The Ever-Calm Haven's opened for the first time like a flower of violet dusk, the sky above an endless swirl of amethyst and molten gold, the ground beneath a mirror-smooth lake of liquid starlight that reflected every breath, every heartbeat, every flicker of flame twice over.
In the Lesser Chamber three days had passed in here while only a single day went by outside. But this was first hour of the first day, Vaeloria, honestly didn't mind training Nia, and that was because she could some of herself when she looked at Nia. Both could be called the 'Golden Light' of their respective clan and kingdom. So, when Nia told her about wanting to train, she gladly accepted it.
Immense talent without hard work.... is nothing at all.
Nia Solace stood barefoot on the starlit water, white silk training robes fluttering around her calves, long black hair with its faint white streaks catching the twilight like moonlight threaded with shadow. Golden eyes burned with the same defiant intensity that had once stared down an entire court of sneering nobles, training was something she was far use to by now.
She didn't complain, didn't whimper, she simply got the work done.
Vaeloria circled her slowly, ten obsidian tails with white tips swaying behind her like liquid night, full moon eyes narrowed to predatory slits. Now, in her time, Vaeloria was viewed as anything but a master. However, it was not hard to pass on the knowledge you knew like the back of your hand.
'Ash's training was easy.... Too easy....' She thought, she knew it wouldn't be right to expect the same things from Nia. With Ash, she hardly even had to explain anything, she just showcased it once.
"Show me everything..." Vaeloria purred, voice velvet and smoke. "The sword first. No mana, no tricks. Just the body you were born with."
Nia's answer was to draw the plain steel practice blade from her hip in a motion so clean it looked rehearsed by the gods themselves. She dropped into the Solace royal stance; spine straight, weight perfectly balanced, left hand resting lightly behind her back, and the moment Vaeloria's tail flicked forward as a signal, Nia exploded.
Steel sang through violet air.
Thirty-seven lethal strikes flashed in the space of one heartbeat, each aimed at a vital point the fox had deliberately left bare, each halting a single hair's breadth from flesh. Vaeloria parried with one lazy fingertip and still felt the shock travel up her arm like the chime of a cathedral bell struck at midnight.
The girl's footwork was flawless, weight transfer textbook, breath controlled down to the exact fraction of a heartbeat. This was not wild genius flailing power; this was the terrifying precision of a weapon honed since the cradle.
Vaeloria stepped back, tails fanning wide. "Again. With mana this time."
Nia's lips curved in a small, dangerous smile. Mana around her began to swirl before it flared white-gold, and the practice blade ignited. The fire however, it was not ordinary, but with a light so pure it hurt to look at directly, it was like the color of the sun at its zenith.
She moved, and the world slowed.
Sol Invictus Dominion (S ranked) bloomed around her like a second skin; an aura of pure solar authority that made the starlight lake beneath their feet boil and hiss. Every slash left trails of living sunlight that hung in the air like golden ribbons, each ribbon suddenly erupting into miniature suns that detonated in perfect sequence.
Crowning Flare an A-rank talent followed, a corona of white fire that crowned her head like a halo forged from dying stars, and the temperature within ten meters leapt a thousand degrees in the space of a heartbeat.
Vaeloria lifted one hand almost lazily, dream-affinity weaving midnight silk around her fingers, and caught the Solar Corona on a shield of living shadow that drank the light rather than reflecting it. The halo exploded outward anyway, a perfect ring of incandescent judgment that carved a glowing white circle through the very fabric of the dimension. Molten edges hissed and cooled into glass that dripped like tears before the Haven gently healed itself.
Silence fell, broken only by the soft crystalline drip of cooling starlight.
Vaeloria's tails stilled completely. Her moon eyes widened a fraction—only a fraction, but for a creature two hundred and thirty thousand years old that was the equivalent of a mortal's jaw dropping.
Then she smiled, slow and terrible and delighted.
"You're not bad," she said, the words almost an accusation. "Your foundation is far cleaner than your brother's when he first stood here."
Nia lowered the blade, chest rising and falling in controlled breaths that tasted of ozone and scorched silk. Sweat glittered like crushed diamonds across her collarbones and throat. "I was the Solace Kingdom's hope since the day I awakened," she answered quietly, voice steady despite the tremor in her exhausted legs. "Ashy never had the same opportunities."
Vaeloria began to laugh, low and rolling, the sound of midnight thunder over distant mountains. She stepped close enough that the silk-and-shadow brush of her tails grazed Nia's cheek like a lover's threat.
"Oh, is that so?" she purred. "Your brother is an enigma for another time. But you?" Her moon eyes narrowed again, gleaming with predatory approval. "You and I were born for the same lonely throne.... Light that others need when darkness comes. By the time I finish with you, kingdoms will burn simply because you looked in their direction."
Nia met that ancient gaze without flinching, golden eyes blazing like twin suns refusing to set. She swiped Vaeloria's tail from her face and spoke.
"Then stop talking and start teaching."
Vaeloria's answering grin showed far too many fangs, each one a sliver of moonlight made lethal.
"Gladly."
----
Currently,
Vaeloria floated over without a sound, waved one languid hand, and food appeared between them—ripe silver fruit that tasted of frost and memory, warm bread that steamed with the scent of distant fields neither of them had walked in centuries. Ash had granted them both partial dominion over the Haven before they left; conjuring meals was child's play now.
Nia tore into the bread without ceremony, cheeks bulging, manners abandoned somewhere between the thousandth and thousand-first strike.
She chewed, swallowed, then slid a sideways glance at the ancient fox who lounged like smoke given form. The question had been circling her thoughts for days, sharp as any blade. "Hey, Val," she said around a mouthful of fruit that tasted like starlight. "What exactly are you?"
Vaeloria paused, a slice of silver fruit halfway to her lips, and studied the girl for a long, unreadable moment. Then she smiled—not the predatory grin of a mentor, but something softer, sadder, ancient. "I'm a Celestial Fox," she answered simply. "You've truly never heard of my kind?"
Nia shook her head, black-and-white hair sticking to sweat-damp cheeks. "Another race? I know nothing about that. Where did you come from?"
Vaeloria's gaze drifted to the violet horizon, and for a heartbeat the Haven itself seemed to hold its breath. She told the story quietly—her rise through the Silver Court, seven thousand years as nothing more than the sharpest blade and then the fall that should have erased her name from existence.
When she spoke of the countless races that once walked Elaris—Dragons who blotted out the sun with their wings, Demons who wove nightmares into crowns, proud Phoenix clans reborn in lakes of fire—Nia forgot the food entirely, golden eyes wide as a child's.
"Wait," Nia whispered, leaning forward so fast she nearly toppled into the lake. "Then what about that wall of Death?"
The mention of the Wall struck Vaeloria like winter lightning. Her tails froze mid-sway; memories of that towering barrier of annihilation slammed into her—a black mist that drank screams, air that turned blood to ash at a touch. "It all makes sense now," she murmured, almost to herself. "I'm on the other side of the Wall."
Nia blinked, confusion rippling across her face like wind across the starlit lake. "Uh… care to elaborate... Do you know what the wall is?"
Vaeloria shook her head slowly, moonlight eyes distant. "No one knows. Not even the elusive SSS-ranks could touch it and live. It simply… is." She rose in one fluid motion, tails flaring like a cloak of living night. The softness was gone; the mentor had returned.
"Enough talking. Get up. We need you in A-rank before your brother comes back to gloat."
Nia groaned but was already pushing herself to her feet, practice blade singing free once more. The Haven's violet sky deepened above them, eager for the next dance of sunlight and darkness.