"That woman is unbelievably strong," Cassian whistled as he placed his hands on his hips. "I'm glad we didn't have to fight her."
Hayden was just as blown away as his brother was, but he had other priorities. "Aunt Niveria, what was that about? How do you know Pyra?"
Niveria faced her nephew with a darkened expression. "I don't know which to be more upset about; the fact that you had your first Council meeting without me, or that you even held it in the first place."
Hayden frowned. "It's as I said, Aunt. I sent for you, but you were nowhere to be found. And are you saying I shouldn't have assembled the Council?"
"That is precisely what I'm implying, Hayden. Now the entire kingdom knows what she's here for. Especially with the little display she made."
"Little?" Cassian asked, still perplexed. "She beat twenty men without breaking a sweat. She wasn't even breathing hard! She looked like she could take on an army."
"Don't exaggerate, Cassian," Hayden's voice was tinged with envy. "She was impressive, but her luck would've run out against Flynn."
Niveria sighed. "The Lord Commander is the most skillful swordsman in Wysteria, granted. But even he would've lost to Pyra. Her abilities are too exceptional to be matched."
"Which leads us back to the same question, Aunt," Hayden folded his arms for good measure. "How do you know this woman?"
Niveria remained silent for a moment, then she walked over to the steps leading up to the throne and sat down gently.
"A very long time ago," she began in a tired voice, "I was part of an elite band of warriors known as the Hunters. In truth, we were bounty hunters who earned our fair share of profit from the kills we'd made. But it was a necessary evil, given that we were tasked with tracking down and slaying the deadliest monsters known to humanity."
"I've heard this story before," Hayden cut in. "Well, a part of it, at least. Father told me he was a Hunter as well, but I never imagined you were one of them."
"You knew about this?" Cassian demanded, wide eyed. "How do you people sleep while keeping secrets like this?"
Hayden immediately looked apologetic. "I only found out on the night of my coronation, brother. And with everything that happened afterwards, I haven't had the time to tell you. But I'm glad that we're all having this conversation right now."
Both brothers turned to Niveria, waiting for her to proceed. She, in turn, averted her eyes from their questioning faces and stared at the ground instead.
"There were only a handful of us; seven to be exact," she continued. "We spread out across the continent of Solon, with each of us going in a different direction from the others. Regardless, I kept in touch with your father through a state called dream walking."
"Dream walking?" Cassian interrupted. "Is that what I think it is?"
"It would be much appreciated if you just let me finish."
"My apologies. Please carry on."
Niveria sighed again. "Yes, the name is exactly what it implies. Using a special potion, your dreams will connect with another's, and you can leave messages or communicate with them directly. But only if they use the same potion as well."
"So that's how you and Father communicated even when several leagues apart," Hayden concluded.
"Yes. It was how I knew he'd found his way to this enormous island in the center of Solon that bore two nations: Thaliban in the north, and Wysteria in the south. It's also how he contacted Pyra on the night before he died."
"So Pyra is part of this Hunter group," said Cassian, scratching his chin thoughtfully. "I don't suppose she's the strongest amongst you, is she?"
"Each of us has our own strengths and capabilities," Niveria answered. "Pyra's ability to control and manipulate fire makes her a formidable force, but we were all equally powerful in our different ways."
"What were Father's powers like?" Hayden suddenly inquired.
Niveria wore a small smile. "Your father had the strength of a thousand men. With his giant build and unnatural stamina, he could take on an army of monsters on his own, he and that oversized axe of his."
"That's it? Brute strength?" Cassian sounded disappointed. "Pyra instantaneously molds any weapon of her choice purely from scorching flames. How's being strong as a hundred oxen going to defeat that?"
Niveria's blue eyes twinkled. "Believe it or not, nephew, your father actually beat Pyra in a duel. She blamed it on fatigue, but we all know Hunters don't get tired. Baustas was just better skilled."
"Oh," Cassian uttered humbly.
"Then this means you have abilities of your own, Aunt," Hayden pointed out. "Surely you'd be gracious enough to tell us what they are."
Niveria stayed quiet for an instant, her face suddenly appearing pale. A few uncomfortable moments later, just as Hayden was about to tell her to let it be, she lowered her hand until her fingers touched the ground. Then, a thin sheet of ice gradually spread across the granite floor, seemingly originating from her fingertips. Stunned to silence, Hayden watched as the transparent frost fully covered the steps Niveria sat on, just stopping at his feet.
"Ice?" Hayden finally managed.
As an answer, Niveria raised her hand high enough for both men to see. Then, a sword made entirely out of sturdy, opaque ice materialized from thin air, suddenly in her grasp.
"I think I understand why you and Pyra hate each other," Cassian stated, wide-eyed.
"Indeed," agreed Hayden, equally wide-eyed. "Fire and ice."
Niveria laughed. "It's called cryomancy; a special kind of magic that allows me to control and manipulate ice into any form or shape I want. It's rather similar to Pyra's pyromancy."
"Incredible," Cassian remarked. "Were you always born like this?"
"No," Niveria replied as the weapon vanished as quickly as it appeared. "We were all given gifts to aid us in our battle against the spawns of darkness."
"Given gifts? By whom?"
Niveria rose to her feet. "That's a tale for another day. Right now, the most important thing is letting Pyra accomplish her task, which would've been a lot easier if no one knew about her presence."
"Do you think the Council, or anyone else for that matter, would want to hinder her work?" Hayden inquired.
"Not that they'd be able to," Niveria admitted. "But Hunters work best under the cover of secrecy. Panic and terror come in when people are involved, which inevitably leads to chaos, and that creates an uneasy situation for the Hunter. Nevertheless, I'll see to it that Pyra completes her task undisturbed."
She walked up to her nephews, cupping their cheeks with her hands. "The stories you heard as children weren't mere fables or bedtime allegories. They are as real as the air we breathe. Monsters exist, my boys, even more abundantly than the rest of us. Thankfully, so do Hunters."
Niveria examined both men for a moment longer, then she made her way towards the doors. Hayden, burdened with an important question, suddenly pivoted on his heel. "And our mother? Was she a Hunter as well?"
Niveria froze immediately, just less than a foot from her exit. Hayden could hear her take a deep breath, and he knew he'd knocked at a door she wasn't ready to open.
"No," she replied quietly without looking back. "Elyna wasn't a Hunter. She was something much worse."
With that, she hurried out, leaving the brothers with more questions than answers.