Miranda slowly steadied her breathing, pushing down the shivering cold that threatened to snap her focus. She stood tall, refusing to let this hooded stranger see a single ounce of her fear.
"If you were planning to sell me, you wouldn't be standing there wasting your breath trying to sound intimidating," Miranda said, her voice cutting through the whistling mountain wind with an icy, sharp clarity that made Lyra's smirk falter for a split second. "And if you want to exploit me, you'll find that a corpse makes a terrible business partner. I'm freezing, I'm sore, and I have absolutely no time for amateur threats."
Lyra blinked, thoroughly amused by the sheer audacity of the fourteen-year-old girl standing before her in tattered clothes. She threw her head back, letting out a sharp, genuine laugh. "Amateur? Little bird, you have quite a mouth on you. I like that. But compliments don't pay the toll in the borderlands. What do you actually have to offer?"
Miranda reached into the hidden lining of her inner tunic. Her fingers brushed past a small piece of folded parchment—a frantic message Sebastian had desperately shoved into her pocket right before he lit the fire, which she had only just noticed. Her thumb caught onto the only other object she had managed to keep: a small, intricately carved silver hairpin adorned with a tiny, flawless sunstone, a rare keepsake from her late biological mother.
"A genuine, unmarked artifact from the inner sanctum of Suncity's royal palace," Miranda said, holding the silver pin up just enough for the perpetual twilight to catch its polished surface. "Untraceable. No royal crests, but the craftsmanship alone is worth a dozen top-tier teleportation potions on the shadow market. It's yours. But I don't just want passage out of here. I need to disappear. Completely."
Lyra's eyes instantly locked onto the shimmering silver pin. As a shadow market informant, she knew high-end royal value when she saw it. She snatched the pin from Miranda's hand, inspecting it with a practiced eye before sliding it into her leather utility pouch.
"A fair trade," Lyra murmured, reaching behind her shoulders to unclip a heavy, shimmering fabric that seemed to shift between midnight blue and translucent silver. She tossed it onto Miranda's shivering frame. "Put this on. It's a high-grade moon-illusion cloak. It shifts your natural heat signature and completely masks your physical aura. To anyone looking at you, your eyes and features will look like those of a common, low-born native of the night. It'll keep you warm, too."
As Miranda wrapped the heavy, soothing fabric around herself, her shivering instantly stopped. The cloak hummed with a quiet, lunar energy that perfectly hid her unique grey eyes behind a dark, violet illusion.
"Now, where to send you," Lyra mused, tapping her chin with a sly grin. "You're clearly running from the Sun Kingdom. If you stay in the borderlands, your father's hounds will eventually track the ashes to this pass. If you want to hide where absolutely no one from Suncity will ever dare to look for you... you need to go to Mooncity. The harsh night and the absolute hatred between the kingdoms will be your perfect shield."
Miranda's heart skipped a beat, the image of Prince Aldrax's piercing violet eyes instantly flashing across her mind. Mooncity. It was the last place she ever expected to go, but Lyra's logic was flawless.
Once Lyra turned to map out a safe trail toward the silver gates of the Moon Kingdom, Miranda finally pulled the crumpled piece of parchment from her inner pocket. She smoothed it out with trembling fingers, recognizing Sebastian's frantic, heavy handwriting.
Mira, the note read, the ink slightly smudged from his sweat. If you are reading this, the gambit succeeded. To the King and Queen El, you are dead. You must hide, little one. Do not trust anyone from Suncity, and do not show your face. The poison they gave you was a death sentence, but a terrifying, ancient danger is growing around your life—something far worse than your father's court. Amon's shadows are actively hunting you, and the palace is thoroughly corrupted. Go north. Hide in the dark until I can find you. Stay alive.
Miranda stared blankly at the crumpled parchment, her brow furrowing in deep confusion. Amon? The name was completely foreign to her, evoking absolutely no memory from her childhood or the endless legends she had been told by her nannies. She knew of the Sun Goddess Kyrr and the Moon God Seba, but this name felt like a cold weight dragging her into a darkness she didn't understand. Who was this Amon, and why would his shadows be hunting a powerless reject princess like her? A chill that had nothing to do with the mountain wind crept down her spine, realization dawning on her that her survival was no longer just about outrunning her stepmother's petty jealousy—she was caught in a much larger, invisible snare.
Miranda clutched the note tightly against her chest, her jaw hardening under her new midnight hood. The reject princess of the sun was officially dead. Taking a deep breath, she stepped into the shadows behind Lyra, ready to walk straight into the house of night