A few hours into their ride, Vane couldn't help but speak into the internal comms linked to their helmets. "So, Princess... you didn't have to be so harsh on our burrito mage's romance. Why exactly does a little display of affection bother you so much?"

"It's a complete lack of tactical discipline," Rune scoffed through the comms. "That kind of emotional vulnerability is nothing but a liability on a battlefield."

A sudden realization hit Vane. He glanced at the rearview mirror of his tech bike, trying to catch a glimpse of her helmeted face. "My patron princess... do you even know what a healthy, loving relationship looks like?"

The silence over the comms channel was deafening.

"Wow. Big words for strange behaviors," Rune finally muttered.

As much as she hated to admit it, she had never witnessed a single display of genuine affection in her entire life. The only marriage in her family was her eldest sister, Princess Seraphina Aurelia, whose relationship was an absolute disaster within her own crumbling minor territory. Her parents, the King and Queen of Silax, treated each other like cold business partners. Growing up, Rune had learned that love was simply a vulnerability—a trap where the woman always ended up exposed and unprotected. She could gamble her life on logic, tech, or a sword fight, but she refused to risk her heart.

Before Vane could push the subject, Percy's voice suddenly cut through their comms, laced with panic. "Guys! Look ahead!"

Directly by the towering metal walls of the Estoran border, a massive shadow monster materialized from the blackened clouds, its ink-like tendrils slamming into the ground. Before Vane could even formulate a tactical plan, Percy recklessly leaped off his mount, charging straight into the fray.

"Burrito mage, wait!" Rune shouted, immediately jumping after him.

The shadow monster lunged with terrifying speed. Within seconds, both Rune and Percy were completely enveloped by the creature’s dark mass. Vane launched himself into the air, swinging his obsidian sword to break them free, but the monster’s density was too much for the three of them to handle alone.

Suddenly, a brilliant beam of light tech cut through the darkness. A elite squadron of Estoran border knights converged on the battlefield, their advanced light weaponry forcing the shadow mass to dissipate into nothingness.

"Alister?!" the leading knight shouted in absolute shock, immediately sprinting over and pulling Vane into a fierce embrace. "Where have you been for the past few months?! The entire royal family has been worried sick about you, Vane!"

"I'm fine, Alden," Vane replied sarcastically, freeing himself from his older brother's grip. "I just had a slight... delay."

"Your Grace, what should we do with the intruders?" another Estoran knight asked, as the squad immediately surrounded Rune and Percy, their plasma lances humming. Rune instantly dropped into a low stance, her quartz sword drawn and ready to strike.

"Don't hurt them! That's an order!" Vane commanded, surprising Alden and his men.

Rune didn't lower her guard for a second, keeping her eyes locked on the perimeter. Within minutes, however, the heavy dampening fields of the Estoran wall left them completely incapacitated. For the second time in a month, Rune and Percy found themselves behind bars—though this time, the cell was reinforced with a high-tech laser grid that her petite frame couldn't slip through.

Meanwhile, Vane stood in the grand council room of the Starling Estate. At the head of the table sat his father, the Duke, whose silver hair completely framed a sharp face dominated by cutting, ice-blue eyes. Vane's nine siblings stood tightly along the flank.

"Your Grace, they are not a threat to Estora!" Vane defended fiercely. "Well... maybe Percy with his chaotic magic," he paused, "but the Princess possesses a pure heart. I can personally guarantee she means no harm to our borders."

"Impossible!" Alden roared, slamming his heavy fist onto the iron table. His bright eyes—identical to his father's—flashed with frustration, his skin notably darker than Vane's from his continuous day shifts on the border walls. "There hasn't been a verified 'pure heart' on this continent in centuries! Pure hearts do not swing heavy broadswords, Vane! They are supposed to be the closest things to mortals playing angels—they don't get their hands dirty with blood! She is a soldier, not a saint!"

"If she didn't care, she would have left me to rot in the Silaxen dungeons!" Vane argued back. "She turned her back on her own kingdom to help an enemy vanguard escape!"

Whispers instantly rippled through the council members. "Silax? Aren't the Silaxens supposed to be giant, knowledge-eating monsters?" one noble muttered.

"She had a dozen opportunities to take my head when I accused her kingdom of generating the shadow curse," Vane continued, his voice echoing through the hall. "But she didn't."

Suddenly, the advanced lighting grid in the council room glitched, flickering violently.

The heavy security doors slid open, and Rune and Percy walked casually into the room. Rune’s eyes were glowing with genuine academic awe as she inspected the intricate machinery lining the walls.

"Wow," Rune murmured, completely ignoring the drawn weapons of the guard. "Aside from the massive pollution clouds outside, Estora looks absolutely nothing like Silax or Aethria."

"How did you get out?!" Eliot, Vane's younger brother, gasped in absolute shock, his glasses sliding down the bridge of his nose.

Rune shrugged nonchalantly. "Believe me, I don't entirely know either. I was just toying with a vulnerable circuit pathway that wasn't properly covered by the exterior metal shielding. I apologize for the security breach; it's an old habit."

Eliot immediately stepped closer, his analytical mind taking over as he looked down at her. "Wait... how can you be a pure-blood Silaxen? Aren't your people supposed to be literal giants? You're like a pocket-sized knight."

"Princess, please stop wandering off like a stray cat," Vane sighed, rubbing his face in pure exhaustion. Over the past few months, her uncanny ability to move completely without sound had given him near-heart attacks. He was seriously considering buying a bell for her armor just so he could track her movements.

The Duke let out a long, tired sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose. "If these outsiders ever threaten our infrastructure, the responsibility falls entirely on your head, Vane," his father spoke heavily. "The King and the Crown Prince are entirely occupied with the dark clouds and the increasing frequency of the shadow attacks. I do not want His Majesty discovering we are harboring... unverified guests. Ensure they are given proper hospitality, away from the detention blocks."

Alden and the other siblings didn't dare break the Duke's decree, lowering their weapons.

"By the way," Rune interrupted, stepping toward the center of the table. "Did any of you experience specific auditory hallucinations—like whispers—when you were close to the shadow mass?"

The room went completely quiet.

"When I fought the shadow monster back in Silax, it actively whispered things to me," Rune explained, her tone turning analytical. "It targeted my exact inner anxieties, as if the entity itself gains physical density the more you believe its claims."

"What kind of whispers are we talking about?" Vane asked, ignoring his siblings' confused looks.

"It's just a working theory for now; I don't have enough solid data to back it up yet," Rune said, looking directly at Eliot.

"Now that you mention it..." Eliot muttered, his fingers automatically brushing his chin. "I felt a distinct cognitive pressure—like a voice—during the border breach a few months ago."

Before Eliot could even finish his sentence, Rune had already pulled out her leather-bound notebook, her pen flying across the page as she closed the distance between them.

"What did the frequency feel like? How did your cognitive functions overcome it? What were the exact semantic phrases it used?" Rune barraged him with rapid-fire questions, her usual composed demeanor completely vanishing into raw academic hyper-focus. "When I broke through the psychological feedback loop, the shadow manifested as a miniature projection of my own form before destabilizing into pure light energy. Did you experience a similar structural shift?!"

"I... well... I don't..." Eliot stammered, completely overwhelmed by her intensity. Vane stood by, shocked; he had never seen Rune spin around in one place at such a high velocity when she was usually so entirely rigid.

After a few minutes of her pacing in rapid circles around him to analyze his posture, Percy let out a loud groan. He was currently using his magic to float horizontally a few inches off the floor, holding his head. "Great. We accidentally unlocked the weird scholar side of the Silaxen princess. My head hurts just listening to this."

Without looking up from her notes, Rune casually hurled a heavy wrench from the workbench straight at his head. Percy jumped, using his magic to make the tool orbit around him like a miniature moon.

"Next time, I'm aiming for your temple, burrito mage," Rune warned coldly.

"Okay, so you're suggesting we can technically neutralize the shadow entities through pure psychological resistance?" Vane asked, a spark of excitement catching in his eyes.

"The hypothesis is plausible, but I require a larger sample size to verify the data," Rune responded.

"Do the Silaxen archives have any documentation on this technique?" Vane asked hopefully.

Rune went completely silent, her rigid posture returning. Though Vane didn't fully understand the internal politics of the Silaxen court, he knew that silence meant she had been entirely alone with her research.

"And you're only telling us this now?!" Percy snapped, his feet dropping back to the floor.

"To be fair, I never witnessed a shadow attack during our time in Aethria because we were entirely occupied with training Princess Faye," Rune countered, her tone dipping into icy sarcasm. "Besides, who would bother listening to the data of the Third Princess of Silax? Back home, my sole function was to sit quietly, wear heavy dresses, and let the Queen present an entirely fabricated version of me to the court. But I didn't complain. Keeping up a useless image meant nobody expected anything from me, which gave me the perfect window to fail, learn, and upgrade my skills in secret."

Percy stood tall, his expression turning fierce. "Well, from now on, if you have data that can protect Aethria and ensure Princess Faye is safe to explore the world, you say it immediately!"