Outside the Danferos household, in the gardens, Laticia and Aurantia walked across, talking with each other, with the soft bushes brushing past Laticia's right and the warm aura of the wind sorcerer shielded her left from the night cold gusty winds.

The movement of the fallen Quasarel leaves was the only way to find if she was even wielding wind.

Quite not used to her name yet, Aurantia wanted to ensure if she was right. For her, calling someone's name with the wrong pronunciation was a funny yet annoying thing to do. "So, Lat-icia, is it?"

Without a word of reply, she hummed to acknowledge that she was indeed right. It was not a harder name after all, like 'Dyren Justenforth'.

The moonlight traversed her creamy beige face and settled on her Danferos tawny eyes as she turned towards Laticia. "Anger or Despair, I am not sure; but your aura was not pleasant back there."

"Both," Laticia added quickly, then avoided eye contact with Aurantia. Her eyes were too mesmerizing to handle. "It was about my mother," Laticia's sudden sullenness covered the atmosphere. Aurantia felt her aura of despair through the wind and turned briskly depressed.

"I understand," Aurantia paused, taking her time to gaze into Laticia's golden eyes, to better understand her.

"I hardly told you, anything sister. How could you understand me?" She asked quite sternly, then realized. "You are able to see through people's auras!" Laticia's eyes lighted up, quite surprised. Not all wielders had that ability.

A very rare ability in fact.

"Not precisely. But I can infer to some extent," Aurantia grinned, as her long hair danced to the gentle movement of the cold winds, with the white leaves brushing past their faces to reach the floor, decorating them.

"I see," Laticia replied dreamily, looking above, at the black and blank skies.

Wind wielders have always fascinated her since her childhood. They required a delicate understanding of the air particles to control them.

Unlike earth or water wielding which requires just raw power, a wielder cannot control air unless they are able to manipulate the wind accurately since their particles are dispersed and not organized like a true solid.

Even water for that matter required comparable special attention to wield than a solid. Being the element of freedom and expansion, she was always drawn towards it.

"It would be amazing to experience other being's feelings first hand." She remarked, in awe of her superior abilities.

"Not really when you cannot handle yours first." Aurantia paused, remembering her similar fate as Laticia's; losing a loved one to a great war. She thought it was best not to ask about it further, as she would not like it herself to be interrogated about that unfortunate day.

When she had last seen her father, then never again.

"No one had bothered to explain to me about auras anyway. The books I had read so far explained it to be a 'mysterious' phenomenon that cannot be really 'explained'. If you would by some chance know something more about it." Laticia looked at her expectantly.

"Aura, yes. I am not sure that I can explain it to you well, But I will try," Aurantia continued. "The way I understand aura is that they are the direct manifestation of a person's inner feelings, and their true thoughts. Even the capability of wielding magic adds to their aura intensity around them. It is of course a 'mysterious' force tending to bind you towards the person you love or repelling yourself away from a person you hate. The subject of Physis calls this an 'Interference of waves'. However, we do not have direct means to connect both the explanations, at least yet."

She waited for some permission from Laticia, had she lost her way. With her agreeing nod, Aurantia proceeded confidently.

"The way I am able to sense your emotions is that by using my intensity magic, I can synchronize with your aura of thoughts, and experience it along with you. For example, if you are extremely happy, then I shall be as pleased as you are. If you are depressed, then I will feel the same amount of pain too, even without knowing the source. Advanced aura wielders are actual mind readers who can sense a fellow being's thought with pinpoint accuracy."

"Wow." Laticia almost gaped at Aurantia's explanation. Realizing what she had did to Aurantia a while back,

"But there is also something else you must know about advanced aura wielding." She added with caution. "Many people have misused this ability to penetrate into a person's thoughts without their will, and even alter their aura in the process, effectively pulling out a mind control spell." She paused, hesitating to think about the past incidents, her forbidden memories, "Aura wielding while being beautiful is also extremely dangerous. There is a good reason why the advanced version of the art is nearly extinct today, and people are afraid of even basic aura wielding. People fear me."

"This is also the reason why there are people prohibiting magic altogether?"

"I am afraid, yes. That's why we the Danferos who are capable of wielding magic spend our time alone here and visit the city only if I have my paintings to sell."

"I see. But your skills can be recognized by the Immortalian Academy of Inhilare Arts which has a strict selection process for its candidates right? Have you tried opting for a seat in the academy?"

"I am not willing to wield a greater power, should I deviate from my path and become something dangerous." Aurantia conveyed glumly

"I see," Laticia replied, knowing she should be having her own reasons for such an idea.

A moment of silence followed after that. Probably this was the reason why the thief from earlier had stolen the brush. Or was it the other way around?

Was the brush enchanted?

"Would you mind showing me your Immortian staff, Laticia?" Aurantia pointed at Laticia's dangling sheath that Dyren had just bought her.

"I am actually surprised that you noticed this," She unsheathed her folded staff and handed it over to Aurantia. She carefully obtained the staff from her and gently lifted it above, away from her head.

Activating it, she extended the staff to its full size and handled it efficiently like any other trained staff wielder, to Laticia's surprise. After all, a freelance artist would not be a magic wielder AND a staff wielder, right?

"You are a staff-women!?"

"Kind of, I am." She said, not taking her eyes away from the staff, as she continued to spin it around, powering her movements with wind magic. Harsh sounds of the air groaning enlightened Laticia at once that Aurantia was a far formidable opponent.

And she would be struggling to hold her stance, let alone Dyren.

"You seem to be pretty good at it," Laticia mumbled.

Beaming a thank, she continued to flex her tricks with the staff combined with her magic across the trees.  For Laticia, she was the perfect mentor she always longed for.

"How stronger I could be if I can wield wind magic while I wield my staff. . . ."

She shimmed her way towards Laticia, making a sudden stop, spinning the staff, letting the leaves rush past and wave the garden, to which Laticia did not flinch. She then folded the staff by tilting it at an angle with a jerk and remarked, "Very nice staff."

"Thank you," She smiled, and obtained her staff back. At that moment, a ray from the moon fell upon the staff, revealing its ruby red decorations which shined with the power of courage.

A thought struck Aurantia.

That she had seen this kind of decoration before, something she knew quite well.

Very well.

"W-Where did you say you are from, again?" Aurantia gave a slightly doubting look, which Laticia sensed immediately.

"From the sixth wall. Why?" Laticia answered confidently, sheathing her staff, without making eye contact.

"Where, from the sixth wall?" Aurantia interrogated, narrowing down her eyes.

Caught completely off guard by her eyes, Laticia stuttered, "Da-Dakaranas District, from the south." without her realization.

"I shall remain calm, else she is sensing it!"

Aurantia's gaze did not leave Laticia. She knew something was off, something was wrong. Dyren and Laticia were not what she thought they were. They were more than ordinary Immortalian citizens.

Someone far more powerful, and perhaps maybe dangerous.

"Laticia," She paused. "Are you-"

Just as the tension developed, someone entered the region spreading calmness around, with heavy footsteps, which interrupted the conversation between Aurantia and Laticia.

"Umm, Excuse me?" A voice glided past them along with the winds. Laticia jerked around, to see Dan awkwardly having a handful of flowers. "You both alright?"

Laticia debated on pulling out the 'How dare you interrupt our conversation!' but for the first, she was actually saved; and second, Dan seemed too innocent to handle such a thing.

So she went with a "Yes, Dan Dan?"

His medium-long hair panicked as his head jerked at hearing what she had said. "Wha- Da- I beg your pardon?"

"Dan Dan? Dan Danferos sounded too grand for a friend of an imbecile like Dyren." She accented her brother's name on purpose. "So I thought Dan Dan is a bit cuter," she hissed the words with her eyes dancing in mockery. "No offense to your family name, sister." She quickly appended.

"None taken."

She rested her eyes on the flowers. "What is this about?" She covered her face with her hands, "Dun Dun is going to sob over someone offering me flowers!" She giggled.

"W-Well no! That's not it!" Dyren's face turned red. Whether it was frustration or something else, she was not able to infer.

"Then what is it?" She smirked at Dan, so much that he was about to break any moment. If not for the tree that shaded his blush, it would have been a relatively more awkward moment.

"It-Its your brother who had requested me to give you the flowers. Since they were hair creepers, he thought you could have them!"

"Ahhhh, How disappointing," She crossed her arms. "Fine," She offered her hand so that she could get the flowers from him. Dan evaded her and handed them to Aurantia.

"I am outta here," He declared and marched his way out. "Oh Grandez, she is weird!" he mumbled. Maybe a little too loud.

"Heard it!"

"Well, you are! Deal with it!" Dan sprinted away in a flash.

"Highness? A cliched word that I hate so much."

"Well then, Laticia," Aurantia sat down at a bench located under a Quasarel tree in the middle of the garden. "May I know who Dyren's Mentor was?" She asked, gesturing to sit beside her.

"Mentor?"

"You did mention that he was a master, right? He should have had a mentor, most probably."

"Oh yeah, that man." A disappointment spread across Laticia's face as she remembered about him. She took her place beside Aurantia, close to her. "His name was Zunzen." she sighed.

Aurantia turned towards Laticia, raising her brows in surprise. Her possibility that Laticia might be one of them converged steeper, then her face melted down to a sweet gentle smile.

"What was his...surname?"

"Man never said to me. He said that it was not necessary." She was enticed by the birds chirruping. "Besides I was not his apprentice." Laticia sputtered out.

Aurantia untied Laticia's left hair braid, the one closest to her, to tie it back with the new flowers Dan had got them. "You seem to be quite disappointed with him."

"Yes."

"Master Zunzen. One man who would never budge to accept me as his apprentice even while I learned things faster than Dyren, in a way even better than him.

Just because I was a girl.

Mother would threaten to bury him oftentimes, although as a joke. I wonder even if she was serious, he would have flinched. He was a stubborn man and believed that the ancient ways were right.

People would still be suppressed by that damn law, if not for-"

"Dyren," Aurantia broke through Laticia's thoughts, noticing that she was clenching her fists too hard.

"Huh?" Laticia woke up from her slumber of thoughts, as she noticed her new hair braids, woven with the little blue glowing flowers. She let her fingers run through the series of petals and her shiny black hair. "Thank you, sister."

"I know, Laticia," She paused. "The feeling of people judging you over something you never had a choice over." Her eyes mildly melted away to the cold air around. "Be it your gender or blood."

"She is able to exactly sense my grief. At this rate, she is slowly discovering my thoughts to awful accuracy. I will not be able to protect my identity-"

Laticia noticed Aurantia gazing at her through her shoulder. She probably detected these thoughts too. It was wise for her to stop thinking.

"I was once deprived of the right to learn sword dancing too. For my blood, and my gender." Aurantia hopped up from the bench as if to breathe fresh air. "Had I been yet another normal wielder, they would not fear me moving rock around. But I can sense people's auras, and provided its history, it's only right for them to be afraid of me."

"I am glad that things are better now," Laticia blurted. She knew she was not over it. Her childhood suppression remained a scar in her mind. "There are laws which protect wielders like you from attacks, right?"

"I guess it's alright if I tell the truth to her. Should I reveal my identity? Would she treat me any differently?"

"There is no point in trying to hide your identity Laticia. I had already figured it out." Aurantia claimed. Laticia twitched her head up in absolute surprise like an innocent nightingale.

"W-What!?"

"Dyren Justenforth," She paused, before carefully spelling out the next word. "The Justenforth, the Kaisen, isn't he?"

Laticia gaped in shock. She was dumbstruck, unable to give a reply.

"The one who revoked Article seventeen and allowed us to wield swords in the kingdom; It was prince Dyren, right?" She inquired further, with a seemingly stern face. Yet her gratefulness was evident through her tone of voice. 

Did you expect Dyren and Laticia to be royals? What do you think about them now that they are royals? Let me know in the comments :)

Word count: 2387