Elara froze.
Then, after a beat, she let out a soft laugh.
"Um... just to keep an eye on you?" she said lightly, almost playfully.
"Honestly, I don’t have a proper reason..."
But Kael was already walking.
He didn’t turn back.
Didn’t wait for the rest.
The mont had passed.
Behind him, Yue lingered a second longer, glancing back at Elara.
She stood by the window now, her face turned toward the darkening horizon—expression unreadable.
Not smiling.
Not anything.
Just still.
Yue sighed and followed after Kael.
By the ti they stepped out of the castle, the sun had nearly vanished behind the peaks.
Dusk lted into night, shadows stretching across the cobbled path like fingers of so tired god.
As Kael made his way toward the waiting carriage, the castle servants and maids bowed with sudden reverence, whispering behind folded hands.
Was it because of the duel?
Because he had bested the Crown Prince?
He didn’t care.
He barely noticed.
Yue walked beside him in silence until they reached the carriage.
Just as he placed a hand on the door, she finally spoke.
"You could’ve at least listened to her."
Kael paused, hand tightening on the handle.
"She’s just using , Yue," he muttered, voice low and bitter.
"I’m not going to beco so fool playing knight for a princess with a prophecy."
Yue didn’t respond at first.
She just looked at him quietly, a flicker of sothing unreadable in her translucent eyes.
Then, she sighed.
The carriage lurched into motion, descending from the castle perched atop the mountain.
Below, the city had co alive with torchlight and mana-lanterns, glowing veins of color threading through the streets.
The capital buzzed—full of music, rchants, magic.
But Kael’s mood was still dark.
He stared out the window, jaw set, thoughts spiraling in silence.
Up ahead, Kael noticed a growing crowd gathered near a street vendor—nobles and commoners alike whispering with excitent.
"Co on, hurry! Lady Lysaria’s here!"
"She’s so pretty—just one glimpse, please!"
Kael’s ears perked at the na.
Lysaria.
A mory surfaced—flashes of the Aetherion Vault, of a certain sharp-tongued girl with defiant eyes and far too much grace for her own good.
Lysaria Velinth.
Could it really be her?
"Pull over," Kael said to the driver, eyes narrowing.
The carriage slowed to a halt along the cobbled road.
Kael pulled up his hood and carefully masked his features.
Yue floated beside him, blinking.
"What are you doing?"
"eting a friend," Kael said casually, already stepping down.
Yue followed with a raised brow.
"A friend? You have those?"
Kael ignored her.
He moved toward the group with calm precision, slipping between the murmuring crowd.
And then—
He saw her.
Cloaked in moonlight, dressed in deep sapphire silk threaded with stardust silver, Lysaria Velinth stood near the vendor’s stall, inspecting a delicate crystal charm.
Her pink eyes sparkled in the lanternlight, frad by flowing hair.
Rank 2 guards surrounded her in a half-circle, watchful but clearly annoyed.
Kael’s lips curled slightly.
"So it really is her."
Yue hovered beside him, watching with a mixture of suspicion and interest.
"Who is she?"
Kael’s tone was playful.
"A friend."
He was about to step forward—to finally approach her, maybe say sothing clever and unexpected—when her voice rang out, sharp and filled with frustration.
"Can’t you just lie to him once?"Lysaria snapped, turning toward a well-dressed man standing behind her—clearly her secretary or aide.
"Father this, Father that! I want to live my life too!"
The secretary looked visibly shaken.
"I... I’m sorry, Lady Lysaria.
We’re only following orders.
You know how your father gets—especially after your engagent..."
"I don’t care about the engagent!" she snapped.
"I just want one night—one—to live like I’m not caged."
The crowd stirred.
Murmurs rippled through the air.
"Her father’s the richest rchant in the kingdom, right?"
"Strict as hell."
"After her engagent, he barely lets her breathe."
But Kael wasn’t listening to them.
He was looking at the sky.
The silver moon hung full above the rooftops—cold and watchful—while its twin, the red moon, smoldered low on the horizon like a silent on.
The air was clear, the night quiet.
Perfect.
A dangerous thought crept into his mind.
Yue saw the look in his eyes and imdiately frowned.
"No. No. Whatever you’re thinking—don’t."
But Kael was already smiling.
A wicked, irresistible grin.
"Let’s make this night morable," he whispered.
###
Lysaria held the charm delicately between her fingers—a simple thing, carved crystal and rune-threaded silver—but she wasn’t really looking at it.
Her mind was elsewhere.
Earlier that day, she had watched the duel unfold on the enchanted scrying mirror mounted behind her shop counter—Kael versus the Crown Prince.
A battle that should’ve been laughably one-sided.
Nobles didn’t beat royals.
And yet...
Kael had moved like a ghost.
Calm. Collected.
In control.
Not just surviving—but dismantling royalty with almost casual elegance.
It was him.
She hadn’t known his na before.
He never gave it the day he wandered into her shop—quiet, aloof, brushing off her questions with faint smiles and clever deflections.
But today, as he stood under the glare of the mana-recording orbs, blade in hand—
She recognized him instantly.
And it had left her stunned.
How is soone like that just learning magic...?
She wanted to see him again.
To talk to him.
But her father would never allow it.
Her fate had already been stitched together by bloodlines and contracts.
She was engaged to so heir of a wealthy rchant house from the Empire—an arrangent made without her input, sealed with wine and handshakes between old n.
She sighed.
Soon she’d be leaving the capital altogether—relocated to the Royal Academy, surrounded by strangers and expectations and walls with no windows.
Her fingers loosened.
The charm clinked back onto the vendor’s table.
"Lady Lysaria?" her secretary asked.
She ignored him.
My life will always be like this, she thought.
Pretty. Controlled. Predictable.
What she didn’t know...
was that chaos had already noticed her.
And it was on its way.
Fast.
From sowhere deeper in the plaza, a sudden commotion broke the air.
Shouts.
Panic.
"Move! MOVE! It’s not stopping!"
"Move—move out of the way!"
The words tore through the market like lightning.
People began to scatter.
Lysaria turned—eyes narrowing in confusion.
Then she froze.
Charging through the street, veering dangerously close to the crowd, was a carriage.
But not just any carriage.
It was pitch-black.
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