I never thought something as simple as new clothes could make me feel… different. When I looked into the polished bronze mirror at Ravalion's Attire, I hardly recognized myself. The white shirt clung neatly to my shoulders, the purple robe draped like it belonged to nobility, and the long brown boots tightened firmly around my calves. For the first time since I woke up in this strange world, I didn't look like a lost wanderer. I looked like someone who belonged here.
Elira said nothing as she waited outside, but I caught her gaze linger on me longer than usual. She didn't say if she approved or mocked me. She never did. The Chancellor's daughter was as unreadable as stone.
We were walking down the marketplace street when it happened.
The streets of Avreth were alive—merchants shouting about spices from far-off lands, the tang of roasted meat and sweet wine thick in the air, soldiers clanking past in polished armor, their crimson cloaks fluttering in the evening breeze. For a second, I allowed myself to breathe. I thought: Maybe… I can survive here. Maybe I can even live.
Then I bumped into someone.
It wasn't the kind of bump where shoulders brush. It was like walking into a wall that had been waiting for me. I stumbled back a step, muttering, "Sorry," out of habit.
She stood in front of me.
At first glance, nothing extraordinary. Orange hair, braided and falling over her left shoulder. Simple traveling clothes, dust on her boots. She could have been anyone. But then I saw her eyes.
Not brown, not green, not even blue. They were glowing. Not with color—but with depth, like two burning circles of amber glass, swirling with a light that seemed alive. My chest froze. I had seen strange things in this world already—monsters, hunters, magic—but this… this was different.
I blinked, and she was gone.
"Wha—?" I spun in place. The crowd bustled past me, unconcerned. I looked left, right, even behind me. Nothing. She had disappeared in less than the heartbeat it took me to glance away.
I turned to Elira. She was at a store six shops ahead, speaking to the merchant about fabrics, her back turned. She hadn't noticed anything.
When she came back, she frowned. "Why are you standing here like a statue? Slacking already?"
I hesitated. Do I tell her? If I said I just saw a girl vanish into thin air, what would she think? That I was crazy? Or worse—that I was hiding something from her father?
"I just…" I forced a smile. "I bumped into someone strange. Nothing worth mentioning."
She raised an eyebrow. "Strange how?"
"Forget it." I waved it off, pushing the memory down. "Let's move toward the Chancellor's place. He'll be waiting."
We walked. But each step felt heavier.
Halfway down the stone street, my chest seized. My legs buckled. The ground rushed up.
I fell.
But my eyes didn't close. I was awake, staring at the world, yet my body refused to move. Numbness spread like poison from my chest to my arms, to my legs. My fingers twitched, then froze. Panic burned in me, but my body ignored me.
Elira's gasp pierced the haze. "Auren!"
Her face appeared above mine, her silver hair catching the last orange light of dusk. She shook my shoulders, hard, but I didn't respond. My lips moved soundlessly. My mind screamed, but no sound came out.
What's happening to me?
Then I remembered. The bump. The girl. That tiny sting I'd felt at my side, like a needle prick. At the time, I ignored it. But now it all made sense. She wasn't just strange. She did something to me.
Elira's voice broke. For the first time, she sounded… scared. "No, no, no… come on, don't you dare collapse on me now!" Her hands pressed against my chest, searching for something, maybe a heartbeat, maybe a pulse. "Why won't you respond?"
Her calm, cold demeanor was cracking. I saw the fear in her eyes. She tried to chant something, a faint spell maybe, but her voice faltered. She was strong, but not strong enough.
Inside, I was drowning. Not in water, but in memory. The past clawed its way back—earth shaking, screams, fire licking the sky, the voices of my family tearing away from me. The cliff. The fall. Blood. The faces I couldn't save.
I wanted to fight it, but fear paralyzed me more than the poison.
Then, footsteps.
They were light, almost silent, padding across the stone. Elira whipped around, her body tensing.
A girl knelt beside me. She was… different.
Short green clothing, cut strangely, like no fabric I had ever seen in this world. Patterns across the cloth shimmered faintly, as if drawn from another world altogether. Her hair was black, cropped short, her eyes steady and calm in a way that felt alien.
Without asking, without hesitation, she slid an arm beneath my head and lifted it into her lap. Her skin was cool against mine, not warm like Elira's frantic touch had been. She leaned close, and her voice was low, whispering words I didn't understand.
It wasn't like the magic chants I'd heard hunters mutter. This language was older. Fluid. Heavy. It hummed through the air, vibrating in my bones.
Her hand pressed to my chest, exactly where the numbness began. Heat spread through me—not fire, not warmth, but light. My body, frozen moments ago, trembled. My lungs gasped for air as if breaking the surface of water after drowning.
My vision cleared. I coughed, hard, chest convulsing, and the paralysis cracked. I could move my hands again. My fingers clawed weakly at the stone.
Elira's stunned voice rang in my ear. "What… what are you doing to him?"
The girl didn't answer. She finished her chant, then leaned close to my ear. I barely heard her words, but they carved themselves into me.
"You were marked."
Marked? By who? By that orange-haired girl? By the bump?
I tried to speak, but my throat scraped like sand. "Wh-who… are you?"
Her lips curved—not into a smile, but something between pity and warning. "Not your enemy. Not yet."
She brushed her hand across my chest one last time, and the last of the numbness bled away. I could breathe fully again. My heart pounded like a drum, alive, raw.
Elira grabbed my arm, pulling me upright. "Stay away from him!" she snapped at the stranger. But even in her fury, I saw her eyes glimmer with unease.
The girl in green stood. She was smaller than Elira, lighter, but she radiated something… otherworldly. Not the sharp authority of a noble's daughter, not the dangerous confidence of a hunter. Something deeper.
She turned, as if to leave.
"Wait!" I croaked, forcing myself to stand despite Elira's protest. My knees wobbled, but I steadied myself. "Who… are you? Why did you help me?"
For a long second, she didn't respond. Then she glanced over her shoulder.
"Because if you died now," she said softly, "the world would end before it even begins."
And then she was gone. Not vanished into thin air like the orange-haired girl, but swallowed by the crowd, slipping between people as if she were part of the shadows.
I stood there, my breath ragged, my heart still hammering. Elira's grip was tight on my arm, her knuckles white.
"What just happened?" she whispered.
I didn't answer. I didn't know. All I knew was this: I had been poisoned—or cursed—by a girl with burning amber eyes. And I had been saved by another girl from a place I didn't understand. Both strangers. Both watching me. Both knowing something I didn't.
For the first time since arriving in Avreth, since meeting Kael, since standing before the Chancellor… I felt it in my bones.
I was in danger. Not from swords, not from armies, but from something deeper. Something that wanted me specifically.
Marked.
The word echoed in my mind long after the green-clad girl had disappeared.