While the four heirs were talking, another presence approached from behind them, light steps, confident but unhurried.
A girl with cropped brown hair and a mischievous smirk approached, amber eyes alight with challenge, a sharp contrast to the composed airs of the heirs before her.
Her frame was slender, almost delicate at first glance, but there was a quiet strength in the way she moved, the kind born from long hours of training rather than formal instruction. A finely crafted bow rested across her shoulder, and a quiver of arrows hung neatly at her waist.
This was Raina Graven, one of the few commoners chosen to attend the Royal Academy. She was fourteen years of age and used a weapon that most aura users wouldn't use, a bow and arrow.
Still, her talent with it was incredible. It was a talent so rare that even the instructors whispered she could shoot an apple off a hawk's claw mid-flight.
She stopped a few steps away, planting a hand on her hip.
