The night blew with gelid winds, cutting through the inner fields of the Valemortis estate like thin silver blades. Under the cloudy sky and filtered moonlight, a small silhouette trembled in the vastness of the training courtyard. There, wrapped in fitted training clothes, Elyandra remained with her eyes closed, trying, with what little warmth she had left, to control the flow of mana within her body.
She was shaking. Shaking a lot.
"This isn't magic training anymore. This is state-sanctioned imperial army torture."
With every gust of wind, her nose seemed to threaten to fall off and her fingers hardened like stones. But Elyandra resisted—or at least, she tried to.
In front of her, like an impassive and firm statue, Dalia Vernhardt, her tutor, watched her with arms crossed.
— Control demands resilience, concentration, and adaptation. The real world will not give you time to warm up before attacking. Continue, Valemortis. Mana does not flow for the weak-spirited.
Elyandra forced a sigh.
"If mana doesn't flow for the weak, then mine must be frozen in my spleen right about now..."
She concentrated again. Four months of training had shaped her mastery over mana. It was no longer a flickering flame inside her; now, it felt like a controllable river, even if unstable. She knew where the energy was. She knew how to touch it. But under that cold, even the certainties of her own body became blurred.
Soft footsteps on the stone ground announced a familiar presence. Siris approached, covered in her typical light wool cloak, carrying a cup adorned with delicate floral designs.
— I brought hot chocolate, Miss Elyandra. I thought a bit of heat might help with your focus — she said, with a warm smile that seemed to contradict the temperature around them.
Elyandra's eyes widened, clearly shaken by the temptation.
— It's so cold I can't even think... much less meditate on mana flow...
Dalia arched a brow with severity.
— The cold is part of the training. Learn to manipulate your flow even with the body in shock. If you can keep your mana stable under this weather, you will be able to do it in any situation.
"Great. Next stage: meditating inside a volcano to balance the contrast."
The mana began to circulate inside her again, slower than usual but steady. The progress was real. Elyandra knew it. Her control had evolved. Now, she felt the flow even at the tips of her fingers. She could even... model the pressure around her heart.
But even that didn't stop her from shivering like a rich lady's lapdog.
She looked askance at Siris, who still held the chocolate with that bright little smile.
"I swear, if she calls me 'cute' while I'm nearly dying of cold, I'll freeze this drink myself and throw it at her."
Elyandra's shivering only worsened. Her body seemed to behave like a puppy fresh out of a bath, shaking uncontrollably. The wind howled through the gaps in the walls and cut through her training clothes as if they were nothing more than thin kitchen rags. Snow fell over the training field like rain; though light, it was cold—very cold.
"Why am I dressed as if it's summer... in the coldest month of the year?"
She opened her eyes for a moment and cast a discreet, almost accusing glance at the two figures accompanying her. Dalia, standing like a wall of determination, was wrapped in a heavy gray coat with a reinforced inner lining and boots up to her knees. Beside her, Siris gently swayed the cup of hot chocolate in her hands, her arms covered by long sleeves of padded wool and a dark shawl folded over her shoulders, giving her the air of a refined winter caregiver.
"Why am I the only one looking like an aspiring parade soldier while these two dress like they're going camping in the tundra?"
She felt like crying. Like revolting. Or... at least wearing two pairs of socks.
But instead, she took a deep breath and closed her eyes again. Mana was everything. She couldn't get distracted. Every second of connection was worth its weight in gold in her preparation for the magic academy. The tutor had already spelled it out: the exam would be in one year. And by then, Elyandra needed to be more than good. She needed to be the best.
Even if her teeth chattered like cathedral bells. Even if her knees buckled with every gust of wind. Even if the tip of her nose had lost all tactile sensation and was, in practice, in a coma.
She was still Elyandra Valemortis.
"Just a few more minutes. After that... maybe I can use the chocolate as a heating pad..."
With a trembling body and intact pride, Elyandra resumed control of her mana, guiding the flow from the center of her body to her arms. It was difficult, but she would not back down. The cold was just one more obstacle to be mastered, like all the others she might face on her path through the world.
Dalia watched in silence. Her hands were crossed behind her back, her gaze fixed on that small silhouette shivering in the center of the stone courtyard. The cold bit, cutting the air with invisible claws, and yet...
"She continues."
Even now, with her hair standing on end from the biting breeze and her lips trembling discreetly, Elyandra did not break her posture. Sitting cross-legged with her hands resting on her knees, she channeled her mana with a concentration worthy of someone who, by right, could simply not care.
"No child her age should be able to manipulate mana in such conditions," Dalia's eyes analyzed the situation coldly. "None... except her."
Dalia narrowed her eyes, closely observing every movement of the flow around the girl. The small particles of energy fluctuated with more consistency. The mastery over the internal circuit was strengthening—there was no doubt.
"She is evolving far too fast."
But it wasn't just the speed of progress that caused her amazement. It was the choice.
"The Imperial Magic Academy..."
Her countenance remained still, but her thoughts flowed with intensity.
"A Saint. An heir of the Valemortis. A child with ancient blood at nearly a hundred percent... and she wants to enter that bureaucratic institution of ambitious youths and spoiled aristocrats? How many paths could you follow? Do you really need to go down this one? So many questions..." Dalia sighed; she hadn't been called to ask questions, but to teach the little Valemortis to use magic. That was all she was meant to do. "She could spend her life being adored as a divine symbol. Or manipulating the gears of the Empire with her political heritage. She could grow up without ever needing to set foot on a training field."
And yet, Elyandra chose the hard path.
"Life outside these walls is not the wonderland you must think it is."
Dalia kept her breathing controlled, but her eyes were fixed on the girl before her with something bordering on admiration. No. It had already crossed that line.
"Do you want to build something with your own hands, perhaps? Valemortis has that ambitious history, though I find it quite self-destructive."
For a brief moment, the tutor's heart tightened.
"If she continues like this..."
A few meters away, Siris blew on the steam of the hot chocolate in silence, her gaze shining as if she were looking at a lost animal in the snow.
"She's freezing..."
Despite the gelid climate and intense concentration, Elyandra looked like a shivering ice cube in the silence, her cheeks rosy from the cold and her nose almost blue.
"Ah, if only I could... just one hug..."
The cup in her hands trembled discreetly—not from the cold, but from restraint. Every fiber of her being wanted to scoop that brave little girl up, wrap her in a blanket, and tell her everything was okay.
"Why are you like this? So determined, so stubborn, so... absurdly cute?"
She bit her lip and lowered her eyes for a moment, smiling with contained tenderness.
"Just a little longer, little ice cube... then I'll melt you with chocolate, blankets, and head-pats."
Far from there, where the cold reigned absolute, Elyandra felt nothing anymore.
Her fingers, once trembling, were now numb; her legs had become blocks of ice incapable of sustaining any sensation. Every inch of her skin had surrendered to the pitiless chill of the dawn. And yet... she did not fall.
She shook like a broken toy—one of those wind-up ones that only knew how to shake in a comical and desperate way.
But then... the world seemed to stop. Her breathing ceased for an instant. Her mind fell silent. And the cold vanished.
Elyandra's eyes opened slowly, revealing a glow that had never been there before. Her face was empty of expression, yet serene as a mirrored lake under the moonlight. Inside her, her mana flow was a spectacle.
A clear and limpid river, where every particle danced in harmony, soft as silk and firm as a current. The energy floated in peace, without resistance, without tension—as if, finally, body and soul had synchronized.
The feeling of control became visible to the point that the aura around Elyandra turned golden. It was as if the space around her distorted, and for long minutes, she remained focused, her eyes shining intensely, her mana flow... perfect.
Elyandra felt no pain. No cold. Only... peace. A peace so deep it was almost divine—warm, enveloping, as if the arms of the world itself were cradling her.
And then, the sensation became real. A sudden warmth covered her. She blinked slowly, her senses returning gently, as if waking from an enchanted dream.
That was when she saw it: Siris, in front of her, was carefully wrapping her in a thick, fluffy blanket while balancing the cup of hot chocolate with the other hand, her gaze completely shimmering with relief.
And beside her, firm and decided as ever, Dalia Vernhardt held her in her arms with unexpectedly gentle strength.
— Congratulations. — Dalia said in a low voice, a whisper muffled by emotion. — You were much better than I could have imagined.
Elyandra's heart, though slowed by exhaustion, warmed completely. She smiled. A small smile, almost childish, but genuinely happy. Her tiny arms came out from under the blanket to cling tightly to her tutor, seeking her warmth as if it were home.
The woman said nothing more, but her countenance softened like never before. On the other side, Siris couldn't contain the shimmer in her eyes. A huge, emotional smile took over her face.
— Ugh... Why isn't it me holding you...? — she grumbled softly, puffing her cheeks slightly like a pouting child. — This isn't fair... she looks so cute like that, all wrapped up... I want to hug her too!
And even wrapped in blankets, in the arms of her tutor and still unable to feel her toes, Elyandra murmured in a low voice:
— ...I want more blankets.
The trio walked back to the house, cutting through the cold dawn wind like a strange, yet perfectly united family.