Sold To The Cruel Prince

Chapter 176: Who Is She?

Aelion’s expression changed at once, the lightness gone from his face and replaced by a seriousness that sharpened every line of him.

"One of the monsters escaped," he said, "and the archduke is the one trying to trap it again. His wife fell and hit her head, and she has been unconscious since then, yet this man has not left the Arcanum."

Aveline let out a slow breath, more thoughtful than startled. "Does he know his wife is unconscious?" she asked. "Did anyone tell him?"

Aelion blinked, then looked away for the briefest moment, as though she had touched on something he would rather not consider too closely. "He would know if he went home like everyone else," he said at last.

That made sense, at least on the surface. Aveline accepted it with a small nod, though her mind did not quite let the matter rest.

If the rumors were true, and if Lucien kept saying that name "Leveret" as if it meant his world, then what exactly was going on between him and his wife? Did he truly care so little for the woman he had married? Was the only person he had ever loved this "Leveret" he seemed unable to forget?

The thought sat uneasily in her chest.

"There is a fight going on," Aelion added. "The creature appears to be doing surprisingly well against the Archduke’s attacks." freewebnovel.cσ๓

"A fight?" Aveline repeated, her curiosity immediately rising again.

She could see the shadows around him shifting as if they, too, were waiting for her reaction. His nose was still red from the cold, and his throat sounded rough whenever he spoke, yet there was a strange gleam in his eyes that warned her he was not simply passing along information.

He knew what she had done to Noctyrr. He was probably baiting her, watching to see whether she would take the chance to rush off and interfere.

"Why are you not helping?" she asked, narrowing her eyes. "You could earn a few points with the old man if you used that flashy lightning of yours."

Aelion coughed again, then gave her a look that was almost offended. "I cannot make lightning when I am sick."

Aveline stared. "Why?"

He started walking, and because she was curious by nature and incapable of leaving a mystery alone, she immediately fell into step beside him.

"Well," he said, "unlike most forms of bending, fire and lightning are drawn from within us. Shadow bending is different. Air is everywhere, and one simply shapes what already exists. But fire and lightning come from the body itself. We create them from our own heat, from the responses inside us."

Aveline nodded slowly, though most of the technical part sailed clean over her head. Synapses or something like that, he had said. She did not fully understand it, but she understood enough to be impressed. Lightning really did come from nowhere, or at least from somewhere far more complicated than she had ever thought about.

"If our bodies are not in good condition, we cannot create fire or lightning the way we normally would," Aelion continued. "And when I am sick, I am not at my best. I cannot bend as I usually do."

Aveline hummed thoughtfully. "No wonder that old man keeps telling me things like, ’A sound mind in a sound body,’ and making me do all those strange exercises."

Every morning, the moment Lucien saw her, he made her train with him. Breathing exercises. Stance work. Odd little movements that felt meaningless at the time and sometimes terribly boring.

She had never noticed any dramatic improvement in her health, but she did them anyway, because only then did he let her play with the stones. That alone had been enough incentive.

Then a thought occurred to her, innocent enough in her mind, though it made Aelion’s face shift in a very particular way.

"So," she asked, tilting her head, "could you take away a fire or lightning bender’s bending if you made them sick?" ƒrēewebnovel.com

The question had come to her naturally, almost casually, but Aelion looked at her as though she had just confessed to a minor crime.

Aveline pouted. "What? I was just asking. It is not as though I am the only person who would think of that."

Aelion exhaled through his nose and kept walking. "Bending is part of one’s identity. Taking it away from someone is akin to taking away their soul, and it is forbidden," he put enough space between them cautiously. "I should remember not to eat anything you give me."

Despite his words, his hands had already curled into tight fists.

Lucien was teaching her stances and breathing exercises.

That meant he thought she was a fire bender.

Aelion frowned at the thought, confusion and urgency tightening together in his chest. How could that be? He had seen her shadow bend. No one bent more than one element. Even lightning benders and fire benders, though tied together by principle, could not easily cross into one another’s domain. It should have been impossible.

And yet...

Something clicked.

Aelion’s eyes widened slightly.

His fists clenched harder.

Could she be...?

The idea struck with enough force that he slowed for half a step, then recovered almost at once. Whatever he had just realized, it was important. And whatever answer he needed, he knew he would have to hear it soon.

-----

Behind the heavy drapes that framed the palace balcony, the noise of the crowd below rose in waves, a living roar of cheers, applause, and celebration that seemed to tremble through the stone itself.

The King stood just beyond the curtain, calm on the surface, while one of his attendants carefully adjusted the fall of his cloak and made certain every fold sat exactly where it should before he stepped out to face the people.

When the attendant withdrew, the King turned his head slightly and looked at Edric, who stood beside him with the rigid stillness of a man who had learned how to hide alarm behind discipline.

"I met her today," the King said.

Edric’s heart gave a hard, sudden jump.

For a moment, the world seemed to narrow to those four words alone.

Was it possible? Had she been found already? Had all the searching, the suspicion, the scattered threads that had been tightening around this day finally reached their end?