Gilded Ashes: When Shadows Reign

Raizen didn't breathe for a moment.

Elin.

Sky Sovereign.

The words hung between them, heavier than the stone under his boots.

He searched her face, waiting for something else. A joke. A correction. Some sign that she was messing with him. Anything that could put him at ease.

Nothing came.

Her eyes stayed steady. A little amused. Very serious underneath.

His mind threw images at him.

The ruined plaque in the Sky Domain. Claw marks tearing through frame and wall. Atman's stories, his tone when he had said her name - half respect, half warning.

Do not attempt to reconstruct the pattern.

And now she was literally just standing here, hair and clothes still dripping from the waterfall, barefoot on a dragon platform, talking to him like they had met at a tea stall.

Words tried to line up.

None of them made it out of his mouth.

She watched him, head tilted slightly.

"You look like someone just threw up!" she joyfully said. "You alright there?"

Raizen blinked.

"I…" He swallowed. "You are Elin!?"

"Yes" she simply answered.

"Sky Sovereign" he added, because his brain was still catching up.

She dipped her head a little, almost like a mock bow.

"That too."

Silence stretched.

He broke it with the first thing that rose.

"Why?"

Her eyebrow lifted. "Why what?"

He gestured around them with one hand, then at the dragon, then back at her.

"Why all of this? Why that cut on the beast? Why not just talk to me at Ukai like a normal person?"

Elin stared at him.

Then she laughed.

It was not a polite chuckle. It was a real laugh - sudden, sharp, bright. She bent forward, hand on her stomach for a second, shoulders shaking.

"You…" She tried to catch her breath. "You jumped out of a window for that?"

Heat hit his face.

"I jumped because you saved me" Raizen shot back. "I needed to know how. And why."

"Mm hm" she said, still grinning. "You chased a stranger across one of the strangest academies on the continent, sprinted up four floors, ignored every alarm and instructor, then threw yourself into the sky so hard you almost died, because you wanted answers!?"

She straightened, wiping the corner of one eye.

"That is insane. I mean... Sounds an awful ton like you, to be honest..."

Raizen's ears burned.

"I acted on instinct" he muttered. "It was… a moment."

"You acted on impulse. And that was a long moment" she said. "With a lot of very questionable choices inside it."

He opened his mouth, then shut it again.

She watched him state at her in silence for a second, then sighed, the laughter melting into something softer.

"Relax" she said. "I am not angry."

"You called me a creep."

"You are a little creepy" she said, deadpan. "But in a dedicated kind of way. I like that"

He gave her a flat look.

Her smile widened, then faded enough for something else to seep in.

"But you are honest" she added. "You did not say you jumped for glory. Or because you thought you could kill that beast better than anyone else. You just said you... Wanted to know why and how. Very stupid, but honest, I guess..."

Her gaze slid past him, toward the waterfall.

"You want reasons" she went on. "Good. You are going to need them."

Raizen frowned.

Before he could ask, she lifted a hand, palm out.

"Two things first."

Her voice dropped a little.

"One" she said. "You do not tell anyone about this place."

He had expected conditions.

The way she said it still made something in his chest tighten.

"No one" she repeated. "Not your teachers. Not your team. Not that girl with the staff who looks at you like you are the only sane person in the world. Not your precious council or ruler. No one."

Raizen met her gaze.

"What happens if I do?"

Her eyes did not move.

"If you do, I'll..." she started, then sat there, trying to tie more words together.

"Then... What?"

"Well... Hmm... Things become very bad, very fast, for everyone who lives here."

She let that sink in for a beat.

Then she added, almost cutely, "And for you. Especially for you."

He waited for her to finish the threat.

She didn't.

The words just hung there, unfinished, somehow worse than a specific promise.

He tightened his jaw.

"I will not tell anyone" he said. "You have my word."

Elin studied him for a heartbeat longer, then nodded once.

"Good enough for now."

She rolled her shoulders, as if shaking off the weight. "Second thing."

He raised an eyebrow.

She pointed a thumb toward the waterfall and the world outside.

"What happened with that beast?" she said. "If anyone asks, you killed it. You were brilliant. You were terrifying. You were a little dramatic. Take your pick. But I wasn't there. At all. You didn't even know of my existence."

Raizen stared at her.

"But you did kill it."

"I finished something that shouldn't have happened" she replied. "Not the same thing."

"Then why hide it?" he pressed. "You are a Sovereign. You are… This!"

He gestured again at the cave, the dragon, the fireflies, the impossible calm.

"Why are you invisible in your own city?"

The dragon huffed behind them, as if it did not care about politics. One of the weird animals on a lower disc yawned.

Elin looked out over her cave for a long second.

"Ukai is not my city. When I moved here" she said, "I didn't really want to be invisible."

She nodded toward the river.

"I also didn't really want to build all of this."

Raizen waited.

She flicked him a glance, seeing the questions stacking up in his eyes.

"So, you want the story, I assume"

"Yes." Raizen answered, still looking at her.

She shook her head slightly.

"Ehh... Too early" she decided. "Before I tell you why Ukai and I hate each other, you need to see what I am protecting."

"Huh...?"

"It's always the "what" before the "why". Remember that."

She turned away from him and started walking toward the far side of the platform.

"Come on."

Raizen followed.

They crossed the stone disc, passing under a hanging hammock that swayed gently. A small rodent - or something like a rodent with long, feathery ears - poked its head out of a basket and watched them pass, unbothered.

Elin stepped onto a carved stone ledge that sloped downward toward the cave wall. Raizen kept pace, eyes tracing the space again from a new angle.

From here, he saw things he had missed.

Two small lizard-like creatures sharing a bowl of fruit near the water. A bird teaching three smaller birds how to leap from one rock to another without touching the river. A plant that glowed brighter whenever one of the moss-boars brushed past it.

"Did you make all of them?" Raizen asked quietly.

"Stop trying, I won't answer any of your questions! Maybe, afterwards. Maybe."

He opened his mouth.

She cut him off with a flick of her fingers.

"Later" she said. "Now walk."

They descended via a narrow set of steps carved into the rock. A fox-deer lifted its head as they passed, sniffed in their direction, then relaxed when it saw Elin.

She clicked her tongue once.

The animal's ears twitched. It pushed itself to its feet, shook out its fur and trotted toward the upper platforms, as if obeying a small, silent request.

"You control them" Raizen whispered.