Ellie was used to waking carefully — as if the world might shatter again the moment her eyes opened.
But today… something inside her knew she could. That it was safe.
Veyr's voice echoed faintly in her memory — the last words she'd heard before sleep folded around her like warm dusk.
So she did the unthinkable.
She relaxed.
When her eyes finally fluttered open, she expected firelight flickering against the low roof of the hut, the smell of smoke in her hair, her own arm curled around the threadbare blanket.
Instead… she was being held.
Arms — strong, unfamiliar — were wrapped under her shoulders and knees, cradling her as if she weighed nothing at all. She should have panicked. Screamed. Fought.
But something… surrounded her.Invisible. Soft. Solid.Like a shield, except not made of wood or stone — but of pressure. Of warmth. As if the air itself had been told to keep her safe.
She blinked hard, slowly tilting her face up.
The boy — no, young man — who carried her looked perhaps four or five years older than Veyr. His hair was pale and wind-tousled, his eyes bright with something dangerously close to amusement. He didn't seem bothered by the smoke. Or the destruction. Or the fact that he was holding a stranger in the ruins of her home.
When he noticed her staring, he grinned. Actually grinned."Ah," he said. His voice sounded like sunlight. "Awake already? That was fast."
Ellie opened her mouth — didn't manage any words — and in that precise instant a blade exploded toward them from the doorway like a bolt of silver light.
She barely had time to register it before the young man tilted his wrist.Something flared — an outline, a shimmer — and the attack struck an invisible surface and ricocheted away, slamming into the wall with a violent crack.
Ellie's heart lurched.
"Veyr!" she gasped.
He stood in the doorway, both blades drawn, eyes burning like coals. There was bloodless dust on his coat and destruction behind him. The young man didn't seem surprised — or threatened — by the attack. If anything, he looked… delighted.
"Come on now," he laughed. "That's your greeting after I just saved your little sister's life?"
Veyr didn't answer. He was already moving — faster than Ellie had ever seen him. A blur.
A second strike. Then a third. Each one faster, sharper, aimed not to warn but to kill. The young man avoided them not with technique — but with ease. Tilting his head, leaning just out of reach, parrying without steel.
"Relax," he chuckled, stepping back only when necessary. The invisible shield flickered around Ellie again as he shifted her effortlessly to one arm, watching Veyr's movement with bright, curious eyes. "I didn't touch her. Well — I mean — technically I am touching her, but only in the life-saving, heroic sort of way—"
Veyr's blade missed his throat by a hair.
The stranger didn't even blink.
Veyr's mind assessed faster than his muscles moved:He wasn't trying to harm Ellie, even though he had every chance.And more importantly —
— even at full force, Veyr could not win this fight.
Not against him.
The recognition flooded his nerves like icewater, sharp and metallic. His instincts screamed withdraw. His pride snarled strike again. He ignored them both — stepping forward anyway, slower now, blades ready, eyes studying every detail as if the fight had only just begun.
"That's impressive," the young man chuckled mid-slip, voice light and lazy, "the way you assess a situation even while attacking. Smart. Very smart."
Veyr's expression didn't change. His eyes remained solid stone. His voice, when it came, carried blades sharper than the ones in his hands.
"Touch her again, and I will see how many pieces you can break into before you pull yourself back together."
The young man hummed, almost pleased — like that threat was the response he'd been hoping for.
Ellie finally found her voice. "Veyr, stop! He— he protected me!"
For a single heartbeat, the clearing froze.
Veyr's chest rose slowly. He didn't lower his blades. But he didn't swing either.
"Put her down," he said.
The young man raised his brows, almost in mock disappointment, and looked between the two of them. "So dramatic. You two really are interesting…"
He gently set Ellie on her feet. The invisible warmth vanished the moment he withdrew his arm — leaving her strangely cold and exposed.
"There," he said brightly. "Down she goes. Happy now?"
Veyr didn't move.
The young man kept smiling.