The coin y between them like a cursed relic, half-sunken in the snow.

  Narvia’s cheerful smile no longer reached her eyes. Instead, it was a cold and calcuting one. Far from the traveler Edur thought he knew.

  Brielle still hadn’t spoken. But her fingers drifted near her hip, and from beneath her cloak, she slowly unsheathed a heavy falchion.

  “You heard me.” Vannie warned, dagger forward, voice steady and low. “Take your coin and leave.”

  Narvia gave a soft, dismissive ugh.

  Then Brielle finally spoke, her voice calm and cold.

  “He will be taken care of. If we wanted him harmed, he’d be dead already. Step aside if you don’t want to get killed.”

  “I’d like to see you try,” Vannie replied without blinking.

  “You think some old rite still binds people?” she hissed, stepping protectively in front of Edur. “That a rusted custom gives you rights over him? He’s not a war prisoner, it doesn’t apply”

  Narvia’s smile was quiet and certain. “Customs endure for a reason.”

  “He touched it,” Brielle added simply. “He accepted the coin.”

  Edur’s voice was almost a whisper. “What does that mean?”

  “It means,” Vannie growled, “that by old custom, you just offered yourself as a sve.”

  Edur blinked. “I—I didn’t know—”

  “You don’t need to,” Narvia said, voice sweet as poison. “Your hand reached for the coin. That’s all the Chains need.”

  Edur? A sve? The youth was more and more confused by the current predicament.

  “No,” Vannie snapped. “He’s a boy. He didn’t know the meaning. That makes it invalid—”

  “Not to us.”

  Vannie knew the rules, and how much they were twisted at the moment. Both parties must be consentant, but they threw the coin at him so he would reflexiley catch it. How did they know that Edur was unaware of the custom?

  “I see how it is. You’re just scumbags using this pathetic excuse of a custom to get new sves and run your business. Ain’t that right? Whether he caught it or not, you would’ve acted either way.” she spat, visible contempt in her voice.

  “I don’t care either way. You’re not getting this one. This is a human life, not a walking pouch of coins. Go fetch money somewhere else- I will not repeat myself.”

  Narvia sighed. “Alright. No more games, then. Things will have to go the hard way…” she shrugged. “Not that I expected otherwise-”

  In a fsh, Vannie lunged, dagger slicing toward Brielle in a fluid arc.

  Brielle caught it with a cng of steel, her falchion deflecting the blow. At the same time, Narvia uncoiled a metal chain from beneath her cloak and bolted towards Edur.

  Vannie tried to interpose, but her opponent didn’t allow her a moment of respite.

  “Edur, run!” she cried

  Edur, still frozen in pce, rose from his torpeur at her shout, and turned around to flee. However, he barely took a few strides before she was already upon him.

  He was tackled to the ground, struggling and trying to push her off.

  She violently grabbed his wrist, pressed them against his back and restrained him, setting the shackles around them and effectively and with practiced ease.

  “You’ll fetch a nice price, little one. Don’t resist further, it’s futile” She murmured once she had him completely pinned to the ground, unable to free himself.

  “Let go of me!”

  “Let go of him!”

  Both Edur and Vannie shouted simultaneously.

  The tter miraculously managed to nd a kick in the tall woman’s stomach, giving her the moment she needed to come to Edur’s rescue.

  She dashed towards Edur in order to rescue him.

  Narvia stood up, maintaining a leg on Edur, preventing him from standing up.

  But before Edur could try to, he heard it—

  A sharp crack, followed by a scream.

  He turned his head, the rough ground bruising his face.

  Vannie was on one knee, hand clutching her skull. Blood spilled through her fingers, staining the snow at her feet.

  His breath caught.

  It was his fault.

  She was hurt—because of him.

  Something boiled inside him.

  Not rage. Not panic. Something quieter.

  Colder.

  Something in his mind clicked, the feeling akin to a lock being opened.

  Meanwhile, Narvia straightened herself, holding her whip, the tip slick with red.

  She was grinning as usual, a sadistic glee in her gaze.

  But then she froze.

  The boy beneath her… had stopped moving. She no longer felt him struggling.

  She gnced down.

  Her boot was still on his back—but now, ice crept up her leg, inching higher by the second. A biting, unnatural cold sank into her bones.

  She leapt back just in time—moments before the frost snapped upward, seeking her.

  The chains, binding Edur, encased in frost, shattered like gss.

  He stood up slowly, his breath fogging the air. His eyes—those strange, crimson eyes—were distant. Unfocused. Like someone sleepwalking through a storm.

  Narvia stumbled away, wide-eyed.

  “Sis… he’s an Elemental! We’ve struck gold!”

  But Edur didn’t even look at her.

  He walked forward—calm, quiet. The snow beneath his steps froze solid with every footfall.

  He knelt before Vannie, pcing a pale hand against her head.

  She flinched—but the cold freezing cold she expected never came.

  Instead, she felt a familiar warmth—his warmth. Healing light.

  The gash on her scalp closed. The pain ebbed. The blood stopped.

  Vannie looked up at him in stunned silence.

  Wind howled around them.

  Snow kicked into a frenzy, a storm circling the boy like a shield.

  Then, as she was about to stand up—

  Shhhk.

  A bde pressed against her neck.

  Brielle had slipped behind them, dragging Vannie to her feet and away with a knife to her throat.

  “Young man,” she said calmly.

  “Take another step… and I’ll slit her throat.”

  ***

  The bde pressed against Vannie’s neck.

  A single drop of blood welled beneath it.

  “Take another step,” Brielle warned again, “and I’ll open her throat.”

  Wind howled around them.

  Snow shed in frantic spirals, rising into a full-blown storm. Its origins unnatural and yet deeply resonating with nature, like old friends meeting after many years.

  The world was shrinking, wrapped in white, the edges of this small world delimited by the storm blurred by the bite of frost.

  Edur stood in its center. Still. Silent.

  His eyes—half-lidded, unfocused—drifted toward Vannie.

  Her face was pale, her hand and face still stained with her own blood. But her gaze remained locked on him—not with fear, but something far more painful.

  She shook her head, slowly.

  Don’t, it said.

  But Edur took a step forward.

  The wind stopped.

  All of it.

  The blizzard stilled, as if the world itself held its breath. Snowfkes hung in the air like suspended stars.

  His voice, when it came, was soft, melodious, enchanting... and absolute.

  “Let her go.”

  Brielle stiffened. What unnerved her wasn’t the stillness of the storm, each snowfke suspended through time and space. No

  It was the stillness of its center that made her more wary.

  “She’s not part of this,” Edur continued. “You came for me. Take me.”

  Narvia blinked. “What?”

  “I’ll go willingly,” he said, his tone devoid of anger. “Just don’t hurt her.”

  “You’re not serious—” Vannie rasped, struggling against the bde.

  “I am,” Edur replied, still not taking his eyes off her. “She has nothing to do with this. She protected me. I won’t let her bleed for it.”

  Something shifted in the air, and all the snowfkes were once again affected by the ws of gravity, falling slowly like a theater dropping its veils.

  Narvia spoke slowly, unused to such events. “You’ll come with us. No resistance. No more tricks.”

  “I will.” Edur confirmed, still in his somewhat trance-like state.

  “No running?”

  “No running.” He nodded again

  He raised his hands and took another step closer to them.

  The sisters exchanged a gnce. Brielle hesitated, then slowly pulled the bde away from Vannie’s throat and shoved her toward the ground.

  Vannie staggered and turned on him, eyes burning.

  “Don’t you dare—Edur, don’t you dare—”

  “I already did,” he said softly, as Narvia approached with the remaining chain.

  She took his wrists and shackled him a second time. This time, they didn’t break.

  The storm was gone.

  And was the chilling aura premating their surroundings.

  He turned to his companion. Vannie, whom he spent very pleasant days with, and almost made him forget the motif of their travel.

  “Vannie… Thank you for everything.” He smiled in a brief moment of crity, his eyes shining like never before.

  Edur colpsed, akin to a puppet cut of its strings.

  The sisters quickly caught him before he hit the ground, and Brielle set him over her shoulder.

  They both gnced at her, Narvia speaking up

  “You have no value whatsoever. We could sell you to a snobby old noble, but I don’t feel like it. Even we have some morals, we don’t sell women to be raped. Get lost before we change our minds and kill you on the spot.”

  And just like that, they left, taking away Edur with them.

  The only things that remained was Vannie, the coin and their camp, the image akin to a broken melody, torn from its ethereal weave.

  (I feel like I should’ve taken my time writing such an important part of the story. Let me know, future me. The current me is a fucking dumbass) - 22 avril 2025