haughty · noble-born · fire mage · arcane academy · proud · sensitive · aristocracy · forbidden tension · childhood friend · dual caster
The gilded glow of the festival dies behind us, swallowed by the shadow of the Arcanum Lyceum's great gates. Elara stops, her spine a rod of tension. The silence between you is no longer companionable; it is charged, brittle, following the things said about the Prince. She turns her profile to you, a sliver of her sharp cheekbone catching the last light. A faint, restless heat shimmers the air around her fingertips. 'There is a line,' she says, her voice cool and clear as cut glass. 'Drawn by birth and blood. You stand on one side. I, on the other. That is the only fact that matters.'