"Stupid Draven… he only picks on you because he feels superior!"
The beautiful young woman's voice trembled with barely contained fury as her eyes, molten gold ringed in dawn-pink, raked over the bruises blooming across Ash's face. "If I had finished my training earlier, I would have protected you, Ashy…"
Nia Solace's delicate fingers tightened into fists, knuckles whitening. Mana flared around her like a sunrise given flesh, hot and radiant and terrifying all at once. She channeled a thread of that power into the rose-gold ring on her right hand; in a blink, an ornate crystal vial appeared between her fingers, three tiny pills glowing like captured stars inside.
"Here, take these. You'll be fine in no time."
Before he could protest, she slipped the pills past his swollen lips. The moment they touched his tongue they dissolved into liquid sunlight, flooding his veins with warmth that tasted like summer mornings and smelled faintly of moon-lilies. Pain ebbed away in waves; cracked ribs knit, split skin sealed, black eyes faded to flawless porcelain. In less than a minute the beating might as well have never happened.
All the while, Ash's mind raced.
'So, this is Nia Solace…'
The girl clinging to him now was petite perfection: long black hair cascading like midnight silk shot through with streaks of pure starlight-white, framing a face so regal it made the other beauties of this mana-rich world look ordinary. In the novel, during Kale Voss's conquest arc, she had been the only one who ever tried to shield the original Ash. She had fought, begged, and ultimately bargained her own body and future just to keep her useless brother breathing.
And the protagonist had lied. The same night he promised Ash's life, he took her, only for Ash to be killed at dawn anyway.
Ash felt something twist in his chest, gratitude, rage, and a cold, calculating hunger all at once.
'At least someone's on my side.'
He stood, rolling shoulders that no longer ached, and finally spoke.
"Nia… it's fine. Draven always throws his weight around. I'm used to it now."
He walked toward the tall mirror mounted on the training-ground wall, each step surer than the last.
The reflection that greeted him stole the breath he hadn't realized he was holding. Short, messy black hair threaded with the same white streaks as Nia's. Skin that caught the violet daylight and turned it into soft gold. Eyes a dull, smoldering amber that looked one spark away from blazing. Five-foot-ten and still growing, but painfully thin, ribs visible beneath the training tunic like the bars of a cage.
'Shit. If I look this good already… what happens when the bloodline awakens?'
Nia slipped up beside him, reflection smiling like a cat who'd stolen the cream. She locked her arm through his without asking and rested her head on his shoulder, silver-white strands spilling across his chest.
"Hehe, brother… don't we look good together?" she teased, voice honey over steel.
"Tsk. You better not let others hear that," he muttered, but inside he was grinning like a devil who'd just found the keys to paradise.
In this world incest wasn't taboo; ancient bloodlines demanded purity, and kingdoms married siblings the way Earth nobles once married cousins. Morality didn't enter into it. And right now, standing beside the one person who had ever bled for the original Ash, he made his choice.
'Once I fully accept my items… she will be my first bond.'
Nia pulled away just enough to step in front of him, blocking the mirror entirely. At five-foot-six she had to tilt her head back, but the look she gave him was anything but small.
"Brother… who cares about others?" Her pout lasted half a heartbeat. Then every trace of playfulness vanished.
Her golden eyes locked on his, shimmering with unshed tears.
"Promise me, Ashy. Promise me you will become stronger, by any means." Her voice cracked like thin ice over a volcano. "I can protect you when I'm here… but what happens when I'm not?"
Tears welled, bright as molten gold, and she swiped them away before they could fall. But she didn't look away. Not even for a second.
"Promise me!"
The desperation in that single word punched straight through his chest.
Ash's vision blurred, not from pain this time.
The world froze.
Wind stopped mid-breeze. Dust hung suspended like amber. Even Nia's next tear froze on her lash, a perfect liquid jewel.
And then reality cracked open.
When his vison returned, Ash no longer stood on the training field.