Just like that, another ten years passed.
Aelira was now eighteen years old.
A woman grown. A weapon perfected.
The little girl who once clung to hope like a fading dream had long vanished. What remained was a phantom cloaked in shadows—beautiful, ethereal, and deadly. She carried the elegance of Queen Elowen, with eyes that echoed her father’s quiet fire. But where Elowen was warm and nurturing coaxing life, Aelira was a blade honed in silence to take life.
She had killed more than she had smiled.
Vaelen watched her from the shadows of the council chambers and training halls. At times, he wondered if he had created something too sharp. Had he truly protected her—or forged something that might one day shatter?
Still, he comforted himself with the truth: no one could hurt her now. Not emotionally. Not physically. And she was strong enough to protect Kaeyla, as promised. A perfect sword, unbreakable. Loyal.
Silent.
⸻
Aelira crouched in her usual place—high in the palace trees, hidden among the thick branches that overlooked the queen’s garden. The golden hour stretched across the kingdom, washing the palace in a soft warmth.
Down below, Queen Kaeyla walked along the garden paths, red hair catching the wind, laughter trailing behind her like birdsong.
Aelira allowed herself a small smile. Just a flicker. Her sister looked just like their father who she can now barely remember, in the sunlight—wild, radiant, alive.
“You do know how to smile,” came a voice behind her.
Aelira’s body spun instantly. Her blade unsheathed, magic coiled like a storm at her fingertips. But what alarmed her most wasn’t the voice—it was that she hadn’t sensed it at all.
From the leaves, a figure emerged.
Broad-shouldered, sun-dark skin, a strong jawline and eyes like molten gold. His hair, crimson and unruly, was tied back loosely—vibrant as Kaeyla’s. He looked… foreign. But not unwelcome. And far too relaxed for someone who had just surprised a highly trained assassin.
He grinned at her, leaning casually against the branch like it was a throne.
“Don’t kill me. I just simply like this tree.”
Aelira’s voice was ice. “Who are you?”
“Theon,” he said brightly. “Nobody special. Just a guest of the kingdom for the past two months.”
She narrowed her eyes, blade still at his throat’s edge. “And you just happened to wander into the queen’s private quarters? Unnoticed?”
He whistled softly. “No one taught you manners either, huh?”
She didn’t move.
He raised his hands in a mock surrender. “Fine, fine. I’m the illegitimate son of the emperor. The kind they hide but don’t kill. And apparently,” he added with a shrug, “also a candidate for king consort.”
That caught her.
Aelira blinked. “What?”
Theon smirked at her shock. “Ah, didn’t know? Guess the shadows don’t get all the whispers. Don’t worry. I’m not interested in politics or arranged marriages. But hey—at least here, I don’t have to sleep with one eye open.”
Aelira stayed quiet, still processing.
“And you?” Theon asked, tipping his head curiously. “Shadow guard? Spy? Phantom? You’ve been in this tree almost every sunset. I figured eventually you’d notice me too.”
The admission made her stomach drop. Two months. And she never once sensed him. In this case, making him her natural enemy.
He chuckled at the silence. “Don’t bother. No one ever notices me unless I want them to. It’s how I’ve survived this long.”
There was a pause.
Then, softly—without teasing—he added, “You looked lonely. Thought maybe we could be friends. You remind me of a cat. All thorns and elegance. Beautiful, but always just out of reach.”
It was the first time in ten years someone outside Vaelen had spoken to her like this. Maybe Yuan, but this is different. Yuan was the only constant for her within the four wall, a sense of safeness, but somehow the man in front of her cause different emotion within her.
Friendly. Human. Real. Especially, he talked too much from the moment they met.
And she had no idea how to respond.
Instead, her instincts kicked in. She vanished in a blink of shadow, slipping through branches and air.
Theon blinked at the empty space she left behind.
Then he laughed—quiet and amused. “That’s fun,” he muttered to himself. “I was getting bored. Might as well adopt a cat.”
After their brief encounter in the tree, Aelira kept her distance.
Or tried to.
But Theon… didn’t seem to understand the concept of boundaries.
Each day, she’d return to her hidden perch, hoping—foolishly—that he wouldn’t be there. And every time, he was.
Waiting. Lounging. Whistling. Sometimes reading scrolls aloud in awful accents. Other times simply gazing at the sky like it held the answers to his next trick.
“You again,” Aelira muttered on the fourth day.
“Me again,” he beamed, tossing her a ripe plum he’d swiped from the royal kitchen. “You know, one day you’ll stop trying to kill me on sight. That’ll be progress.”
“I haven’t tried. Yet.”
“Charming,” he grinned. “We’re bonding already.”
She hated how her lips almost twitched.
He talked enough for the both of them, sharing random tales of court life, gossip he overheard, or utterly ridiculous stories that made no sense—just to fill the silence. Aelira rarely replied. But somehow… she stayed.
Something in him was warm. Chaotic, yes. But also familiar in a way she couldn’t name. If Yuan had been a blade pressed quietly into her palm, Theon was fire poked into her cold skin—jarring, annoying, but undeniably alive.
And he noticed everything.
“You always watch her from afar,” he said one evening, his voice softer than usual. “Why not speak to her?”
Aelira said nothing, her eyes on Kaeyla in the garden below, laughing with her councilwomen.
“She looks like you,” Theon continued. “Same stubborn jaw. Same kind of fire.”
A pause.
“But I guess you’re the shadow. She’s the sun.”
Aelira’s hands tightened around the bark.
Theon didn’t push further that day. But the question lingered.
On the seventh evening, as the sky blushed purple, Theon tossed a stone into the quiet pond near their tree. “You’re getting better at not flinching when I talk.”
Aelira didn’t answer.
“Still not smiling, though. That’s fine. I’ll earn one properly.”
She glanced at him. “Why do you keep coming back?”
He shrugged. “Because I can tell you’ve been alone too long. Because no one should live like a ghost.”
A pause.
“Because you’re interesting.”
Aelira stared at him, heart thudding with an ache she couldn’t name.
“…And because I think I like you,” he added with a boyish grin, standing. “But no rush. I’ll be here again tomorrow. And when tomorrow arrives, at least, tell me your name”
And he left, whistling.
Aelira sat there long after, the red light of sunset fading into dusk.
She didn’t smile.
But she didn’t vanish either.
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