Page 113 of Spring Guardians & Songbirds

She turned a little over her shoulder. “As crown prince and now a king, I’d think you were the centre of attraction your whole life, at least Eren was. Was it not the case for you?”

“What?”

“You speak as if it is a matter of experience.” After a beat of silence, she asked again, “So, did it manage to prove to you that you were better off alone in the first place?”

I smiled. “No.”

We’d travelled for about three hours when strange noises began surrounding us. A screech made our head swivel all around though nothing was visible through the thicket of magic.

Caiden shot a hand forward, a blast of wind sending a massive, feather, bat-like creature back into the mist. The wind also disturbed the ashy mist, faint traces of light filtering through. Soon enough we had reached the source. Not a natural one. A beacon of fire was mounted on a tall wooden staff propelling the mist away that had created a dome of protection from the magic of terror. A few metres away stood a bungalow with a wooden fence around it and a few strips of land planted with all sorts of vegetables and fruit.

As I had thought.

We dismounted Memphis who shortly morphed onto her slithery form and wrapped around Snow’s neck, hissing protectively around her.

“Magic,” Snow said, lifting her palm to the fire.

“Seraphim fire,” I explained, pulling her hand down before she burned herself. Unburning fire. “That’s how they’ve kept him alive.” Adan’s fire fuelled on the spiritual and this dark hole was stuffed with mana of the dark. It would burn till the forever and keep everything in its light’s reach alive.

An arrow hit the staff and we all spun in the shooter’s direction.

Cai shot his hand forward, a thin shield of air forming over us in protection.

The figure ahead was something between a man and a beast. Peppery grey hair long to his back, with a beard to match, the tall man breathed hard and angry as he mounted another arrow in his bow—ruby eyes bearing aim on Snow. “You are trespassing,” he slurred in a gravelly voice, almost as if he had not spoken for a while.

“How can visitors be trespassing?” Snow asked, stepping closer and through the shield protecting us despite the vibration of the string being pulled to her aim. Considering the sharp whistle of his magic breaking the stuffy air, that bow was the last thing Snow had to worry about.

He grunted. “I haven’t seen a single soul in two hundred years.”

Giving him a beaming grin, she began getting closer and closer to him. This woman. This mad and maddening woman. “Your lucky day then, Oryn.”

Oryn’s forehead pursed in wrinkles of confusion. His bow lowered an inch and he asked, “Who are you?”

“Snowlin Edlynne Skygard, granddaughter of King Jonah Ren Skygard, heir of skies and thunder, and first Elding Queen of Olympia. Ah,” she paused and then pointed a hand in my direction. “And that’s Cai, Mal and Henrik.”

It was not the time to smile, but I couldn’t help it.

He lowered his bow and stared wide eyed at my wife. “Yellow eyes, your magic scent is of pine and hoarfrost—Verglaser magic,” he said and then gradually frowned. “Metal and cool rain too. Elding.” When realisation set in, his eyes doubled in size. “You’re an Ybris.”

Snow sighed. “Where have the ‘how are you?’ and the ‘fancy to meet you’ gone in this day and age?”

Suddenly, he dropped his weapon and reached Snow, taking her hand and shoving her sleeves up. “How? It is impossible.”

Mal, Caiden and I all jumped forward pulling her to safety while I grabbed and pushed him off her. “Careful there.”

He stared between the four of us. “How do you…control it?”

“Same as you, I suppose,” Snow said, righting her sleeves and pointing to his scarred hands coated in black spidery veins. “Is that why they banished you? Because you and I are the same?”

Mal shot me a look of disbelief. What? Oryn was an Ybris? No, there was no documentation or proof written about him anywhere. No, this couldn’t have been why.

The odd man shook his head. “No, they banished me because I found a way for us to co-exist. It seems the realm has come to terms with us, that I am glad for.”

Caiden snorted. “Don’t be too glad.”

“They have not,” Snow told him. “The seal has helped me hide more than help me control my magic.”

Oryn frowned and then looked at me. “And why are you here, Your Majesty?”