Elaristhyl breathed like a living forest—cool wind, drifting pollen, and distant birdsong—yet none of it felt comforting.
Aeldir and I were both starving.
We had been wandering the capital for an hour, ignored by every vendor. Even when I bowed and asked politely, their eyes slid away as if mixed-blood children were invisible stains on white stone streets.
Then she appeared.
A small figure bumped into Aeldir's shoulder—light as a leaf. She wore a soft white cloak with long rabbit ears flopping gently behind her head, the hood hiding her face entirely. Mana leaked faintly from the fabric, suppressed and private.
"I… I'm sorry," she said softly, voice young but composed.
"It's alright," I answered. "We were just looking for a shop that would help."
The shopkeeper scoffed when he saw us again. "No coin, no food. I don't serve—"
The little girl stepped forward, placed a gold coin on the counter, and her voice sharpened just a little.
"Where is your conscience? Do not stain Aetherwyn's honor in front of children."
He bowed instantly—not out of shame, but greed.
I bought bread and jerky, bowed to the girl respectfully. "Thank you."
She tilted her head.
"Can you answer a question?"
"Of course."
She guided us through a narrow lane until a stone wall blocked the end. Only then did she ask, quietly,
"Why is a mixed-blood child wandering the capital alone?"
Her tone wasn't disgust—it was concern.
I told her everything.
Not the system, not the Lunaris Contract, but the truth she deserved to hear.
Her shoulders loosened. "I see… then you should seek the king. He can protect you."
"Where can I find him?"
"Straight ahead for thirty minutes," she said, pointing. "The palace gates are unmissable."
"Can you… guide us?" Aeldir asked shyly.
She nodded once.
"I won't go inside, but I'll take you near."
We walked.
Unseen by her, but sensed faintly by me, a presence trailed us far behind—the girl's personal guard, her assistant. Her cloak was special; connected to his own through mana-linked enchantments. But in thick grass fields, shadows tangled and the signals blurred.
That was when it happened.
The ambush came like knives in the tall grass—arms outstretching, cloth muffling our screams.
Bandits.
Rough hands.
A hard blow to the head.
Darkness swallowed us both.
—
When awareness returned, my wrists were burning.
A rope hugged my skin tightly, the fibers biting each time I breathed. Aeldir's small body trembled. Beside us, the girl sat upright, still wearing her rabbit-ear cloak.
She whispered, steady but urgent,
"You're awake."
"Yes."
"Can you do something? My hands are tied."
"I can… but fire will burn you."
"I won't risk my hands," she said calmly. "Do something else."
So I shaped water—not a blade, not a burst, but a thin, steady pressure. It hissed against the rope like a slow saw. After a minute, the fibers weakened.
I slipped free.
Her cloak rustled as I loosened her ties next.
We pretended to still be tied when two bandits entered.
The moment the door creaked open, I moved—diving from the shadows, knocking one unconscious with a knife to the back of the head.
The second reached for a weapon—
A silver gleam flashed.
Her dagger flew, clean and swift, piercing his skull.
"A prodigy," I murmured without meaning to.
Her hood dipped slightly. "…I was trained."
But more footsteps approached—too many. We fled out the back, running breathlessly into the forest.
"Use a fireball," she whispered suddenly.
"They'll see us!"
"So will the patrol," she countered. "We need them."
I trusted her and fired a small flame skyward.
She hid on the ground.
I climbed into a tree, knife ready.
The bandits arrived first.
One grabbed the girl's arm—
I dropped from above, driving the knife into his spine.
Another lunged; she flung her dagger again, hitting him between the eyes.
The last one snarled and punched her across the face. The force was mana-enhanced; she hit the ground, coughing blood.
Something black roared inside me.
Shadow-fire coiled around my fingers—cold, unnatural flame with a faint violet shimmer. The moment it touched his cloak, he ignited with a muffled scream, burning alive within seconds.
But the effort tore through Aeldir's mana pathways. My vision swayed. Pain pricked under my nails.
Footsteps thundered toward us.
The patrol.
But they were not ordinary guards.
They were the very same unit—the hidden royal enforcers—who had once hunted Aeldir's parents.
"You—!" one of them barked when he saw me. "Drop the knife!"
I was covered in blood. My aura was unstable.
So of course they assumed—
Kidnapper.
I couldn't even lift my hands to explain.
Before they could bind me—
"STOP!"
The rabbit-ear cloak fell away.
Her hair spilled like moonlight, and the forest glowed around her.
The soldiers froze.
"M-my Princess…!" the captain choked.
She pointed at me with trembling fury.
"I order you—release him! He saved my life!"
The world tilted.
My chest burned with mana depletion.
A familiar message blurred across my vision:
[ YOU HAVE OVERUSED MANA BEYOND THIS VESSEL'S LIMITS ]
I looked once at the princess—her cosmic, aurora-colored eyes wide with worry—
And collapsed into darkness.
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