Wind cut through Frostfang Forest, sharp enough to sting. A girl ran between the snow-heavy trees, breath tearing out of her in ragged bursts.
"Haa... haa..."
Her silver-green hair whipped behind her, catching on branches that scratched her face and shredded the hem of her once-elegant blue dress. Small cuts striped her arms and legs, dark red against the white snow. She didn’t stop. She couldn’t.
Footsteps pounded through the trees behind her.
"Catch her!"
"Don’t let her get away!"
"She’s cutting north!"
More than a dozen men in dark cloaks tore through the forest after her some with swords drawn, others with bows, hoods pulled low over their faces. She ground her teeth together.
*Damn it. They’re gaining.*
She pushed harder, weaving between trunks with a speed her injuries shouldn’t have allowed. A whistle sliced the air.
*Whoosh.*
An arrow shot past her cheek and buried itself in a tree a hand’s width from her head. She didn’t look back. She just ran faster.
"Haa... haa..."
Her legs were turning to lead. Her mana was nearly gone. She’d been running for what felt like hours and they still hadn’t given up.
"Don’t kill her!" a voice barked from somewhere behind. "The boss wants her alive!"
Her eyes narrowed even as she ran.
*So that’s what this is. They want me. Not dead taken.*
Her hand found the small dagger at her waist, but she didn’t draw it. Fighting now would only slow her down. Running was the only card left to play. She cleared a fallen log in one leap and kept going.
Then her foot caught on a root hidden under the snow.
"Ah!"
She hit the ground hard, palms and knees slamming into frozen earth. For one breath, everything stopped.
*No. Get up. Get up now.*
She forced herself back onto her feet and kept moving, but the fall had cost her. The voices behind her were closer now.
"There she is!"
"Surround her!"
She spun around, searching for an opening, and realized too late that she’d run herself into a dead end boulders on one side, a wall of pine on the other. Nowhere left to go.
The hooded men filed into the clearing one by one, closing the circle around her. Their leader stepped forward last, a broadsword resting easy across one shoulder, a smile curling across his face like this was the best part of his night.
"Well." He looked her over. "Guess your little game of hide-and-seek is finally over."
She tightened her grip on the dagger, chest heaving, legs trembling under her.
"If you think I’m going with you," she said, "you’ll have to drag my body there instead."
The men laughed. Their leader chuckled along with them.
"That," he said, "can be arranged."
He raised the sword, moonlight sliding off the blade, and the whole clearing seemed to lean in with him. She dropped into a stance anyway. If this was how it ended, she wasn’t going to make it easy.
The leader took a step closer.
"Enough of this."
He swung down.
*CLANG!*
The sound cracked through the trees like a gunshot. His sword stopped dead in the air.
"...What?"
Snow burst upward as another blade caught his a plain wooden training sword, held by a small figure in a white cloak standing between the leader and the girl, back turned to her.
The boy lowered the sword and glanced over his shoulder.
"You all right?"
Her eyes went wide.
"...You?!"
*The Seventh Prince.*
The leader stared down at the child now blocking his sword with a stick of wood, and for a second the whole clearing went dead silent. Then the men burst out laughing.
"Hahaha!"
"A *kid*?"
"They sent us a child?"
One of the men stepped forward and leveled his sword at Theon.
"Move it, brat. This isn’t yours to worry about."
Theon didn’t budge. His training sword hung loose at his side, his blue eyes sweeping the group, counting.
*Eleven. Ten swordsmen, one mage. None of them look like much on their own but eleven’s still eleven. Careful.*
The leader’s frown deepened. "Did you not hear him? Move."
Theon let out a short breath. "Afraid I can’t do that."
"And why the hell not?"
A faint smile. "Because I don’t much care for watching grown men gang up on one girl."
The clearing went quiet again. The leader’s smile dropped clean off his face.
"So you’ve decided to die with her." He lifted his sword. "Kill the brat first."
Two men lunged at his word one from the left, one from the right. Theon stayed perfectly still.
*Too slow.*
Just before the first blade reached him, he sidestepped, and the sword hissed past empty air. In the same motion he twisted and cracked his wooden sword across the man’s wrist.
*Crack.*
"Agh!"
The sword flew from the man’s hand. Before the second attacker could adjust, Theon pivoted on one foot
*Thud.*
and drove the training sword into his stomach. The man folded over, wheezing, and dropped into the snow.
The rest of the hooded men stared.
"...What?"
"He *moved*" one of them started.
The elf girl blinked, watching him with something between disbelief and fascination.
*His movements... they’re too clean for a child.*
The leader clicked his tongue. "Don’t underestimate him. All of you, together now!"
Four men rushed him at once, from four directions. Theon tightened his grip.
*Four’s fine. Manageable.*
One came down overhead. Another aimed for his ribs. A third tried to circle behind. The fourth went for a straight thrust to the chest. Theon’s breathing stayed even, his body moving on instinct years of training from a life that wasn’t this one, fused seamlessly with a body built for the sword.
He ducked the first. Slipped the second. Turned into the third.
Then
*Bang.*
He kicked a spray of loose snow into their faces. For half a second, none of them could see.
That was enough.
*Thwack.* One took a strike across the jaw.
*Crack.* Another’s wrist snapped sideways, his sword falling from numb fingers.
The third caught a blow to the shoulder and staggered. The fourth swung wild at nothing, lost his footing on the ice, and went down flat on his back.
Theon stepped back, exhaling.
*Good. No one’s seriously hurt. I’d rather not kill anyone tonight, if I can help it.*
The leader’s face had gone grim.
"What *are* you?"
Behind Theon, the girl could only stare. The little prince from the royal banquet she remembered him being polite, quiet, unremarkable.
He was none of those things right now.
The clearing had gone dead silent again. No more laughing. The hooded men watched him now with something closer to caution.
The leader’s eyes narrowed. "So you’re not just some ordinary child."
Theon adjusted his grip on the training sword. "I could say the same about you." A beat. "Eleven grown men, chasing one girl through the woods." He tilted his head. "Doesn’t that embarrass you, even a little?"
A few of the men’s fists clenched. The leader’s expression darkened.
"Tch. Sharp tongue on you too." He raised a hand. "Enough playing around."
At the signal, the group’s mage stepped forward the only one in a dark robe stitched with crimson thread, a wooden staff glowing faint red at its tip.
Theon’s attention snapped to him.
*The mage. There’s the real problem.*
The mage pointed the staff at Theon.
"Freeze him."
A crimson circle bloomed beneath the staff, mana gathering fast. The elf girl’s breath caught.
"Look out!"
"Flame Bullet!"
Three fireballs tore toward Theon like loosed arrows.
*Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh.*
He was already moving pushing off the ground, rolling clear. The first fireball detonated exactly where he’d been standing.
*BOOM.*
Snow shot into the air. The second scorched a nearby trunk, catching bark alight. The third clipped past his shoulder close enough to singe fabric.
"...Too close."
The leader smirked. "So the brat can dodge. Question is how long you can keep it up."
The mage was already chanting again. Theon’s expression sharpened.
*Can’t let him keep casting. Drag this out and I’ll end up having to use more than a training sword and I’d rather not.*
The World Archive flickered into view in front of him.
**WORLD ARCHIVE**
*Enemy Analysis Complete.*
*Primary Threat: Hooded Mage.*
*Weakness Detected casting speed drops sharply if interrupted mid-concentration.*
*Recommended Action: Close the distance immediately.*
The window vanished. A small smile crossed Theon’s face.
"...Got it."
He broke into a sprint. The mage’s eyes went round with panic.
"He’s coming straight at me?!"
"Stop him!" the leader roared.
Three swordsmen scrambled to cut him off. Theon didn’t slow. He hit a fallen log, used it to launch himself clean over the first man’s head, and landed already swinging.
*Thud.*
The training sword caught the second man across the temple and dropped him where he stood. The third swung wide and desperate Theon dropped low, slid under the blade, and swept the man’s legs out from under him. He hit the snow hard.
Only the mage was left.
"P-Protect me!" he shrieked.
Theon’s eyes didn’t waver. "No."
*Crack.*
The wooden sword struck his wrist. The staff spun out of his hand and landed several feet away, the unfinished spell circle scattering into drifting light.
The mage stumbled back, clutching his wrist. "My my staff!"
Before he could recover, the tip of Theon’s sword settled against his throat, light as a whisper.
"...You’ve lost."
The mage froze, not daring to so much as swallow.
Around them, the remaining men stood in stunned silence. A ten-year-old had just taken apart their best fighter without breaking a sweat.
The wind kept moving through the clearing. Nobody else did.
"...W-who *are* you?" the mage finally managed.
Theon didn’t answer directly. He lowered the sword and stepped back.
"I’ve already won." A pause. "I’m not here to kill anyone."
The mage blinked. "You’re... letting me go?"
Theon nodded, then turned to the leader. "But first I want answers."
The leader’s eyes narrowed to slits. "You think you’ve beaten us?"
He drew a dagger slowly from his belt.
"We’re just doing a job. Our employer pays well."
"Your employer," Theon said. "Who?"
The man laughed under his breath. "You really think I’m handing that over for free?"
Before Theon could push further, the leader flung something small and black at the ground.
*Crack.*
Gray smoke burst up in a thick cloud, swallowing the clearing whole. The girl covered her nose and mouth. Theon stepped back on reflex.
*Smoke?*
The World Archive flared again.
**WORLD ARCHIVE**
*Vision obstructed. Multiple targets escaping.*
*Recommended Action: Do not pursue.*
*Priority: Protect the injured target.*
By the time the smoke thinned, the hooded men were gone, only fading footsteps left behind in the snow. Theon let out a breath.
"...They’re gone."
The girl lowered her guard, shoulders sagging. "They always carry those. Whenever they’re cornered, they run."
Theon looked off toward where the footprints trailed into the dark. "At least we learned one thing."
She glanced at him. "What’s that?"
"They’re not working for themselves. Someone’s paying them."
Her expression tightened. "I know." A quiet breath. "That’s what worries me."
Neither of them said anything for a moment. Just the wind, moving through the trees.
Theon broke the silence first. "Are you hurt?"
She looked down at the cuts along her arms, the torn dress. "...Just scrapes."
He crossed over and offered his hand. "Can you stand?"
She hesitated just a beat before taking it. He pulled her up gently.
"...Thank you," she said, quieter than before.
He gave her a small smile. "Couldn’t exactly walk past someone being chased down like that."
She studied him for a long moment, head tilted slightly, like she was trying to work out what kind of person did that on instinct.
"You really are strange, you know that? A human prince, throwing himself in front of a mob to save an elf he barely knows."
Theon rubbed the back of his neck. "I just did what felt right."
She let out a short, surprised laugh. "...You’re nothing like the other nobles I’ve met."
"I’ll take that as a compliment," he said, a little awkwardly.
Her smile faded fast, replaced by something more guarded.
"You shouldn’t have gotten involved. The people behind this aren’t ordinary criminals." Her eyes held his. "They’re dangerous."
"So you’re planning to fight them alone?"
She didn’t answer right away. When she finally did, her voice had dropped, quieter, harder to hear.
"...I have to. They’ve been taking children from my homeland." A breath. "If I don’t find them, who will?"
Theon looked toward the dark line of trees where the men had vanished, his grip tightening around the training sword.
"...Then let me help."
She shook her head immediately. "No."
"This isn’t your fight to carry."
"If they find out who you really are" She stopped herself, jaw tight. "You’d be dragged into something far bigger than you understand."
Theon’s smile was faint, but certain. "I think I already am."
She opened her mouth to argue back and found she had nothing to say. Somewhere underneath the refusal, she already knew he was right.