So much for "I only serve one lady." He didn't even listen to her half the time, so arrogantly stubborn it bordered on tyrannical.
Still, she obeyed.
She placed her hands gently on the crystal orb.
Fwoosh,
A blinding red glow ignited inside the sphere like a burst of flame. Fire element, raging and brilliant.
"Fire," Moryn murmured, black eyes sharp with anticipation. He knew it. She was no cripple.
But it didn't stop there.
Whoosh,
A golden beam and a vivid green spiral surged upward next, light and wood elements, twining like twin serpents, dancing together inside the orb.
"Gold and Verdance…" Moryn's voice caught. His breath grew ragged.
Three elements.
Three!
On the continent of Eldareth, over 90% of cultivators were attuned to a single element.
Dual-element wielders were rare.
But three? Three elemental affinities were found in only one in ten thousand people, and most of those never survived long enough to be known.
Yet even now, it wasn't done.
BOOM,
A fourth pillar of power erupted, this time a luminous sapphire tide that surged across the crystal: Water.
Moryn's fists clenched. "Four elements… a once-in-a-century talent!"
Even in the history of the northern kingdom of Varyndale, only one four-elemental had ever emerged, nearly three centuries ago. That person became a legend.
And now…
Now there was another.
And she was standing right in front of him.
Zyra narrowed her eyes. She felt a strange heat stir within her chest… and something else beneath her hands.
Tremor.
Moryn's expression darkened suddenly. "No… it's not finished."
The crystal orb began to shake.
Inside, the swirling elements churned violently, as if something immense and ancient was awakening. A low growl seemed to echo from within the sphere, like a beast fighting to break its chains.
BOOM!
A blinding yellow-brown column of earth exploded from the orb, swallowing the previous elements in its overwhelming glow. The entire sphere pulsed like a sun.
The fifth element.
Earth.
The runes carved into the pedestal flared uncontrollably.
Five elements!
Five glowing forces twisted and writhed together, fire, gold, verdance, water, and now earth, forming a celestial spiral that shone like a star cluster in motion.
Crack.
Fissures began to spread across the crystal's surface, spider-webbing with fine lines.
Crack! Crack!
The orb, unable to contain the titanic energy, groaned under the pressure.
Moryn stepped back, his gaze burning with awe and disbelief.
"A fivefold elemental resonance…" he whispered. "This isn't just rare. It's… divine."
Three seconds later…
BOOM!
The crystal orb shattered with a deafening blast.
"Careful!" Moryn moved like lightning, wrapping his arms tightly around Zyra's slender waist and pulling her into his broad chest. In a heartbeat, they leapt back a dozen paces, his body shielding her from the blast.
The explosion rocked the entire Hall of Appraisal.
One of the four great support pillars cracked straight down the middle. Two others were left chipped and unstable. The damage was considerable.
They didn't have much time.
Once the explosion settled, Moryn wasted no breath. Carrying Zyra in his arms again, he leapt across rooftops and slipped away before the noise could summon too much attention.
They returned to Mistveil Tower, Zyra's residence.
It was tucked in a quiet, neglected corner of House Morwyn's estate. She had inherited this place not out of privilege, but pity. Nobles born with no magical aptitude weren't given fine gardens or crystal baths, they were given forgotten rooms and half-abandoned towers.
Moryn gently placed her onto her usual chair by the window.
"You're not pleased?"
He'd noticed the expression on her face, calm, flat, unreadable. Too unreadable.
Anyone else would be weeping from joy, overwhelmed by the revelation of such miraculous talent.
But Zyra?
She looked… indifferent.
"I have no core," she said simply.
Her tone was neither bitter nor dramatic, just a fact.
It didn't matter whether she had one elemental affinity or five. Without a spirit core, she couldn't gather aura, couldn't refine essence, couldn't cultivate.
It was like standing in front of a mountain of gold with your arms cut off.
Moryn frowned.
Her quiet indifference stirred something unfamiliar in him, a pang, somewhere deep in the cold steel of his chest. "There may be a way," he said. "With fate's favor, some say a shattered core can be reborn."
He didn't know why he said that.
He wasn't the type to offer comfort. That simply wasn't his nature. But today… he broke the rule.
Zyra shook her head, her pale, glassy eyes fixed on his.
"There's no cure for this," she said. "What I have is known as Voidborn."
She knew it better than anyone.
She was no ordinary cripple. She was born without a spiritual nexus altogether, not shattered, not damaged, just… absent.
And she would know. Before her soul had taken up residence in this body, she had been a Bai'Seir, a divine beast, the white-furred spirit of prophecy, versed in healing magicks even the ancients had forgotten. If there had been a cure, she would have known it.
Voidborn was fate's decree, a road with no exit.
Moryn's jaw tightened, his entire frame radiating a quiet storm.
He hated that word.
Voidborn.
Final. Hopeless. Unjust.
Once, he had thought she was nothing more than a spoiled noble brat. He let her throw tantrums. He cleaned up after her messes.
That was duty, a promise made to her dying mother.
But now?
Now he knew better.
Her arrogance wasn't rooted in entitlement. It was the mask of a girl caged by fate. And beneath it lay a brilliance so rare it could overturn empires.
Moryn clenched his fists. He wouldn't, couldn't, stand by anymore.
And oddly enough… he found he liked her more now.
The loud, temperamental girl from before couldn't compare to this calm, steady-eyed woman. She was colder, yes. But there was steel in her silence. Strength in her restraint.
He chalked it up to heartbreak.
Losing your heart to the wrong man had a way of changing a person.