"Even in a world of blades, sometimes kindness is the sharpest weapon."
---
Evening fell over the Ash Ring like bruises spreading across skin.
Velden's skyline shimmered gold above, but down in the gutters, the streets were bone gray and bathed in sewer light. Elric kept to the shadows, moving through forgotten paths. The Mage Enforcers were still hunting—he could feel the tension in the air, like static before a storm.
His hood was pulled tight, the Codex bound in cloth under his cloak. Mina was hidden. Safe, for now. But the district's guard patrols had grown thicker, and every spellcaster in the city could probably smell his crest.
Elric didn't need more enemies tonight.
He needed rest.
Or luck.
Instead, he found trouble.
---
It happened fast.
A corner turned too quick.
A collision like iron striking bark.
And suddenly, Elric was flat on his back, blinking up at someone standing over him—tall, lean, clad in leather-and-canvas traveler's armor with silver-trimmed gloves and a wide-hooded cloak pulled halfway over a white wolf mask.
A girl.
Her hand went straight to the hilt of a short saber strapped across her back.
"Elric Dorne Vale," she said flatly.
He froze.
"Wha—How—?"
"Relax," she added quickly, adjusting her hood lower. "I'm not with the Order. And I wasn't looking for you specifically. You just look like someone who's running."
"…And you don't?" he replied.
She didn't answer. Instead, her eyes scanned the rooftops—calculating, reading the angles of escape.
She offered him a hand.
He didn't take it.
But he stood.
"Who are you?" he asked.
"Rin. That's all you need to know."
The mask muffled her tone, but her voice was unmistakably noble—precise vowels, clipped diction. Not the kind of voice you picked up growing up in gutters.
He narrowed his eyes.
"Let me guess—you're a runaway princess."
She tilted her head.
"Let me guess—you're the idiot who made the city shield flicker last night."
He blinked.
She shrugged. "That wasn't subtle, you know."
Before he could reply, a shout rang out across the block.
"Crestless scum! Stop!"
Two city slum-guards, not Enforcers—still dangerous enough, especially in these numbers.
Elric turned to bolt, but Rin was faster.
She stepped forward and drew her saber with a smooth whisper of steel.
"Hold still," she told Elric. "I'll handle this."
The first guard lunged.
She sidestepped.
Steel flashed. One strike—clean and measured—knocked the man's baton aside and kicked him hard into the wall. The second guard swung wildly. Rin ducked, countered, and snapped his knee backward with a sharp heel-kick.
The man screamed.
She sheathed her blade.
"Come on."
This time, Elric followed.
---
They ducked through alleyways, over a broken aqueduct, and into an abandoned warehouse near the district's edge. Rin led him to a hidden alcove behind loose stone. A concealed tent stood tucked behind shattered scaffolding, surrounded by old charms and a circle of chalk runes.
"Your… camp?"
"Temporary," she said, pulling off her mask. Beneath it, her face was pale and sharp-featured, with violet-gray eyes and a streak of white hair framing one ear.
Definitely not a commoner.
Rin pulled a tin kettle from her pack and lit a small ember flame.
"I don't normally share this spot," she said. "But you look like you haven't slept in days."
"Try weeks."
She smirked.
They sat in silence as the kettle hissed. The world outside remained tense, distant.
"I don't trust you," Elric said finally.
"That's wise," Rin replied. "I don't trust you either."
He raised a brow. "So why help me?"
She stirred the kettle, eyes distant. "Because I've seen what the Order does to people like you."
"You mean Crestless?"
She shook her head slowly. "I mean different."
---
Later that night, after a meager dinner of heated broth and stale bread, Elric lay awake under the tarp roof, watching smoke curl through holes in the ceiling. Rin slept a few feet away, curled in a blanket, her saber within arm's reach.
It should've been peaceful.
But trouble always returned.
---
He heard it first.
Soft footsteps.
A hiss.
A whisper: "Quiet. Get the girl."
Elric's eyes flew open. Outside the tent, three figures moved in the dark—thugs, cloaked in rough armor and city dust. Slum scavengers. Not guards.
Something worse.
Raiders.
The kind who sold people.
Two moved toward Rin, blades drawn.
The third waited near the exit with rope in hand.
---
Elric didn't think.
He leapt forward.
Grabbed a stone from the fire pit and smashed it into the nearest raider's head.
The second lunged at him—he ducked, rolled, snatched Rin's saber—and threw it across the tent toward her sleeping form.
It landed beside her with a clatter.
She jolted awake.
Just in time to parry the second man's dagger.
She moved with blinding reflex.
Steel scraped steel.
A quick slash to the thigh, then elbow to jaw. The man fell.
Elric tackled the third raider near the exit, catching a punch to the gut but swinging with raw fury. The Codex pulsed under his cloak.
He resisted the urge to summon the Demon Art.
Not here. Not now.
Not in front of her.
Instead, he fought ugly.
Biting. Scratching. Slamming his forehead into the attacker's nose.
The thug groaned and collapsed.
Blood trickled down Elric's brow. He gasped for breath, looking over at Rin.
She stood over the second attacker, blade pointed down.
"You good?" she asked.
He nodded.
"Thanks," she said. "You could've run."
"I almost did," Elric admitted. "But... they were going to hurt you."
"You don't even know me."
He shrugged.
"I know what it feels like when no one helps."
---
They tied the attackers with old wire and dumped them in the nearby canal. Not dead—but broken.
Back at the tent, Rin poured water over Elric's cut.
"You need stitches."
"I need answers," he muttered, flinching. "Who are you?"
She paused.
"I told you. I'm Rin."
"You fight like a noble knight. You talk like a court scribe. Your saber is rune-forged. And your mask is Kellsian silk."
"…You know Kellsian silk?"
"I may be Crestless, but I'm not blind."
A long pause.
Then, quietly, she said, "I'm… not supposed to be here."
"Where are you supposed to be?"
She didn't answer.
Instead, she stood, walked to her pack, and pulled something out—a signet ring, hidden under wrappings.
An eagle crest with twin branches.
Elric stiffened.
> A House Ring.
> She's nobility.
"You should probably forget that," she said.
"I probably won't."
She smiled faintly.
"Then we're even. You have your secrets. I have mine."
He studied her for a moment, then nodded.
"Rin, huh? Alright."
She looked at him seriously.
"Elric… whatever's inside you… whatever power you found…"
"I don't want to use it," he said. "But I will. If I have to."
Rin didn't look surprised.
"Just don't forget who you were before it."
"I don't even know who that is."
She offered her hand again.
This time, he took it.
---