Shortly after midnight, the military barracks of the Sky Duchy fell dead silent.
Step. Step.
I pressed my back against the cold stone wall, holding my breath. I was sneaking through the halls like a common thief. Why was I risking a trip to a dungeon in the middle of the night? To understand that, you need to know who I am.
My name is Loki Sky. I am a handsome lad of almost eighteen, standing at a proud five-foot-ten with bright red hair and vivid green eyes. My time training as a Vanguard Knight has given me a lean, athletic swimmer's body. But I have a secret. I am not just Loki. I also carry the memories of a past life on an unknown world called Earth, where my name was Luke Sky, and I grew up in San Diego, California.
I am not the only one. My half-brother, Thorin, started having these dreams of Earth when we were boys. In his past life, he was Bror Gunnar, a Swedish soldier who died in World War II. Because of our past lives, we grew up faster and wiser than other kids. We kept our memories a secret between us, assuming we were chosen for something great.
To prove our theory, we both developed incredible powers. Thorin excels at all three Knight Paths, which is unheard of. As for me? I have Aura, just like Thorin, but I also have magic in my blood. Most people and monsters only get one of the twelve elements. Thorin and I each have two. We call it our "gold-finger"—a cosmic cheat code.
My magic element is Air, and my Knight Aura uses the Life element. Right now, I can only train my Life Aura to the beginner stage of the First Circle.
You have to be eighteen to form a magic core in your heart. If you try it any sooner, your chest might literally explode.
But back to my mission tonight.
When I was eight years old, I met my distant cousin, Captain Shade Winter. She was forty-eight at the time, but because of her high-level magic, she looked like a beautiful twenty-year-old college student. The moment our eyes met, a strange, overwhelming feeling of love sparked between us.
Confused by my Earth memories and childhood impulses, I proudly declared to the entire family that I would marry her when I grew up.
Shade simply gave a slow nod with an emotionless face. I even wrote up a crude, childish marriage contract on a scrap of paper. My mother signed it,
Shade accepted it, and in the world of Myst, that made it legally binding.
You cannot get married until you turn eighteen. My birthday is just days away, which is why I am risking prison to steal that stupid contract back from that frozen woman before it is too late.
I looked down at the hand-drawn map Thorin made for me. Since he works as a squire for a Duchess Knight, he knows the layout of the three-story barracks. Getting past the base walls was easy. My father and Thorin were patrolling the perimeter, and my brother purposefully left a blind spot for me.
Breaking into the building was even easier. Back on Earth, I practiced Wing Chun and worked as an apprentice locksmith in high school. In a world like Myst, where mechanical locks are simple and dull, my Earth skills make me a master thief. I had crafted my own lock-picks out of copper wire. Even a Dwarf would praise my creativity.
The floors and walls were made of elegant stone, shaped by Earth and Metal magic. I had to be careful of magical wards, but my tools were strictly for mechanical locks.
Creak!
The heavy door at the end of the third-floor hallway swung open. I jumped backward, pressing myself into the shadow of a large grandfather clock.
A woman stepped into the corridor, moving with sharp, purposeful strides. It was Shade Winter herself. I chose midnight for the heist because her patrol shift started now, giving me the perfect window to search her room.
Shade is a cold, strict, and emotionless woman. That is the main reason I want out of this engagement. Her personality is heavily shaped by her Ice element magic, which makes users rigid and stoic. My Life and Air elements make me vibrant and freedom-loving, so we are total opposites.
Step. Step.
As she marched past my hiding spot, a faint scent drifted through the air. Apples. I love the smell of apples; I even tend to a small orchard back at my family home. Watching her walk away, I had to admit she was stunning. She stands at five-foot-seven with piercing blue eyes and long, snow-white hair tied into a neat ponytail. She wore the blue and white military uniform of the Sky Duchy, decorated with silver trim and medals of merit. My heart skipped a beat just looking at her. That cursed love-magic was still working on me.
I shook my head to clear my thoughts. The idea of a grown woman accepting a marriage proposal from an eight-year-old kid is completely wrong. I was sure she only kept the paper to avoid breaking a child's heart, and she had probably forgotten all about it anyway.
Once her boots clicked down the stairs, I slipped out from behind the clock and stopped at her door. The dark brown wood held a standard lock. I unrolled my black leather tool wrap, selected a tension wrench, and got to work.
Tic. Tic. Click!
The lock gave way instantly. I paused, checking for magical wards. Fortunately, her alarm was only set to detect foreign magical signatures. In Myst, only about two percent of women carry magic, and I am one of only four men in the entire world who has it. Shade's ward was designed to keep out other noble ladies, completely ignoring an Aura-using male intruder.
I slipped inside, quietly clicking the door shut behind me.
Her Captain’s quarters were simple and practical, measuring about twenty by twenty feet. The room held a single bed, a wardrobe, a desk, a chest of drawers, and a small private bathroom.
I rushed to the desk first, flipping through stacks of military documents. Nothing. I checked the wardrobe and the cabinets. Five minutes passed, and my panic started to grow. Finally, I turned to the chest of drawers.
I opened the bottom drawer and dug through the contents, pulling out a set of lacy, semi-see-through black underwear. My eyes went wide. This cold, proper military captain wore incredibly racy undergarments. But before I could ponder that mystery, I spotted something beneath the silk.
"Yes!" I whispered.
It was my old, tin candy box. I pried the lid open. Inside sat the crumpled piece of paper I had written ten years ago. A wave of relief washed over me. "I finally got it. Now she can find a man she actually likes, and I am free."
Click. Creak. Crack!
The temperature in the room plummeted below freezing. Heavy ice spread across the floor, crawling up the doorframe and sealing the exit in a thick, unbreakable wall of frost.
Like a character in an Earth horror movie, I slowly turned my head.
Shade stood in the center of the room. Her face was completely expressionless, but pale blue magical runes glowed brightly in her right palm.
"If you do not put that back exactly where you found it," she said, her voice smooth and chilling, "I will use an Ice Curse to frostbite your balls. You will never father a child in this life."
My body trembled. If she had been yelling in a rage, I wouldn't have been half as terrified. This calm, freezing threat was horrifying.
"C-Captain Winter!" I stammered, raising my hands. "I can explain! This is a huge misunderstanding. I just thought you were only keeping this old contract to be nice, and I didn't want to force you into anything..."
Shade cut me off, holding out her left hand. "Call me Shade. We are fiances, after all. Now, give it back."
I carefully placed the tin box into her palm. The glowing runes in her right hand faded away.
"Shade, can you please remove the ice wall so I can leave?" I asked.
She gripped the box tightly and shook her head. "Thieves do not use the door. They use the window." She pointed toward the glass overlooking the courtyard three stories below.
Before I could protest, she reached into her open drawer and tossed something soft at my chest. "You cannot leave empty-handed. Take a trophy for your hard work. Now, go."
I looked down at the object in my hand. It was the pair of black lacy panties. She didn't even blush as she handed them over. I quickly stuffed them into my pocket and scrambled out the window.
As I grabbed the ledge to climb down the stone wall, her flat voice echoed from the room. "On your birthday, I am coming to marry you. If you run away or deny our vow, I will hunt you down for disgracing me. Have a good evening, thief Loki."
Cold sweat poured down my spine. I scrambled down the side of the building as fast as my hands could move. Suddenly, a magically amplified voice boomed across the entire military base.
[An intruder has appeared. He is escaping through the courtyard. Catch the thief!]
I froze in disbelief. She had actually called the guards on me! I dropped the remaining distance to the ground and sprinted into the darkness like the criminal I was.
Up at the third-floor window, Shade stood in the cold air, watching a swarm of armored Knights chase a dark-clad figure through the yard. Her fingers gently traced the edges of the tin candy box.
For the first time in years, the coldness vanished from her face, replaced by a soft, tender smile.
"I have waited ten long years for you, Loki," she whispered to the night. "Leaking my room details to Thorin was a wonderful idea. I finally got to see you again."
Her smile faded slightly as she watched three heavy Knights tackle her future husband into the dirt, but the deep affection in her blue eyes never wavered.
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