It was strange.
It didn't feel the way it usually did.
It wasn't like wind magic, where the air responded with effortless lightness, or fire, which always demanded intention, control, and constant care to keep it from slipping out of my hands.
This was different.
For me, this felt… natural.
So natural that it unsettled me.
Creating metal required no effort. There was no resistance. No inner friction like I felt with the other elements.
It was like breathing.
Like closing my hand and knowing my fingers would respond.
And that filled me with questions.
I was sitting on the floor of the cabin, my back against one of the dark wooden walls, staring at my own hands.
My brown skin contrasted with the faint glow of the fire slowly dying in the fireplace. I had spent hours watching my fingers, slender but steady, become covered in a dull metallic sheen whenever I concentrated.
Iron.
Copper.
Sometimes something denser that I couldn't name.
My dark curls hung loosely over my shoulders, disheveled from the sleepless night. I couldn't sleep.
Every time I closed my eyes, that sensation returned.
As if something inside me had been waiting for this moment all along.
The cabin was silent.
Outside, the wind from the far reaches of the earth blew with a soft, steady rhythm, reminding me of how far away we were from everything.
From the capital.
From the palace.
From Leo.
From the world that seemed to have stopped the moment he fell into a coma.
It was just Yeana and me.
She sat across from me at the wooden table, checking a few jars and simple tools. Even in the dim light, her figure was unmistakable: pale skin like polished stone, gray hair falling straight past her shoulders, and completely white eyes that seemed less to reflect light than absorb it.
I took a deep breath before speaking.
"Yeana…" My voice broke the silence cautiously. "This is strange."
She lifted her head slightly without turning all the way toward me.
"Strange how?"
I straightened a little, resting my elbows on my knees.
"This…" I said, unintentionally forming a thin sheet of metal between my fingers. "It feels so natural. Like it's part of me. Like it's always been there."
She didn't answer immediately.
She slowly stood and walked toward me with calm, measured steps. When she reached me, she extended one hand and, almost absentmindedly, touched the ring on one of her fingers.
It was simple, without any noticeable decorations.
It always had been… until now.
"Oh?" she asked softly. "Is that so?"
I nodded.
"Could you repeat that, please?"
I swallowed, confused by the request.
"That… that it's strange. That it feels natural. Like it's part of me."
As I spoke, something caught my attention and made me stop.
The ring was no longer on her finger.
Instead, Yeana held what I could only describe as a translucent tablet.
It hovered slightly above her palm, emitting a faint, milky glow.
Symbols, diagrams, and text appeared across its surface, arranging themselves rapidly.
I watched in silence, completely absorbed as she typed—or perhaps recorded—what I had just said.
But that wasn't all.
When I looked a little higher, I realized it wasn't a single file.
There were many.
Too many.
And every single one of them…
was about me.
A knot formed in my stomach.
My brown eyes widened slightly, and apparently my expression was obvious enough because Yeana suddenly stopped and looked at me.
"Ana," she asked, surprised. "What's wrong? Is this the first time you've seen something like this?"
I pressed my lips together nervously.
The way I was staring at the artifact made me feel as though I had suddenly been thrown centuries into the past.
Like a Stone Age child seeing technology for the first time.
"N-no… that's not it," I stammered. "It's just that… I thought you only used magic. And this… besides being magical… it looks very… scientific."
For a moment, there was silence.
Then Yeana burst into genuine laughter that echoed through the small cabin.
She placed a hand over her chest as she laughed, leaning back slightly.
"You've read too many books," she said, still amused. "Of course we use science."
She lifted the tablet.
"This is a high-level artifact made by gnomes. I've used it for years for logistics, records, and analysis."
She stepped closer and showed me the translucent surface.
"Its structure is scientific, yes. But it runs on magic. All it needs is a tiny amount of magical power, and it can operate indefinitely."
I stared at it in amazement.
"So…" I murmured. "This world…"
"It's not as primitive as it looks," she finished. "Just different. And much older than you imagine."
I fell silent.
There were so many things I didn't know.
So many layers of this world I still couldn't understand.
I had spent years studying medicine, believing I understood how life worked.
Now I was only beginning to understand where I actually stood.
Yeana sat down across from me again, the artifact returning to its original form as a simple ring around her finger.
"What you're describing isn't a coincidence," she said more seriously. "The earth element responds to essence. To stability. To what remains even when everything else changes."
I looked at my hands again.
Brown.
Steady.
Marked with the small traces of daily work.
"What if that's what I am?" I asked quietly. "Something that remains."
Yeana watched me for a long moment.
Her white eyes revealed little emotion, but her voice was gentle when she answered.
"We don't know that yet. But I do know one thing, Ana."
I raised my eyes to her.
"You're outside the bubble now. Far from the palace, far from Leo, far from the chaos… but also far from absolute protection. Here, you're not a symbol."
She paused.
"You're simply you."
I nodded slowly.
Outside, the wind continued to blow.
And although I didn't know it yet, something inside me had already begun to take shape.
Something solid.
Something dangerous.
Something that didn't need permission to exist.