[House Veyrath — The Next Morning — Training Hall]
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
The sounds of clashing steel echoed through the training hall, rising beneath the high sandstone arches and mingling with the sharp commands of the instructors. Sunlight streamed through the carved openings along the eastern wall.
Some knights trained with swords, others with spears, while a few tested their elemental abilities beneath the watchful eyes of their instructors. Every movement was precise, every strike deliberate.
Naturally, its youngest resident had found a way to contribute absolutely nothing to the proceedings.
Seyra sat comfortably beside the ancient guardian pillar, leaning against its broad stone base with her legs stretched before her. A small cushion had been placed beneath her, and a tray of honey cakes, sliced fruit, and sweetened milk rested within easy reach.
Mira had personally arranged the refreshments before settling nearby to keep an eye on her little lady.
"Would Lady Seyra like another honey cake?"
Seyra was busy watching two knights exchange sword strikes.
"Mm."
Mira placed one on her plate.
"Some fruit as well?"
"Mm."
A few slices followed.
"And perhaps some more milk?"
Seyra finally turned towards her nanny. "Mira, If you keep feeding me like this, I’ll become so round that Papa will have to roll me everywhere."
Mira pressed her lips together, fighting a smile.
"I doubt the Azram would permit anyone to roll his daughter across the estate."
"He can do it."
Mira’s expression suggested that she had already accepted the inevitable. Raising Seyra was proving to be less like caring for a noble child and more like serving a tiny ruler.
Seyra happily resumed watching the knights, yet, beneath her relaxed expression, her thoughts had wandered somewhere far less comfortable.
’In the novel, Malik Zayrakh and Papa Vaerun were described as the two most powerful men in the empire, both possessed four elemental contracts, and neither was someone an ordinary person should ever provoke.’
Her fingers paused over a honey cake.
’But that day at the palace...’
She remembered the suffocating pressure that had swept through the dining chamber. The seven guardians had appeared around her, one after another, their enormous forms encircling her as though they had been waiting for something.
And for one terrifying instant, she had felt as though she could destroy everything around her. She had felt an inexplicable urge to make the entire world fall silent, and the frightening part was that the sensation had not felt entirely foreign to her.
It had felt natural.
Seyra’s violet eyes lowered towards her small hands.
’But I don’t even have an Aether Core, so how?’
The royal crystal had detected nothing within her, so why had they answered her? And why, for that single moment, had she wanted to destroy everything?
Seyra frowned at her palms as though they might offer a written explanation.
They remained stubbornly unhelpful.
’Being reincarnated into a novel was already a terrible employment decision. Why did I have to get the mysterious, possibly world-ending protagonist package as well?’
A distant sword strike rang out.
CLANG!
Seyra sighed.
"At least the benefits package includes honey cakes."
Then—
LICK!
Something warm and unmistakably wet swept across her cheek.
Seyra turned her head, and a magnificent white leopard stood beside her, its enormous face so close that its whiskers brushed her skin.
Seyra blinked, and the leopard blinked back, and for several seconds, they stared at each other. Then Seyra’s entire face brightened and the white leopard’s ears twitched.
Seyra immediately reached for his lower jaw, rubbing the soft fur beneath it with both hands.
"I was looking for you!"
The leopard leaned into her touch with an ease that would have been deeply embarrassing for any creature attempting to maintain an intimidating reputation.
Mira glanced over from her seat.
"Pardon me, my lady?"
Seyra did not look away from the leopard. "Nothing, Mira. I was talking to myself."
. . .
. . .
Mira regarded her thoughtfully.
"Would you like me to bring a physician?"
Seyra’s hands stopped moving.
"No!"
The answer came so quickly that Mira raised an eyebrow. Seyra immediately recovered. "I mean... no, thank you. I’m perfectly healthy."
Mira looked unconvinced, but she wisely decided not to argue with a child who had recently recovered from an unexplained fever and possessed a remarkable talent for making ordinary conversations complicated.
"Very well, my lady. I shall be just over there if you need anything."
She returned to arranging the refreshments. Seyra waited until Mira had turned away before lowering her voice.
Veyra’s silver eyes followed Mira for a moment before returning to Seyra.
The white leopard sat beside the pillar, his long tail curling neatly around his paws. Even seated, he was large enough that Seyra could probably have used his foreleg as a pillow.
She studied him with the seriousness of a scholar examining an ancient tablet.
"I have so many questions for you."
Veyra’s ears tilted towards her.
"First, why can I see you when nobody else can? Second, why did all seven of you appear at the palace? Third, why did I feel like I could destroy the entire imperial dining chamber with a single thought?"
She paused.
"And fourth, why did you lick my face? Is that a leopard greeting, or do I taste like honey?"
Veyra stared at her. Seyra stared back and poked his cheek gently.
"Right. I forgot the most important detail: you can’t talk."
The leopard’s whiskers twitched, then, to Seyra’s astonishment, one corner of his mouth lifted into what looked suspiciously like a smirk.
She gasped.
"YOU CAN UNDERSTAND ME!"
Veyra blinked slowly. "Don’t pretend you can’t. I saw that! You just smiled at me!"
The leopard lowered his head and rested his chin on his paws, apparently deciding that a conversation with a four-year-old required an extraordinary amount of patience.
Seyra narrowed her eyes.
"Oh, I see. You’re one of those people who understands everything but refuses to answer because being mysterious makes you feel important."
Veyra’s tail swept across the floor.
"That is exactly what I thought."
She folded her arms.
"Very rude."
The white leopard stretched his enormous body and settled beside her, pressing his warm flank against her side. Seyra lasted approximately three seconds before abandoning her indignation.
"Oh. You’re warm."
She leaned against him.
Then, with the complete lack of hesitation that only a small child could possess, she shifted sideways and lay down against his broad stomach, using one foreleg as a pillow.
Veyra lifted his head to look at her. Seyra pulled the tray closer and selected another honey cake, his tail curled around her legs.
For a while, neither of them moved. The noise of the training hall continued around them, swords clashing and instructors shouting orders, while sunlight warmed the sandstone floor. Hidden from every other pair of eyes, the guardian of Air allowed a little girl to use him as a mattress.
Seyra broke off a small piece of honey cake and held it towards his mouth.
"Want some?"
Veyra glanced at the offering, then at the girl who was waiting expectantly for his answer; the enormous white leopard leaned forward and took a bite.
Seyra’s violet eyes widened.
"YOU CAN EAT IT?"
Veyra chewed with impeccable dignity. Seyra stared at him as though she had just discovered the greatest secret in the empire.
"So you can eat human food too? Does that mean you can eat meat? Do you like fish? Can you drink milk? Wait, do you even need to eat, or are you just eating because you like it?"
Veyra swallowed and settled his head back onto his paws.
Seyra narrowed her eyes.
"That was not an answer."
His tail curled around her legs.
"Don’t think you can escape my questions just because you’re fluffy and cute."
The guardian’s silver eyes glinted with what looked suspiciously like amusement. Seyra sighed dramatically, broke off another piece of cake, and popped it into her own mouth.
"Fine. We’ll discuss your suspicious eating habits later."
Unbeknownst to the little girl, someone had been watching them from the far end of the training hall.
Vaerun Veyrath stood beneath one of the carved sandstone arches, his hands folded behind his back. His dark robes fell neatly around his tall frame, and his silver eyes remained fixed on his daughter nestled against the enormous white leopard.
Vaerun’s gaze shifted towards the leopard and then at his daughter. Then Vaerun remembered the report Raviel and Captain Ishtar had given him.
’The young lady lost control of something we could not identify, Azram. The seven elemental guardians appeared around her; they did not attack anyone. They surrounded her as though they were protecting her.’
He could still recall the uncertainty in Ishtar’s voice. The captain was not a woman easily unsettled, yet even she had struggled to describe what she had witnessed in the imperial dining chamber, and Ravian had been equally troubled.
Seven guardians.
The ancient elemental beasts whose power had been woven into the oldest legends of Eshkaran. They had appeared around a four-year-old child whose Aether Core could not even be detected.
Vaerun lowered his gaze towards Seyra.
She was now attempting to feed Veyra another piece of honey cake. The leopard accepted it, while Seyra looked increasingly pleased with herself.
"The seven elemental guardians," he murmured to himself. "Protecting a child who possesses no detectable Aether Core."
His silver eyes narrowed thoughtfully.
"She is ordinary, and yet she is anything but ordinary."
There were secrets surrounding Seyra that even the high priest had been unable to unravel. Her origins remained a mystery, her elemental nature defied everything the empire understood, and the guardians’ inexplicable attachment to her raised questions Vaerun had not yet begun to answer.
He should have been concerned and he was concerned.
But as he watched his daughter laugh softly while Veyra patiently endured another attempt to feed him cake, something else stirred beneath his usual composure.
Pride, quiet, unmistakable pride. Vaerun’s lips curved into a faint smirk, his cold silver eyes never leaving the little girl.
"My daughter, is indeed different." His gaze sharpened with a familiar, dangerous confidence. "And strong."