The word hung in the stale air of the pub, heavier than the scent of ale and roasted at. ssenger.
As soon as Helene spoke it, Klaus's crystalline blue eyes shifted. The warmth vanished, replaced by a depth so cold it resembled the frozen heart of an ancient glacier. The air pressure in the room plumted. Every patron, every server, and every disguised guard froze mid-motion. Tankards halted halfway to lips. Feet stopped mid-step. It wasn't paralysis born of magic they could recognize; it was the instinctual freeze of prey caught in the gaze of an apex predator. Only Helene remained unaffected, standing upright though her breath hitched in her throat.
A do of translucent purple energy descended silently, enveloping only Klaus and Helene. Outside the barrier, the world was muted, colors dulling as sound ceased to penetrate the boundary. Inside, the air humd with latent power.
"What are you doing?" Helene demanded, her voice trembling with a mix of fury and fear. She glanced at her personal guards, including Jasmine, who were locked in place like statues, eyes wide with terror. "Release them!"
"Just ensuring total privacy and no external interruption," Klaus said. His voice was calm, devoid of malice, yet it sent goosebumps racing across Helene's skin.
Helene clenched her fists. 'Were the envoys right about what Rikxia is doing?' she questioned herself, her heart hamring against her ribs. What Klaus was showcasing was not sothing a prodigy could display, no matter how prodigious they were. He was barely into his teens, yet the pressure he exerted felt ancient, primordial. "Can you stop what you are doing? I'm sure I'm trying to help you, and look how you reward and my people."
"I'm not hurting them yet," Klaus replied, his gaze unwavering.
"Yet?!" Helene's eyes shone with a faint red luminescence, a sign of her rising emotional state and latent power. "What the hell do you an by yet?"
"Just tell what you know about those ssengers."
"I know nothing about them!" Helene yelled, her voice cracking. To the guards frozen outside the do, no sound could be heard from their conversation. The purple barrier absorbed every vibration.
Jasmine struggled to even look up, her muscles screaming against the invisible weight pressing down on her. The purple do covering Klaus and Helene was clearly magic. But since when did mages have such a presence? More importantly, Klaus was famous for being part of the strongest swordsman family on the continent. How could he be a mage when rumors claid he was the youngest swordsman to ever achieve the rank of Swordmaster since the Runiya continent existed? This paradox was clearly unsettling her and all the other guards in disguise. They were trained to protect the princess from physical threats, not existential horrors.
"Helene," Klaus said, his tone softening slightly, though the pressure remained.
"Look, I can't tell you exactly which family it is," Helene confessed, her shoulders slumping as the fight drained out of her. "But among one of the eight founding families, there is a family that I have the gift to see the future. As the heiress of the Ice Palace, I was privy to my fate. That oracle just told a puzzle anecdote, saying like when a new star will appear in the sky, a ssenger will claim my life."
'Star? Is she referring to the Harbinger Star?' Klaus thought to himself as he kept listening to her. The pieces were aligning faster than he anticipated.
"The oracle told my mother and this, after he privately talked with my mother," Helene continued, her voice dropping to a whisper. "And a week after, I was sent to Rikxia to examine you as my potential fiancé... but when I returned to Iskandriel, the heir of that family told that I was sent to Rikxia because soone there could change my fate."
"That was two years ago," Klaus noted.
"But yesterday that friend told that the strange star that appeared in the sky is the star the oracle was talking about."
"It's apparently called the Harbinger Star," Klaus finally said.
"What? How do you know about it?" Helene asked, her eyes widening in shock. The knowledge was restricted to the highest echelons of the Ice Palace.
Instead of replying to her, Klaus asked, "Do you know why they are after you?"
"This is sothing I cannot reveal, even to you," Helene said with fierce determination. Klaus could tell that no matter if he tried to threaten her or her people, she would still not tell him the reason. So secrets were guarded with life itself.
"It is a wide guess, but it probably has sothing related to why Iskandriel exists," Klaus said, just to test her reaction.
To his surprise, it seems to be actually true. Helene's pupils contracted sharply, her breath catching in her throat. Her reaction was confirmation enough.
"You!!" Helene gasped, stepping back as if struck.
Klaus then started to think about the symbols that were carved deep inside the walls of the Ice Palace, and then about the carvings he saw in the room where they put him. He then said as if pieces ford themselves in his mind, "Iskandriel, or probably the Ice Palace, is a prison or a seal to sothing the eight founding families of Iskandriel sealed a long ti ago, and your death is probably a key to unlock whatever was sealed in the Ice Palace."
As if confirming his hypothesis, Helene's eyes started to shake. She was too shocked to even open her mouth. The secret she had guarded since childhood, the burden of her lineage, had been laid bare by a boy who shouldn't have known anything.
"I see... I'm right," Klaus said with a faint smile.
He raised a hand, and the purple do shattered into motes of light. Simultaneously, the crushing pressure lifted. Inside the pub, the fake patrons were now free to move. All of them tried to release their weapons and attack Klaus, presuming that he tried to hurt their princess. Steel rang against wood as swords were pulled inches from scabbards.
But before they could even reach their swords, Klaus said with a cold voice, "Whoever tries to unsheathe their swords or weapons will lose an arm."
They all could rember the might Klaus released just monts ago. They all froze in fear. If his simple presence could freeze them, it was clear that he could cut their arm or worse, kill all of them, including the princess. Hands hovered over hilts, trembling, before slowly retreating.
"I've satisfied my curiosity, I guess I will see you when I will be eting your mother in the morning," Klaus said with a calm voice, as if nothing had happened. He turned toward the exit.
"W...w...what do you an? Did you not get what I told you?" Helene said, trying to forget how Klaus just guessed their state secret with just a few pieces of information. Deep down, she was happy that he had sohow cast a spell for their conversation not to leak, though she did not know how he did it. But the implication of her death hung over them like a guillotine.
"Don't worry, it seems that our goals are aligned," Klaus said before turning and walking to the exit.
"What... what do you an? Eh... where are you going?" Helene said as she saw him leave. The uncertainty was gnawing at her. Was he an ally? An enemy? Or sothing beyond both?
"Back to my supposedly luxury cell."
"Didn't you understand what I said?" Helene said, her voice rising in desperation. She couldn't let him walk away with that knowledge. He was a variable she couldn't control.
"Your mother is not stupid... and neither is Roman Lionhart," Klaus finally said before opening the door and leaving. The bell above the door chid softly.
Helene followed up outside, bursting into the street. The cold night air hit her face, but she barely felt it. She scanned the empty street frantically. The cobblestones were bare. The shadows were still. There was no sign of white hair, no ripple of mana, no footprints in the frost.
"Just h...ow did he vanish?" Helene asked herself, looking at the empty street. Her breath plud in the cold night, the only movent in a world that felt suddenly too small to contain the secrets she carried.
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