Skymint’s POV

  The faint light of dawn draped itself over the waking city, a pale shimmer stretching across rooftops as if the morning were testing its reach. My ears—far too sharp for an ordinary human—caught every ripple of sound: shops groaning open on rusted hinges, the weary creak of carriages burdened with parcels, the persistent tick-tock of a golden standing clock, and the rising hum of voices stirring the day forward. Compared to the chaos of recent days, the atmosphere here felt almost… cleansing, like a world briefly forgetting its own troubles.

  I’m Clinton, I reminded myself for the hundredth time. Clinton the human. Clinton the unremarkable. And yet my senses remained razor-tuned, instinctive, feral—like the edges of my true self refused to dull beneath this borrowed skin. No one should be able to track me; the disguise held. Still, unease curled low in my chest, whispering that something—something important—slipped my mind.

  As I walked, my gaze snagged on the sprawling line of tenements where Caron lived. Somewhere in that maze of rooms and narrow halls. How was I supposed to find him as a mere human? As a Polarman, I would’ve found him quickly—especially if tuna was involved.

  The streetlamps dimmed as the sun edged closer to the horizon. I had always assumed the sun simply drifted nearer as it rose and farther as it fell, looping endlessly to birth day and night. But if that were true, how did other kingdoms see the same thing? More suns? Hidden ones? I should have asked King Jamaico.

  I climbed the short stairs to the ivory boardwalk, the surface etched with angular designs that caught light like fractured ice.

  A girl stood there. Long, straight hair the color of a pale banana peel; golden eyes watching me with a curiosity sharp enough to be felt. Her robe was simple, unassuming, but she moved with a grace that suggested she rarely had to try.

  "What's a gorgeous lad doing early this morning?" she asked, her voice elegant and lilting.

  "Me?" The word slipped out before I could stop it.

  "Yes, you are. I haven't seen that exact combination of traits for a long, long time."

  "I'm paying a visit to a friend of mine. New to this residence and not familiar with the ways here."

  A subtle twitch touched her lips. "I may accompany you to locate his home, because plenty of folks have already been lost here... some were able to go back home though, with my help of course."

  My palms dampened. Great. A Finnian girl, and my first impression involved sweating like prey.

  "Thanks for the kind offer, but I can find his home myself. You should go with your day now, as I'm only wasting your time."

  "You cannot possibly decline help from a lass here in Finnian," she said, concern threading through her tone. "What's your name?"

  "Clinton. Just Clinton." I ducked my gaze and started walking. I couldn’t afford involvement with Finnians—not now.

  But she slipped to my side with effortless precision.

  "Where do you think you are going?"

  I hesitated. Desperation sparked the first excuse that came to mind. "I'm taken already."

  She laughed softly. "You mean you have taken?"

  "Yes, indeed," I replied quickly.

  "Not surprising. Fortunate for you to choose who and when to be in a relationship. I am arranged for a wedding already. But the lad's still obsessed with his former would-be-fiance, so he's kinda getting on my nerves. Does Skadar Facienda ring a bell?"

  "The Ice and Light noble… he's famous, of course I'd know him."

  "Actually, infamous for those who really know him. I told him to bring me a fennec from Sunstar as a present, instead he brought a dead one and left it on my bedchamber's pillow. I invited him to go flying with me, and he went straight to Glacia during our moment-long trip. I gave him a golden ring, and in return, he gave me ghosting. He doesn't even know what I wanted, what a frustrating everyday life." Her voice shifted, blooming into an exaggerated tone. "Only if I could demolish our forced contract, I would have done longer ago than Mighty Light's reclamation of Finnian."

  Her complaints hit me like a mild breeze—nothing lethal, nothing compared to what I had faced. More personal strife than a condemnation of Skadar himself.

  "I'm so sorry to hear that, you deserved better. You're a member of the White Castles, right? For sure you'd find joy in the palace someday."

  "That's right." Her smile caught the sunlight, gleaming with practiced grace. "I'm the Light Princess. Fidemi Le Mon."

  Oh no. Another princess. Another tangle of hierarchy I couldn't afford. For a moment, I almost forgot—I'm Skymint the Polarman. Not Clinton the human.

  "Lemon?"

  "It's Le Mon."

  "It's such an honor to meet you, Princess, although, I'm worried that they're watching over us from the top." My eyes flicked up to the floating spires overhead, their shadows stretching long and watchful across the streets.

  "It won't spark controversy. They always know I go down to land to meet new friends everyday, so it's fine." Her presence leaned in, warm, almost too close. "Anyways, who's this friend of yours we're going to visit?"

  Caron wasn’t a fugitive—just exiled. Safe enough to mention. Better to accept her help than risk offending royalty and creating another enemy I couldn’t outrun.

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  "Caron Carleton." I stated.

  "I see, you must be one of his henchmen. I've always seen him telling orders to his people because his age's getting rough to do worldly missions, though, we'd never cross paths. I wonder, I've always wondered... if he had survived the Sunstar Colosseum. One day, I saw him, still breathing." She halted mid-step, her gaze narrowing. "What are those cute ears? First time seeing a lad wearing a fancy headgear."

  Cute ears? Panic flickered up my spine.

  "Ah, I'm a polar bear fanatic!" I blurted out. Ellie’s spell—wasn’t it supposed to be flawless?

  "Skadar hates animals, and you on the other hand are the opposite of him."

  Her voice struck louder than it should have—too loud, like it was poking at the very edges of my disguise.

  I nearly rejoiced. "Yes that's it,"

  "Hmm?"

  "The house over there."

  "Over that house, shall we?"

  "Um, shall I go now? He probably doesn't want to see an aristocrat, as it reminds him of his previous life."

  "Sure, I have responsibilities back in the palace. I hope that we cross paths again, Clinton."

  A massive bell tolled from the Finnian Tower—distant but thunderous. Each strike slammed through the air, vibrating through my skull. My ears felt like they were splitting open, the sound ricocheting inside me.

  "What's going on?" I asked, shouting over the chaos biting into my hearing.

  The bell swung a few more times, then stilled, returning to its silent vigil.

  "It means a vampire is within our kingdom and bit somebody." She stated.

  "How?"

  "A Dreamer's Magic user enchanted it long ago to warn Finnians that there's hostile vampires in our territory. It's to prevent a pandemic. I must go now, handsome. Be careful so I'll see you again." She winked, and in the next heartbeat, her body fractured into a ray of light—ascending skyward in a single, breathtaking flash.

  Phew. I no longer have to worry about my identity getting exposed. The information I need is finally within reach—Caron is the only thread left, and all I have to do is follow it. What does he know about Aria Windcore, the vanished Ice Queen? Why did she command him to kill her own daughter?

  The question has been gnawing at me for days, its weight like frost creeping into my bones.

  I approached his house and knocked.

  No answer.

  I tried again, harder this time, knuckles hitting wood.

  Still nothing.

  My heart tightened. Memories of knocking on Llanova’s door returned—only to meet his confused uncle, who knew nothing of the disappearance. The helplessness, the dread… it all tried to slither back into me.

  Caron must be out. He’ll return later. Maybe we’ll meet along the way.

  I shouldn’t linger. Ellie will look for me eventually, once she wakes—sleeping like a baby in the hostel, finally paying back that mountainous sleep debt of hers.

  I turned to leave… and then stopped.

  There was a smell.

  Unpleasant. Wrong.

  And my nose—my real nose—picked it up. Hyperacute again.

  It wasn’t coming from outside. It seeped from within the house.

  My pulse hammered. I leaned into the narrow crack of the window and looked inside.

  Instantly, I blasted the glass with ice and leapt through the opening.

  My blood ran cold.

  “…”

  “…..”

  “…….”

  Caron hung from the ceiling by a leather rope—its fibers pulled taut. It looked fresh. Too fresh. And the rope… it was the same whip he’d stolen from the Sunstarian guard.

  My chest tightened, breath caught, and a sickening wave crawled along my skin. He couldn't have done this to himself. Impossible. Someone did this. Someone who wanted a message carved into the scene.

  Revenge? A Sunstarian retaliation?

  I forced myself to focus. A note lay on the floor beneath his dangling body. I crouched and picked it up with trembling fingers.

  “The Apex Lyssoto is coming.”

  Scrawled in rushed, jagged handwriting across torn paper.

  Before I could process anything, I heard footsteps outside—the shattering window had drawn attention.

  Instinct took over.

  I froze myself into a compact cube just as someone burst inside.

  “A grisly murder has occurred!” a man shrieked, voice so high it made my icy form vibrate.

  From the floor, hidden beneath the shadow of Caron’s body, I saw only his white boots stomping around. Thankfully, he didn’t notice the small cube that was me. I rolled—slowly, carefully—across the floor and slipped through the gap beneath the door.

  More voices rose. Carriages arriving, gossip erupting, orders being barked. Chaos unfurling like wildfire.

  Then—fingers.

  Soft, gentle ones.

  Someone picked me up.

  And the world tilted. I rose into the air, the city shrinking beneath me. Castles shimmered in the distance like floating jewels.

  Fidemi?

  It had to be. It felt like her.

  But we weren’t heading toward the palace.

  We were descending. Fast.

  The world blurred—flashing light and shadows—and then everything spun as I plummeted like a tiny, icy meteor.

  I hit something soft. Grass. Blades curled around me.

  And all I could do was lie there, frozen—literally—waiting for my senses to uncoil.

  I peeled myself back into my true form—a Polarman once more—and found Ellie standing before me. Arms folded. Hair ragged and sky-blue again, no glamour to soften the edges. Her eyes… they weren’t the same. The dark circles carved beneath them were deep enough to hold shadows that didn’t belong to daylight. Something in her gaze felt like the abyss staring back.

  "Skymint, Skymint, Skymint, I kept on calling, but nobody answered," she cackled, a brittle sound that didn’t match the girl I thought I knew. "Where had you been while I was deep sleeping and being carried by bastards to bring me to Felipe?"

  "What are you talking about?" The confusion in my voice felt small against the sight of her. It was unsettling—seeing her raw, unmasked. "What happened to your permanent spell?"

  "The hostel got raided. Bounty hunters were somehow able to track us. Did you go away because you paid them to capture me? Of course, that's impossible. I wonder why you were in the tenements." Her tone suggested she’d already tried and convicted me in her mind.

  I clenched my fists. The cold stung my palms. "You don't get to know everything I do, Ellie... if you don't share yours too."

  "Tsk." Her teeth glinted—sharp, mocking. "You might like to hear the list of spells I've spoken to protect both of us. But, it's a waste of time listing them so I have nothing to state." Her voice was sardonic, but beneath it—I felt the tremor of restrained fury.

  My own voice dropped, colder. "Tell me... did you kill Caron?"

  "There's no way I killed him, even if you drown me in Mount Inferno." Her tone was maddeningly bored. "Hold your horses, what happened to the great exiled knight of Glacia?"

  "It was such a gruesome sight, I found him in his home, the whip from Sunstar strangling him—"

  "Stop. You think I'm the one who did that to him? Who knows if he had done it to himself. He's retarded anyways."

  My blood surged to the surface, heat rushing under frost. Never—not once—had I met someone who wielded cruelty with such casual precision. Caron wouldn’t end his life. He wouldn’t. Not like that. Not without reason.

  "It contradicted everything he did, so what you're saying is impossible!"

  "How ironic, telling that to someone with the ability to make breakthroughs by using words."

  I turned away from her—toward the mountains looming like unanswered questions.

  "Oh, and where are you going? You'll get caught with that skin."

  I paused. The wind stung my exposed arms. "Leaving,"

  "Go on, but remember, you'd always wound back to me." She chuckled. "Bear-boy."

  A witch. That’s what she was—what she had always been beneath the veneer. And still I climbed, pushing myself toward the peak, towards the cold clarity the Finnian Kingdom was said to hold. Sacred land. Sacred judgment.

  I'm turning myself in, to the Light King himself. It’s for the better, my inner voice murmured—quiet, insistent, hollow.

  I had failed to save him. Failed to save Caron. Failed to be where I needed to be.

  And I kept wondering—what would have happened if I had come earlier? A day earlier and Caron would still be alive. Still saving lives. Still guiding me.

  If only I had prioritized that.