As the Prince took the lead, Amber fell in behind him, but in that moment, she used her affinity.
[Spectrum Affinity]
[Black]
HUMMMM!
A soft, almost soundless surge of divinity passed through the air around her.
In the next instant, she vanished from ordinary perception.
Even the prince, walking only a few steps ahead, showed no reaction to her disappearance.
She continued at his side unseen, sandals making no more noise than the softest brush of leather against stone.
Since her recent evolution into the Constellation of the Ultimate Spectrum, the nature of her power had changed completely.
She was no longer limited to a fixed set of colors, nor bound by meanings that had been given to her.
Every hue now answered only to the rules she herself decided. The older colors she had once relied upon remained in her arsenal, yet each had been rewritten according to her will.
Red now amplified her battle power by a full +10 and elevated any skill or power she used by one rank.
Blue removed or completely froze the motion of whatever it touched.
Gold nullified or stripped aspects from a target.
Purple erased memories, emotional anchors, or mental ties.
Green forced rapid growth or decay across any area within her divine sense.
Black created absolute concealment.
And lastly, white burned through illusions and forced absolute revelations.
As always, the effects held so long as her battle output stood above her opponent’s. When the two were equal, the colors still functioned unless actively countered.
----
Amber walked beside the prince in silence while the hours passed.
He first stopped at a narrow shop selling skills and sealed scrolls, speaking quietly with the proprietor for several minutes before leaving with a slim wooden case.
Next, he stopped at a quiet courtyard café, where he sat beneath a stone archway and exchanged brief, carefully polite words with two minor nobles.
Amber lingered at the edge of the room, paying no attention to the Prince’s affairs whatsoever.
Later, he stepped into an upscale tailor’s shop, waiting calmly as measurements were checked and a new formal cloak was fitted.
Through it all, Amber remained a step behind or to the side, unseen, her attention drifting between the prince’s movements and the steady flow of the First City around them.
By the time the twin lights of Loreua’s sky had fully given way to night, they reached their true destination.
----
The Consortium rose ahead of them—an enormous structure of pale and dark stone, its wide steps already crowded with young royals and their attendants.
Eternal white candles burned along every railing and archway, casting clean light across formal cloaks, polished boots, and the occasional flash of jewelry.
As soon as they stepped in, the air buzzed with overlapping conversations, a steady hum weaving through the courtyard.
"Which region do you think will make the biggest impression this time?"
"The Eastern Kingdoms, obviously!"
A ripple of soft laughter followed, but it was quickly silenced by a sharper, more deliberate voice.
"You might want to keep it down. Half the folks out here are already straining to catch something they can use," the man warned, his tone dropping as he leaned in.
"Let’s not paint a target on ourselves before things even get started."
Servants wove through the arriving guests with easy, well-rehearsed grace, directing some toward the upper galleries and ushering others into the main hall, their calm voices repeating kind gestures, making sure everyone felt comfortable.
From behind her black concealment, Amber observed it all in silence, taking in the orderly flow of movement.
"The Eastern Kingdoms, huh?" she mused, feeling her curiosity starting to bubble up.
She let her gaze drift toward a few of the royals from that distant land, and her eyes narrowed slightly.
"Are they wearing some kind of artifact?" she muttered, noting that, from what she could tell, she was clearly the strongest person here.
Yet, despite her strength, every mind in the courtyard seemed shrouded, protected by something unseen, leaving her with nothing to work with and no answers to grasp.
Her gaze drifted across the crowd, and almost immediately she caught the other concealed presences.
Several guards moved through the press of bodies under similar veils... and her seeing through their concealments so easily further proved that she stood in a higher rank than those here.
One lingered near a cluster of southern royals. Another kept pace with a young woman in deep green formal wear.
"It looks like this place won’t be too bad after all," Amber remarked, casting each a quick, evaluating glance before moving on.
"I might as well see what they’re up to... and make my way toward that Empire while I’m at it."
She might have said she was here to have fun, but, as mentioned before, Amber’s adventures were rarely without purpose.
She kept to a certain routine, which often led her to take on jobs like this one while she was already out on missions.
Once the position was secured, she would simply linger until something piqued her curiosity. And back on Kalpa, her origins had always been a driving force behind her journeys.
She stayed close to the prince as he ascended the wide stone steps, her sandals making no sound against the surface.
They pushed through a pair of massive double doors and stepped into a chamber that caught her off guard in the most unexpected way.
----
The space unfolded before her like a hidden wonder, its design carefully crafted to mimic the serene and awe-inspiring atmosphere of a planetarium, complete with a domed ceiling that seemed to constantly fill itself with a sky full of stars.
A vast domed ceiling arched overhead, its surface mapped with constellations that glowed in soft silver and deep blue.
The floor was polished black stone that reflected the starlight above, and circular seating rose in gentle tiers around a central open space.
An old man stepped forward from the far side of the chamber.
His formal robes were dark and unadorned except for a single white clasp at the collar, and the lines on his face spoke of long service rather than age alone.
When he spoke, his voice carried easily through the domed hall without the need to raise it.
"Welcome," he began. "This marks the tenth gathering of the younger generation..."
From his tone, it was clear these events were far from new; in fact, they occurred only once every hundred years.
With a calm wave of his hand toward the ascending rows, he added.
"Please, find your seats. Proceedings will begin shortly."
The princes and princesses moved at once, their formal cloaks whispering against the black stone as they settled into the circular rows.
Amber and the other concealed guards rose higher into the open air beneath the star-mapped dome.
Some seated themselves cross-legged in midair; others simply waited in still, upright postures, their attention fixed on the gathering below.
Across the chamber, two figures posing as guards from the Eastern Kingdoms turned their heads almost in unison.
Even through the veil of Black, their eyes found Amber without hesitation.
And in that moment... a brief, sharp look passed between them.
’A member of the Empire... here?’ the woman thought, her expression carefully neutral.
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