away!
SIENNA: (Screaming at the guards) Kill them! Kill them before the spell breaks!
GRAND CHANCELLOR: (Big authority voice from above) Stop! In the name of the High Royal Council!
JULIAN: (Panicked, grabbing Sienna) Chancellor! Prince Kaelen has gone crazy! He tried to hurt us!
LYRA: (Holding up her glowing, bloody hand) Look at the royal blood on my hand, Chancellor! The Vance family faked my birth papers, killed my birth mother, and used bad magic on Prince Kaelen to steal the throne!
GRAND CHANCELLOR: (Gasping) The Sun Mark on her hand... it is real! Guards! Put Julian and Sienna in chains for their bad crimes!
SIENNA: (Crying and kicking as guards grab her) You are lying! She is nobody! You cannot do this to me!
LYRA: (Walking slowly up to Sienna) You told me I was born a nobody, Sienna. But it turns out... you were just living in my house.
KAELEN: (Looking at his bare hands in surprise) It is quiet. For thirty years, every breath felt like fire inside me. Now... it is just warm.
LYRA: (Walking up beside him, leaning her head on his chest) The bad magic is gone, Kaelen. Your touch does not kill anymore.
KAELEN: (Turning to look at her, gently touching her hair with his bare hand) And I never have to be afraid of hurting the girl I love again.
LYRA: (Smiling warmly) You never hurt me, Prince Kaelen. You were just waiting for the light to break the dark.
KAELEN: (Softly) No more bad secrets. No more bad magic. Just us.
NARRATOR: Some touches destroy homes. Other touches build them back up. And in the heart of High Shadow, the Sun had finally come up again.
