Astelion POV
I didn't land softly. I hit the stone streets of Rakon's lower market like a fallen star, the impact vibrating straight up my spine.
Gasps rippled outward instantly through the crowded stalls. I pushed myself up from my knees, the damp morning mist clinging to my skin. I didn't have a cloak, armor, or a disguise to shield me from the staring eyes of a world fifty years younger than the one I left. There was only my silk gown luminous lavender fabric that clung far too closely, shimmering like liquid light with sheer sleeves trailing behind my arms. A sharp slit along my thigh exposed bare skin against the rough stone.
But it was my hair causing the real panic. White. A brilliant, blinding white.
Then, someone in the crowd whispered, "Look at the ends..."
The tips of my white strands were stained a soft crimson, deepening like embers caught in fresh snow.
People backed away into the shadows, muttering prayers. Then they noticed my ears long, sharp, unhuman. And my eyes. One silver, one violet.
Panic flared in my chest. I didn't think, I reacted on pure survival instinct.
"Osoch veim volema ota kove avw esie ryios ve Nhronos temi kmio!" (Heed my will. I call upon you, master of time—stand still.)
The world snapped into an absolute, suffocating silence. A coin froze mid-air. A bird hovered inches above a grain cart.
My mind was a chaotic of confusion. It actually worked? I had no real idea how I had survived the jump, or how my power had managed to drag me backward through the fabric of time. The sheer reality of standing here made my head spin, but I couldn't afford to faint.
"Okay. Let's fix this."
I closed my eyes, focusing inward. Shapeshifting wasn't an illusion, it was a brutal, physical restructuring. My scalp burned first as the brilliant white dissolved strand by strand, a rich, dark pigment bleeding downward until black spilled past my shoulders. The red in my hair resisted, fighting to keep its color, but I forced it down. Not today.
My vision shimmered next, silver and violet drowning into a deep, unthreatening brown. Finally, my ears pulled inward, the cartilage reshaping itself with a sharp, sickening internal pressure that made me wince.
When I opened my eyes and looked at my reflection in a frozen shop window, I looked soft. Dark hair, warm brown eyes, and a dusting of freckles across my nose.
"Vaa," I whispered. I lifted my chin to face the frozen sky. "Return what was stolen."
Time crashed back into motion, the ambient noise slamming into my ears like a physical wave. Confusion rippled through the crowd. The heavy thud of military boots struck the stone behind me.
I didn't run. I turned around slowly, steadying my hands, and found myself staring up. And up. And up.
Two guards stood there, weapons drawn, flanking a mountain of a man. He stood at a staggering 6'9", towering over my tiny 5'0" frame. He was young maybe twenty-four with ink-black hair and striking, razor-sharp blue eyes. He wore a uniform different from the others, that had a gold dragon wrapped around the chest to the sleeves, he had to be the Captain.
My breath hitched. I was twenty years old, small enough to be completely swallowed by his shadow, but my posture didn't break. I hadn't known what to expect upon arrival, but I certainly hadn't expected him. He was a complete ghost to me, an imposing variable standing right in the path of my mission.
"Who are you?" He asked. His deep voice carried a natural, commanding resonance that rattled in my chest. His hand rested on the hilt of his blade, his blue eyes narrowing to track the line of my neck down to the exposed skin of my thigh.
"I'm... Astelion."
One of the guards frowned,"that's a very unusual name"
"Be quiet ," the captain said, lifting a single hand to silence his subordinate without ever breaking eye contact with me. His gaze was heavy, laced with an intense, unreadable suspicion that felt entirely too heavy, entirely too intimate. "You weren't standing here a moment ago."
My lips curved into a slight, defensive smile, refusing to let the massive height difference make me look weak. "I've been here the whole time."
He took a step closer, his massive frame completely eclipsing the sun above me. The sheer heat radiating off him was annoying. Without warning, he reached out and grabbed my shoulder a firm, testing grip meant to break my posture.
I reacted on pure combat instinct, rotating into his guard. My fingers snapped around his heavy wrist like a vise. My foot slid perfectly between his ankles, disrupting his stance. Even with the near two-foot height difference, I dropped my center of gravity, using his own forward momentum against him, twisted my hips with flawless leverage, and threw him.
The moment his boots left the stone, he twisted mid-air, absorbing the shock, and landed in a low crouch several paces away. He rose back up to his towering height, his sharp blue eyes locked onto me, flashing with a dangerous, dark curiosity.
"Well," he said quietly, his voice dropped . "That was unexpected."
The guards surged forward, taking his movement as a cue.
The first guard raised a heavy broadsword, frost bursting across the steel. The second guard took a single step, his form splitting into three identical copies, swords drawn to surround me.
I didn't panic. This was child's play for me.
As the frost-guard swung his freezing blade toward my chest, I stepped aside at the last second. The icy sword stopped inches from my chest held back by a dense, invisible barrier of my compressed air.
I lifted my hand slowly. My telekinesis tightened around his torso like a giant's fist. His bones creaked, his feet left the ground, and with a flick of my wrist, I sent him flying backward, smashing into a heavy wooden produce stall.
The three clones of the second guard charged simultaneously. I ducked beneath the first swing, rolled across the cobblestones, and came up deep inside their defensive reach.
I slammed my palms outward, releasing a massive wave of telekinetic force. The kinetic blast hit the clones head-on, and two of them instantly dissolved into thin air like popped bubbles. The final, real guard staggered back. Before he could recover, I focused my mental grip directly onto his shoulders, bringing down a crushing weight that pinned him to the floor until the stone spiderwebbed beneath him.
An absolute silence fell over the market. I stepped back, my chest heaving, the sheer adrenaline making my skin flush.
The black-haired captain exhaled slowly, stepping over his fractured guards. He wasn't moving to attack. Instead, he stalked back over to me, stopping so close his chest nearly brushed against mine. He stared down at me.
His gaze slowed, tracking the rapid rise and fall of my breath. The air between us felt thick, charged with a sudden, suffocating friction. I hated how easily he pinned me with his eyes. I hated that I could feel the microscopic vibrations of his heartbeat.
"There are only two Astrolings in this entire world who can use telekinesis with that specific structural density," he said, his voice dropping into a dangerous whisper that felt like a physical touch against my skin.
I kept my face completely neutral, though my blood ran hot. He can use it too? "And who are they?"
"Myself." The captain leaned down slightly, his face inches from mine, his blue eyes boring into me as if trying to rip the secrets straight out of my head. "And the King."
Silence stretched between us, heavy, loaded, and entirely too close. I could smell the leather and crisp winter air on his uniform. He searched my face, looking for a crack in my composure.
"The world skipped just now," he murmured, his eyes dropping briefly to my lips before snapping back to my stare. He rubbed his temples, frustrated by whatever phantom sensation was lingering in his bones.
My smile didn't falter, though the proximity was infuriating. "I don't know what you mean, Captain...?"
He held my gaze for a long, agonizing moment, the irritation of not knowing making a muscle twitch in his jaw. Finally, he stepped aside, though his arm brushed against mine a deliberate, lingering scrape of fabric that sent an unwelcome jolt straight down my spine.
"Kiono," he finally said. "Captain of the Royal Guard. And if someone more dangerous senses whatever anomaly you're hiding, girl... you won't survive the day."
"And what about you?" I asked, tilting my head far back to meet his gaze, letting my eyes flash with all the defiance I had. "Are you dangerous, Captain Kiono?"
Kiono looked down at me, a dark, dangerous smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth. "I am the enforcer of the King's peace," he replied coldly, his eyes lingering on the slit of my gown one last time before he turned his back. "Follow me. Before I decide to let the executioner figure out exactly what you're hiding under that silk."
I gritted my teeth, a dangerous spark of pure irritation. Without a choice, I followed this massive, infuriating self into the upper districts.
And far above the city, somewhere deep inside the high towers of the royal palace,I could feel of thread of raw power shifting. He already knew I was here.