Arka sat on the edge of his thin mattress until dawn broke.
Memories of his mother still spun through his mind. Her tear-streaked young face. Her trembling voice pleading for him to be protected. The same pendant hung around the baby’s neck. It wasn’t merely a keepsake. It wasn’t an ordinary gift.
His mother had been a guardian.
Arka stared at the pendant in his palm. A pale green light still lingered within it, pulsing faintly in time with his heartbeat. He ran his fingers over the cold jade surface.
“Who are you really, Mom?”
The next morning, he went to school with heavier steps. The ends of his sleeves were still slightly damp from last night’s rain. The wound on his shoulder had closed, but the stinging remained. Every time he breathed, he felt something changing inside his body—becoming denser, more alert.
Reno was waiting in front of the gate.
Not with his usual laughter. His eyes narrowed as he looked Arka up and down, from his hair to his worn-out shoes. There was something different about Reno’s face today. It wasn’t just resentment. There was deep suspicion in his eyes.
“You’ve changed,” Reno said quietly as Arka walked past. His voice was low, almost inaudible to the other students. “Yesterday, you nearly killed me. Then you disappeared. Today, you’re walking like someone who just crawled out of a grave.”
Arka didn’t answer. He kept walking.
“I saw the wound on your shoulder. And I saw how the wind moved when you got angry. That wasn’t a coincidence.” He grabbed Arka’s arm. His grip was strong. “What happened to you, poor boy?”
Arka turned. His eyes met Reno’s directly. Reno fell silent for a moment. There was something in that stare that made him hesitate.
“Let go,” Arka said calmly.
Reno released him, but his smile didn’t disappear. “I’ll find out. You can’t hide forever.”
The afternoon passed in tension. Arka felt Reno watching him from across the classroom again and again. Whenever wind blew in through the windows, he held his breath, afraid that power would leak out again.
That afternoon, while he sat alone behind the gymnasium, Elara appeared.
She emerged from the shadow of a leafy tree as though she had been waiting for a long time. Her dress was darker today, a deep green that clung to her body from the remnants of last night’s rain. Parts of her hair were wet, sticking to her neck and shoulders. She looked at Arka with something he couldn’t read in her eyes.
“You saw those memories,” Elara said without preamble.
“My mother… she was from your world.”
Elara sat beside him. They were close. She still smelled the same—sweet, wild, and slightly damp. “She was one of the last guardians. She fled with the pendant and the baby in her womb to protect you from the same person who’s searching for you now.”
Arka studied Elara’s profile. “Why didn’t you tell me from the beginning?”
Elara fell silent. The wind gently lifted her hair. “Because there are things you’re not allowed to know yet.”
“What?”
Elara turned to him. Her eyes were deep. “Everyone in the ancient kingdom hides something, Arka. Including me. Including your mother.”
She reached out and touched the pendant around Arka’s neck. Her fingers were warm. “When you’re ready, I’ll tell you. But not now. If I tell you too soon, you might reject everything. Including me.”
Arka took hold of Elara’s wrist. “I won’t reject you.”
Elara smiled faintly, but the smile never reached her eyes. “Don’t say that yet.”
She stood. Her body began to fade along the edge of the shadow. “Reno is getting suspicious. Be careful around him. He may not be just an ordinary businessman’s son.”
Arka stood as well. “Elara—”
“Don’t call for me tonight,” Elara interrupted gently. “I have to go back. Something is moving in the kingdom. Someone more dangerous than the hunter has awakened.”
She vanished before Arka could ask anything else.
Arka stood alone behind the building. The wind circled restlessly around his feet. The pendant around his neck felt heavier than usual.
In the distance, by a classroom window that was still lit, Reno stood watching him. The faint smile on his lips held no warmth.
And in the other world, Elara stood before a cracked mirror, staring at her own reflection with eyes full of secrets she had yet to speak.