The foreign vanguard was completely shocked when the lady knight threw him straight off the castle walls. Before he could even process the fall, she jumped after him, effortlessly leaping from branch to branch and performing mid-air flips to outpace his descent. She reached the ground a split second before him, sliding a plushy, soft pillow right under his landing.

"Quick, this way!" Knight Vesper ordered.

Vane didn’t argue. He had no desire to be caught by her fellow Silaxen knights, so he scrambled up after her as she scaled a massive tree nearby. Hidden safely inside a secluded treehouse, they held their breath, staying perfectly still as the patrol marched past below. Only when the heavy footsteps faded did they finally allow themselves to breathe.

Rune Vesper clicked on a soft light, illuminating the treehouse just enough to see without attracting attention to their hidden sanctuary.

"Thank you, Miss... Lady Knight," Vane offered, a deep note of gratitude in his voice.

Rune ignored his comment, immediately turning away to sift through an assortment of scrolls and maps scattered around a single notebook.

"Why did you help me anyway?" Vane asked curiously, watching her work. When she continued to ignore him, he tried a different approach. "Your Majesty?"

That specific title stopped her dead in her tracks. "I am no royalty," she corrected sharply.

"Yes, you are. I’m not deaf," Vane countered, unlatching his helmet to show his full face. "I heard them calling you Princess Vesper."

"It's Knight Vesper," she corrected him again, her voice dropping an octave.

"Oh? Well, why did you help me then, Knight Vesper?" Vane asked, wisely choosing not to push her status any further.

"For the truth," she stated plainly, turning to face him. "If what you claim is true, I need to know the source of the shadows and the real story behind the Seven Crowns. That is the only way I can protect my people."

"Ah. So, a lady knight with a pure heart," Vane teased.

The smirk left his face when a throwing knife whistled past his cheek, embedding itself into the wall behind him. Rune walked over, casually ripped the knife out of the wood, and hissed, "Don't push your luck, intruder."

"It's Vane, by the way," he introduced himself, trying to smooth things over. "Knight Alister Sta—"

"I don't care who you are," Rune interrupted smoothly, clipping the dagger back into her armor. "As long as you are telling the truth. If this is all a lie, you will pay for it. Understood?"

Vane silenced himself and simply nodded.

"Good," she said. "We move when the moon rises. The knights wind down their patrol sweep by midnight. The sooner we clear the outskirts, the less likely we are to be caught."

A quiet silence settled over the treehouse. After a while, Vane looked at her tired posture. "Don't worry, I'm not aiming to hurt you or anything. You can rest until it’s time to move."

Rune just stared at him through her visor. When he finally turned his back to rest, she quietly returned to her things. She grabbed a few crystals she thought might be useful, including a distinct crystal key handed down from her grandmother, Queen Ember Rune of Silax. Rune had never met the late queen—despite inheriting her exact looks—but she hoped to find whatever lock the key fit. None of her siblings, not even the King, knew or cared about the ancient history of their Silaxen roots.