"I was going to tell you there’s no need to be scared of us, but I can see that’s hardly necessary," Celeste said, looking straight into Magna’s eyes.
She found no trace of fear in them, only curiosity and confusion.
’What kind of family did this kid come from?’ she thought, trying to peer into his soul.
What made Magna extraordinary wasn’t just his physical strength. It was the way he stayed completely calm through it all, studying his surroundings with a careful mind.
It was as if two different bloodline traits were living in one body.
One gave him raw physical power. The other gave him a calm, serene state, the kind the Winterborne line was known for.
Only the oldest bloodlines could carry more than one trait like that.
Her eyes dropped to his leg, right where it was broken.
"Titus," she called out to her Shadow again.
Titus just nodded. He knelt down and took hold of the boy’s hurt leg.
Magna’s first instinct was to pull back, bracing for pain. But the moment Titus touched him, all he felt was a mild, soothing chill washing the pain away instead.
Titus held his hand there a few seconds, then pulled a bandage from under his frost armor and wrapped up the break.
"You can walk on it now. Just don’t go kicking anything for a while," he said calmly, then stood back up.
Magna was caught off guard again. Not because of the man’s sudden kindness or just where he pulled that bandage from, but because he’d just watched another spell get cast without a single word said.
The pain was gone completely. When he stood and put weight on the leg, it felt like the bone had already knitted itself back together.
Too curious to hold back any longer, Magna looked up at the giant of a man. "How are you doing that? Casting spells like that?"
Titus said nothing. Celeste laughed softly at the question instead, reaching out to pat Magna’s head again.
"He’s not casting spells at all. He’s just borrowing a bit of my power," She said gently.
Magna gave her a confused look, but before he could ask anything else, she cut him off with a warm smile.
"I know you’ve got about a thousand questions in that head of yours right now. Save them for later."
She turned and started toward the waiting carriage, glancing back over her shoulder, warmth in her eyes.
"Come on, let’s get you out of the cold and somewhere warm."
—
During the ride, Magna sat quietly in the carriage, staring out the window at the world going by.
The trees blurred past, blending with the steady drum of galloping hooves and the rattle of the wheels.
He kept scanning everything outside, hoping to spot something fantastical, some kind of creature, some bit of magic.
But so far, it all looked pretty normal.
Even the pure white horses pulling the carriage were only a bit bigger than the ones from his old world, and nothing else about them seemed strange.
"First time traveling outside?" Celeste asked, her gentle smile still there, though something like pity flickered behind her eyes.
Magna finally pulled his gaze from the window, disappointed he hadn’t spotted anything fantastical, and nodded.
"I see," Celeste said softly, turning to look at Faye. "I bet she’s got plenty to show you once we’re home."
Faye had been staring at Magna the whole time, eyes locked on him, like she was trying to work out exactly what kind of creature was sitting across from her.
Only when her mother said her name did she snap out of it, her whole face lighting up.
Magna met her gaze and gave her an awkward smile. "Yeah. Guess I’m in your hands then."
Right then, it hit him. His quiet, peaceful days were officially over.
—
For most of the hour-long ride, nothing outside looked out of the ordinary. Then a huge city came into view in the distance, wrapped in towering stone walls.
There was still nothing exactly magical about it, but the sheer size of those walls guarding the city was enough to give Magna a pretty clear hint.
’Are those walls there to keep out other kingdoms? Or monsters?’
If there were walls, there had to be enemies out there somewhere.
Driven less by a kid’s plain curiosity and more by the leftover nerd instincts of a grown man, he pointed toward the horizon. "What are those big walls for?"
Before Celeste could answer, Faye jumped in first. "That’s my grandmother’s city in there. Our home." She puffed her chest out proudly, then her face fell into a frown. "And the walls keep the bad people out."
Wanting something more specific than just ’bad people,’ Magna pushed further. "What kind of bad people?"
This time Celeste answered. "We’re at war with a neighboring kingdom right now. But don’t worry, you’ll be completely safe once we’re inside."
So one of Magna’s guesses had turned out right.
This world really did have all the grim medieval stuff going on, wars and all.
The only real difference seemed to be the magic, the mythical creatures, and the fact that Witches were the ones in charge here.
’Guess it doesn’t matter who’s running things. Wars just never really stop, huh,’ He let out a tired sigh.
The carriage kept its steady pace, rolling past a line of other horse-drawn wagons heading in and out through the huge gates.
As they got closer to the entrance, Magna spotted two male sentinels standing guard.
They wore polished bronze armor from head to toe, heavy longswords strapped at their waists, and long spears held tight in gloved hands.
The moment the soldiers spotted the crest on the approaching carriage, they snapped straight to attention, spears up, heads high, standing rigid.
They watched in respectful silence as the carriage rolled between them and into the heart of the city.
Inside, things were even livelier than outside.
Wide streets were packed with carriages and riders. On both sides of the long avenue, vendors called out from their stalls, and shops with glass windows showed off all sorts of interesting stuff inside.
The whole street buzzed with loud voices and the steady press of the crowd.
But all that noise died away the second people noticed the carriage rolling down the road.
The moment the crowd caught sight of the big white horses pulling it, conversations just stopped. People froze where they stood.
They lowered their heads and waited quietly until the carriage had passed.
Magna watched them closely, studying their faces, trying to figure out what they were actually feeling.
What he saw was awe and real respect, not fear. There was no tension in their faces, nothing like people trying hard not to draw attention to themselves.
That told Magna a lot about the Winterborne family right there.
Whatever hold they had over these people, it clearly came from respect, not fear.
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