Sunlight lanced through the canopies of the Rougemonde forest, casting shifting emerald hues on the forest floor. Amid the quiet rustle of leaves, two figures faced offâone tense, one uncertain.
"Who are you?" Nefeli's voice sliced through the stillness, sharp and guarded. "And don't say Lucine."
The woman's shoulders sagged as the illusion melted away. "I'm Charlotte," she admitted quietly. "Lucine's sister."
Suspicion flared in Nefeli's eyes, but something in Charlotte's voiceâfrayed, tremblingâstayed her questions. There was no deception in her tone, only grief worn thin.
"Do you know where Lucine is?" Charlotte pleaded, her voice barely holding together.
Nefeli hesitated. The truth surged to her lips: Lucine was deep within a lost kingdom, risking everything to challenge a god. But as she looked into Charlotte's pleading eyes, she faltered. Truth could be crueler than silence.
Without a word, she turned and vanished into the trees, leaving Charlotte rooted in place, confusion and heartache twined like vines in her chest.
***
Moments later, the forest stirred. BlancSoldats emerged in formation, halting before Charlotte with resolute cries.
"King Lucine!" they proclaimed, kneeling. "Any news of the missing princess?"
Donning her royal guise once more, Charlotte drew herself upright, masking her ache with composure.
"Not yet," she replied, voice calm and commanding. "But our search continues. She will returnâsafe and sound."
***
Far deeper in the forest, where light thinned and shadows grew bold, Nefeli sat alone. Her head rested in her hands, her breath ragged.
Memories surged. Faces blurred by time. Youths she had struck down under TaureÃs' orders. Her blade had been swift, her heart cold. She'd nearly killed Lucine tooâwhen caught, she lied about mistaking him for a bandit.
But Lucine hadn't met her with rage.
He had shown kindness. Grace. He'd looked at her not as an assassin, but as someone worth saving.
Hot tears welled. Nefeli had never wanted to be a pawn in TaureÃs' twisted game.
She no longer held the wind daggerâLucine had taken it. Or rather, she'd given it. Yet something stirred in her now. A resolve that needed no weapon.
Her eyes turned to the triangular hole in the ancient cave wallâetched with faded runes and half-told stories. She placed her hand inside, wind energy gathering in her palm. Pain bloomed, sharp and raw, but she pushed through it.
With a roar, the geyser came to life. Steam hissed. Rocks trembled. And Nefeli, hand bloodied and spirit alight, stepped into the vortex.
She would not run. Not anymore.
***
Below the surface of Acortis, in the underground refuge, a sparring session had just concluded in a flurry of respectful bows.
Lucine wiped a bead of sweat from his brow. His training had left him aching but fulfilled.
The Hermit's combat style had been a revelationâprecise, instinctual, and utterly unorthodox. Lucine yearned to learn more.
A dazzling light erupted, interrupting Lucine's thoughts. The geyser that had transported him and the Hermit from Rougemonde had fallen underground, and it now swirled with an emerald glow.
A lone figure emerged from the vortex, coughing and disoriented, yet unmistakably defiant.
Lucine's breath caught in his throat.
"Nefeli?" he whispered, a mixture of hope and disbelief crashing together inside him.
The air thickened with tension as Nefeli staggered forward, clutching a bleeding hand. Relief flooded Lucine's face, briefly pushing aside memories of their last battle.
Without hesitation, he tore a strip from his tunic and helped her bind the wound. Though Nefeli had once stood against him, Lucine's kindness was unwavering.
Suddenly, two harsh voices shattered the fragile stillness.
"She's with TaureÃs! Don't trust her!"
Theo and Minos of the Azure Wind charged in, their faces etched with suspicion. Nefeli recognized them as the very men who had once stolen a pair of katanas TaureÃs had forged for General Bron, his commander-in-chief.
But in this moment, a grudging respect stirred within herâfor the Azure Wind's unwavering defiance in the face of a tyrannical god.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Before tensions could escalate, the Hermit raised a single hand. Silence followed.
Theo and Minos scrutinized Nefeli's face. This time, they saw more than an enemyâthey saw a woman tired of war, of lies, of gods. A woman seeking something real. Trust might still be a flickering flame, but the potential for alliance had sparked.
Then, Nefeli smiled.
It was faint, sincereâalmost hesitant. The robes Lucine and the Hermit currently wore were of her own making. Seeing them still use them warmed something in her chest.
Her smile, soft and genuine, unsettled the Azures. Theo and Minos had braced themselves for a clash of blades and Nefeli's usual stoicismânot joy. It was a small thing, but it hinted at a change of heart.
Lucine turned to the Hermit, his voice trembling with renewed hope.
"With Nefeli on our side... can we truly defeat TaureÃs?"
The Hermit chuckled, the sound deep and amused.
"Defeat? Perhaps. But it won't be easy. Now thenâno more talk."
He flicked his wrist.
A boulder launched toward Nefeli.
Without thinking, she reacted.
A surge of wind erupted from her handâno wind dagger, no conduit. Yet the boulder shattered mid-air.
The chamber fell silent.
"Just as I thought," the Hermit noted. "Like Lucine, Nefeli can summon divine energy from within. No weapon required."
Nefeli blinked, stunned.
She remembered the geyserâthe pain, the power. She'd triggered it with her own energy. Her wind.
No dagger. Just me.
She stared at her hands. For the first time, they didn't feel like tools of death. They felt... divine.
The road ahead would not just test her strengthâbut reshape her soul. She had rejoined a journey that would lead far beyond wind and warâinto the heart of divine creation itself.
The Hermit's revelation sparked astonishment in the Azure Winds' eyes. Unlike Lucine and Nefeli, Theo and Minos possessed no inherent divinityâthey merely relied on their swords to unleash echoes of divine power.
And yet here they were, with Lucine and Nefeliâtwo direct wielders of divine powerâon their side.
Their skepticism, initially aimed at Nefeli, now shifted towards the enigmatic Hermit. While the old man lacked divine power, it was clear his mind brimmed with ancient knowledge. Perhaps there was more to this mysterious Hermit than met the eye.
Reaching into his cloak, the Hermit drew the Morse Fragment. Its intricate carvings shimmered. Nefeli's eyes widened in recognition. This divine fragment looked exactly like the one described in Acortian legend.
"They say," Nefeli began, her voice low, reverent, "centuries before he was a god, TaureÃs was an Acortian warrior. He used the Fragment to ascend. He bathed in its power and twisted it to his will. Then he vanished. Until months ago, when he returned to claim Acortisâjust as suddenly as he left."
A heavy silence fell.
If the legends were true, the Fragment wasn't just a weapon. It was the keyâto TaureÃs's godhood... and perhaps to his undoing.
Lucine thought back to his first encounter with the Hermit. Gods were once mortals, Lucine. He believed it now.
And he began to wonderâif TaureÃs had ascended, why couldn't he?
With a shared resolve, the Hermit guided Lucine and Nefeli to the Fragment.
"Place your hands on it," he instructed.
Theo and Minos followed suitâtheir resolve sharpening with purpose. With a final glance between them, they stepped forward and placed their hands on the divine artifact.
Suddenlyâ
A brilliant flare swallowed them whole.
The world around them vanished in an instant, devoured by the shimmering veil of the Fragment.
Lucine heard a muffled shout, lost in the roar of rushing energy. His eyes shut as the world dissolved into a kaleidoscope of colorsâthe fabric of existence unraveling before his eyes.
The distorted reality surrounding Lucine morphed and twisted until he found himself within the very fabric of the shard itself.
Lucine blinked. The underground refuge had disappeared. He now stood on solid ground, surrounded by a vast, alien landscape. Lush hills stretched into the horizon, dotted with crystalline spires pulsing with light.
The Hermit's voice echoed in Lucine's mind from outside the fragmentâcheerful, playful.
"Welcome to the Fragment, newbies! You may not have divine power yet, but we'll get you there. We need all the help we can get."
"Even I haven't fully unlocked its mysteries," he mused. "But you fourâmaybe you will."
A newfound wave of determination flared in Lucine's chest. He would earn divine power. He would fight, train, and protect.
He glanced at Theo and Minos, then Nefeli, before finally taking in a deep breath.
This was only the beginning.
"Now," said the Hermit, "unto our first lesson. You must learn to channel energy into a medium."
Lucine and Nefeli exchanged a knowing look.
"Don't forget the wind meteorite I made during our fight," Nefeli said.
"And I melted the Brazen Guards' armor," Lucine added.
The Hermit smiled, patient and firm.
"There's a big difference between setting something on fire and truly channeling your energy into it," the Hermit explained.
"Likewise, blowing a rock away with wind isn't the same as weaving your essence through it. Right now, there's power within you bothâbut you're neither engulfed in flame nor surrounded by a storm."
He paused, his gaze steady. "Channel your energy into an objectâwithout touching it. Then release the stored energy remotely."
Lucine stepped forward. He thought of the dagger. The flow of energy inward, controlled. He focused on a distant boulder, willing it to become an extension of himself.
It lit ablazeâthen the fire sank inward. The boulder glowed red. And thenâ
A colossal explosion.
The blast disintegrated the four surrounding peaks. The shockwave rolled across the Fragment's world.
Lucine stood still, stunned.
He turned to Nefeli. "Your turn."
Nefeli, equally awed, stepped forward. A theory was forming in her mind.
"Lucine, your power is undeniable," she admitted, her voice tinged with awe. "Yet there's more at play here. It's as though the Fragment itself possesses a primal sentienceâamplifying our energy, feeding on our presence."
Raising her hand, Nefeli whispered into the wind, "Morse Fragmentâshow yourself. Give me something to resonate with."
A single, enormous leaf detached from a distant tree. It danced toward her.
"A dancing leaf," she said, smiling. She focused, envisioning it as part of herself. Wind swirled violentlyâbut she calmed it. The leaf hovered, suspended mid-air, shimmering green.
Then, as her fist clenched, the wind obeyed.
In an emerald flash, the giant leaf imploded. A shockwave cleared the skies and doused the embers of Lucine's earlier explosion.
"Excellent!" the Hermit called from outside the Fragment, laughing in amusement. "Lucine, now you teach. Show your allies the dance of the wind."
The Azures' brows furrowed in confusion at the Hermit's words.
Nefeli, however, felt a flicker of recognition. Lucine's first words to her after their battle echoed in her mind: If you weren't fighting the wind the way you were, you wouldn't be in such a state.
Could there be a connection?
Lucine picked up a boulder.
"Azures!" he shouted. "Don't fight this boulder. Dance with its tune!"
He hurled it.
Something shifted. The Azures moved in unison with the wind.
Theo and Minos, instinctively channeling their power, caught the boulder mid-air. Blue flames erupted. With grace, they spun the burning rock and hurled it back.
Lucine met it, added crimson flames. The clash exploded in mid-air, a spectacle of red and blue.
Nefeli watched, transfixed.
The Azures moved with the wind, not against it. In this realm, they were becoming more than rebels.
They were becoming warriors.
A formidable force to be reckoned with in the fight against TaureÃs.