The night’s sleep had gone relatively well, despite Eleanor’s overwhelming nervousness.

I had teased her a little before settling in, but I made sure not to touch her, keeping a respectful distance on the creaking mattress so she could finally relax.

Leilah was present as well, sleeping silently on the nearby sofa. And she was still wearing that mask. I was curious about what was so terribly wrong, or perhaps so extraordinary, that she felt compelled to hide her face behind it every single moment.

Regardless of the tension, we had managed to sleep for a solid few hours.

I was the first to stir. When I turned my gaze, I found Eleanor still sound asleep beside me, her soft pink lips parted ever so slightly. The woman was almost unfairly beautiful, and I had seen more than my fair share of beautiful women in my life.

Rising slowly from the mattress, I stepped onto the cold wooden floor and stretched my stiff arms above my head. When I turned around, the sofa was entirely empty. It seemed Leilah had woken up even earlier than I had.

Walking over to the small, dusty window, I pulled back the curtain and realized it was already past noon.

Damn. The travel had clearly taken more out of me than I had anticipated.

Slipping my boots on, I quietly opened the door to the hallway and found Oliver and Mia still there, leaning casually against the walls and chatting in low voices. The mere fact that they had stood guard the entire night without so much as closing an eye was actually reassuring.

"Your Majesty, do you require something?" Oliver asked instantly, snapping to attention as he noticed me.

"No, I am fine. We will be moving out in an hour," I informed him quietly. "Did anything happen during the night?"

"Nothing at all, Your Majesty," he replied formally.

"And what of Alan and Elric?" I asked.

"They are perfectly fine as well, Your Majesty," he confirmed.

"Hm," I nodded thoughtfully, and gently pushed the door shut.

Turning back into the room, I found Eleanor finally awake. She was in the middle of stifling a delicate yawn behind her hand, but the moment she met my gaze, she froze, her cheeks rapidly flushing with embarrassment.

For a brief, quiet moment, it felt as though we were simply an ordinary husband and wife, waking up side by side in our shared bed.

An hour later, after we had both washed and dressed, we finally left the room. Leilah had quietly returned in the meantime, slipping back into her role as the silent shadow. We formally checked out of the inn, though I instructed Alan and Elric to remain behind and keep a strict watch over our carriages and belongings.

It was early afternoon, and just as we had done in Helianth, we decided to simply wander the streets.

Solmire was nowhere near as expansive as Helianth, but it still possessed a wealth of historical sights and local curiosities. I supposed every ancient town carried its own distinct charm.

We strolled aimlessly through the cobblestone streets for a while, instantly gathering a considerable amount of attention from the locals despite out attempt to hide as much as possible our noble origins.

Regardless, spotting nobles in a humble town like Solmire was definitely far more surprising than it had been in the bustling Helianth.

Regardless...

Things seemed to be going entirely too smoothly.

Relying on my newly awakened instincts, I realized I did not feel the same hidden eyes upon me that I had experienced in Helianth.

Had they genuinely failed to track us all the way to Solmire?

No. That was highly unlikely.

After their failure in Helianth, I fully expected the Black Sun to return with a vengeance, to make at the very least one final attempt to take my life.

"Your Majesty."

Mia whispered suddenly.

I raised a brow, casting a swift glance in her direction. She was leveling a distinctly hard, unblinking gaze at the narrow street ahead.

Had she seen something?

I immediately shifted my eyes toward Oliver. He caught my gaze and offered a single nod. I caught the subtle twitch of his fingers resting securely on the pommel of his sword, hidden entirely beneath his cloak.

We had purposefully drifted away from the bustling center and were now walking a far less crowded, quieter periphery of Solmire.

I quietly mirrored his movement, slipping my own hand onto the wrapped hilt of Hyperion, and kept walking with careful steps.

Honestly, I was growing impatient. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

If it were at all possible, I wanted this inevitable clash to be finished before I laid my hands on the necklace tonight. The last thing I needed was for the Black Sun to realize exactly what ancient artifact I had obtained. Eliminating this lingering threat before sunset would be perfect.

But they were clearly biding their time, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike.

With Oliver and Mia flanking us on either side, and Leilah trailing silently behind, we had virtually no blind spots. Their heightened combat senses were bleeding into the air around us. Beside me, Eleanor immediately picked up on the sudden tension; I could tell she was growing nervous as she tightened her grip on her skirts.

We continued to walk, my eyes meticulously scanning every shadow and alleyway.

The few townsfolk passing by offered us highly strange, wary glances, likely because our stances had grown entirely rigid and our expressions severely hardened, but we ignored them completely.

The smartest decision would have been to immediately turn around and retreat to the safety of the populated town center. Instead, I purposefully chose to delve deeper into the isolated periphery.

Neither Oliver nor Mia voiced a single objection to my route, which meant we were entirely on the same wavelength. Our shared objective was clear: draw the threat out now and destroy it before they had the luxury of planning a more sophisticated ambush.

I was purposefully baiting them again. Only this time, my instincts screamed that the danger was higher.

"Do not move from my side, Eleanor," I whispered to her, my tone dead serious.

She gave a small nod.

Another minute passed in silence. It felt like an eternity, and the tension had wound itself so tightly around us that it was nearly suffocating.

At this point, we all knew something was about to happen. One didn’t need supernatural senses to feel it; it was an instinctive, universal sense of imminent danger.

And then, we heard a deafening crack.

"Above!" Oliver warned.

I instantly raised my gaze. My eyes widened as the rooftops of the buildings on either side of the narrow street fractured and collapsed, sending massive chunks of stone and debris raining down upon us.

I moved purely on instinct, yanking Eleanor against my chest and shielding her body with my own.

But the crushing impact never came.

Opening my eyes, I looked around and realized we were completely encased in pitch blackness. A massive, impenetrable dome of hardened earth, or perhaps reinforced sand had instantly erupted from the street, perfectly shielding us from the avalanche of falling stone.

It was Oliver’s spell.

It was dark inside the dome, the only light filtering through the tiny cracks in the earth, leaving us barely able to see one another’s outlines.

"Your Majesty," Oliver said, his voice echoing slightly in the confined space as he turned to face me.

We all looked at each other in the gloom. We had to decide if we were truly ready to breach the dome and face whatever threat was waiting for us on the other side.

Finally, I gave him a single nod.

At the exact same moment, I drew Hyperion from its scabbard.

"Open it."