A DREAM OF ASHES AND EMERALDS

Silence was Noelia's armor. In her small house on the outskirts of the citadel, far from the noise and chaotic camaraderie of the Harmonia Clan, order and silence were her only laws. Every book on her shelf, every potion in her lab, every piece of her combat gear, was in its exact place. It was a fortress built to keep the chaos of the world at bay.

But she couldn't control the chaos that blossomed inside her when she closed her eyes.

The nightmare returned, as it often did. The same scene, burned into her soul. A battlefield under a broken sky dripping with darkness. And in front of her, a hero. She couldn't see his face, veiled by smoke and pain, but she felt a connection to him so deep it was agony. His armor was shattered, and from his wounds gushed an aura of unnatural flame, an impossible mixture of life-filled emerald green and light-devouring corrupt black.

He knelt, dying. He extended a trembling hand toward her, and on his finger, a ring with a heart-shaped ruby glittered. It was a promise. A farewell. A question she could never answer. She tried to run to him, to scream a name that choked in her throat, but her feet were anchored to the ground. She could only watch, helpless, as the hero of the dual flame faded to ashes.

Noelia awoke with a gasp, her heart hammering against her ribs. The sense of loss was so real, so visceral, that she put a hand to her chest, expecting to feel a hole there. She hated that nightmare. She hated that faceless hero. And, most of all, she hated the overwhelming helplessness that left her shivering in the dark.

To purge her nightmares, she dressed with her usual efficiency and headed for the clan. Routine was her anchor. The bustle of the great hall, which others found welcoming, she found irritating. Too much noise, too much wasted excitement.

— Noelia! Just in time — said manager Valerius. — There is a mandatory training mission for all newcomers. An Investigation in the Whispering Forest. —

She held back a grunt. Perfect. A field trip with rookies. She saw the assigned group: two boys who seemed more interested in their hairstyles than their swords, and... him. The boy with the scary look. Asimil. She'd noticed him before. Weak, clumsy, always on the verge of panic. The weakest link by definition. This was going to be a waste of time.

The forest was as monotonous as she had expected. Asimil stumbled twice in the first ten minutes. Noelia walked ahead, her patience waning with every second. When they found the source of the energy, some simple magic flowers, she just wanted to finish and leave.

It was then that they came across the Moon Fox trapped in corrupt vines.

— It's not our problem. Let's move on — she ordered coldly.

— We can't leave it like this — said Asimil.

The soft but firm defiance in his voice irritated her. Who did he think he was to question her orders? She was about to annihilate him with a cutting retort when he ignored her and knelt down beside the creature. She watched with disdain as he tried to free the animal, waiting for his inevitable failure.

But then, he summoned his magic. A small, pathetic green flame appeared in his palm.

And Noelia's world stopped.

The color.

It was the same green. The same emerald hue of the hero of her nightmare. It was a match compared to the inferno of her dream, but the scent... it was unmistakable. She stared at it, her mind struggling to connect two impossible images: the dying hero of her soul and the trembling novice using that same flame to carefully burn some thorns and free a useless animal.

It was the same spirit. That stupid, meaningless sacrifice. And to top it off, the way he frowned as he concentrated... a painful echo of her little brother, Gray.

The flame. The sacrifice. The brother. The triple collision of ghosts in her heart was too much. Confusion overwhelmed her, and she protected herself the only way she knew how.

When Asimil stood up, having released the fox, she unleashed her inner storm on him.

— ARE YOU AN IDIOT! — she shouted at him, her voice harder than ever to hide the trembling she felt. — YOU'VE LOST TEN MINUTES! LET'S GO! —

They returned to the clan in tense silence. Asimil, head bowed, convinced that she despised him. He couldn't have been more wrong.

That night, Noelia could not rest, so in the solitude of the clan library she realized something. The nightmare was no longer alone in her dreams; now it had a face. A weak, frightening face that didn't fit at all. She opened the clan record book and searched for his name.

"Asimil. Rank C4. Reputation: troublemaker. Notable skill: Fire Magic (Green, low level)".

It didn't make sense. None of it made sense. But as she looked at the file, the image of the hero of the emerald and black flame refused to fade from her mind.

She closed the book. Her mission had changed. It was no longer about power. Now, above all else, she needed an answer.

Who are you really, Asimil?

And to find out, she decided she would never look away from him again.