The carriage rumbled softly as it continued its journey away from the kingdom walls, the rhythmic clatter of wheels echoing beneath the wooden frame. Kai sat pressed lightly against the window, chin resting on his hand, watching the scenery drift past as though the world itself were moving while he remained frozen in place.
Forests blurred into meadows, meadows faded into ridges of hills, and distant rivers shimmered like silver veins crossing the land. But Kai saw none of it clearly. His reflection on the glass seemed sharper than the passing landscape his eyes, his expression, the heaviness lining his thoughts.
He wasn't thinking about the trial.
He wasn't thinking about the pillars.
He was thinking about her.
His sister.
Why did she do what she did?
He asked himself the question again, not for the first time. His fingers tightened slightly against the window frame. Kai had been prepared trained to take the regular Pillar of Creation, the one every child of Valeria used. It was the ancient tradition of their kingdom, etched into the very identity of their bloodline. It was safe. Reliable. Predictable.
But she changed everything.
She forced him a prince of Valeria to use the main pillars, the ones used by the great kingdoms surrounding Valeria. The ones that required treaties, negotiations, blood oaths, and old alliances.
Why?
She had smiled when she told him.
But her smile had held fear beneath it.
Not fear for herself.
Fear for him.
Kai could not blame her. After their parents' death, she had been thrust into the throne before she was even ready for womanhood, forced to bear the weight of a kingdom that was crumbling faster than anyone wanted to admit. Valeria had been declining for years, its influence fading, its power slipping through invisible cracks.
Because everything Valeria was built on every triumph, every victory, every flicker of dominance came from their bloodline.
A gift from the gods.
Or at least… that was the story the old priests told.
But gifts from gods were rarely gifts at all.
The bloodline had once been a legend: a conduit of divine potential, capable of performing feats no other conjurer could emulate. Their ancestors had shaped mountains, parted storms, and bent elements to their will with a grace that felt divine. But centuries of war, assassination, illness, and political decay had whittled down the line until only two remained.
Kai and his sister.
Two bloodlines when once there had been hundreds.
Even with the power of a god, a single family could not defy extinction forever.
Kai sighed softly.
He remembered the way she held his shoulders the night before he left, her hands trembling though her voice did not. She didn't explain much just that the main pillars were part of a new treaty, a necessity, the only path forward for Valeria.
But something in her eyes had said more.
Something unspoken.
Something desperate.
And so, he obeyed.
What choice did he have?
If she commanded it, he would follow.
He looked out the window again.
The trees parted as the road curved, revealing distant rolling plains drenched in golden light. The carriage's motion grew smoother as the terrain leveled out. The air outside shimmered faintly the residue of world energy reacting to the beasts that pulled the carriage.
A guard seated across from him shifted, then spoke in a firm, respectful tone:
"My prince… it will take about a week to reach the pillars for your first trial," the man said. "Please rest whenever you need to."
Kai only nodded.
He felt the carriage lurch upward slightly as the flying beasts pulling it flapped their great wings. The carriage didn't ascend far just enough to glide over rough terrain, rising like a drifting leaf caught in a gentle wind.
The beasts were magnificent creatures horselike in stature, but with zebralike patterns across their flanks, feathers lining their necks, and enormous wings that shimmered with metallic hues. Their presence vibrated with world energy, the once-gentle essence that had become chaotic and unstable over the last two decades.
It was strange.
Even now, after so many years, humanity still had no way to fully understand how the world's energy had… changed.
After the First Conjurers War, the energy that once nourished life had corrupted. The change wasn't immediate, but once it began, it spread like a sickness. Conjurer beasts creatures naturally attuned to absorbing world energy absorbed the corrupted form as well, mutating in unpredictable ways. Their bodies twisted, their minds distorted, and their power grew wild, unstable, vicious.
But beasts weren't the only victims.
Humans, too, had been scarred by the mutations.
Some lost their minds.
Some lost their bodies.
Some lost both.
They became… something else.
Something not quite beast, not quite human.
Creatures of instinct, hunger, and diluted memories.
They were still called conjurer beasts, but there was another name whispered by survivors
The Corrupted.
Kai looked away. There was too much history attached to the war, too much blood, too many unknowns. The carriage continued forward, cutting through the sky, the wind brushing past.
He closed his eyes, letting the soft motion lull him.
He didn't sleep. Couldn't sleep.
But he rested, if only to steady the thoughts that clawed at him.
Meanwhile Back in Athelguard
The capital was never still, not even after the prince's departure. The towering walls of Castle Cream loomed above the city, its pale stone catching the dying light of the afternoon sun. Within those ivory walls, deep in one of the many private chambers, stood a woman who radiated a force that made the air seem to tense around her.
Her hair was long and red like flames dragged across midnight. Her clothing was far from regal: a black cropped top baring her midriff, loose baggy trousers that flowed when she moved, and boots laced high to her knees. On her hand dangled a crown, held loosely, tilted at an angle as though she couldn't decide if she wanted to wear it or crush it.
She was young, barely older than Kai had been when their parents died but power radiated from her like heat from a forge.
The Queen of Valeria.
Kai's sister.
She stood beside her window, looking out toward the sky, toward the direction the carriage had gone. Her fingers tightened around the crown. Not enough to break it she wasn't that angry today but enough to feel the weight of it.
"Brother…" she whispered, though no one was there to hear it.
Her eyes hardened.
"It must be the main pillars. You must awaken there. It's the only way left."
There was no triumph in her voice.
No pride.
Only… necessity.
She turned away from the window, her hair falling like a curtain of bloodred silk behind her.
Outside, Athelguard buzzed with life, but inside her heart, everything remained quiet. Heavy. The throne came with many burdens but losing Kai was not supposed to be one of them.
He must succeed.
He must survive.
He must awaken the way she needed him to.
For their family.
For Valeria.
For the truth she could no longer hide.
She placed the crown gently on the table beside her.
Then whispered,
"…Please."
The word was fragile too fragile for a queen.
But she said it anyway.