"Oh, how boring," a young man muttered to himself, voice low and tired.
He sat alone, half-hidden in the shadows of the auction hall, his hood drawn up to shade his face. The dim light of the dark-side gallery flickered off the black marble columns around him, dancing like flames across the polished floor.
He leaned back in his seat with a sigh, eyes drifting lazily over the stage as another "rare specimen" was presented in a gilded cage.
"Nothing truly special this time," he murmured, glancing through the floating catalog that shimmered beside him. Page after page of enchanted creatures, exotic mortals, cursed spirits, and demi-beings scrolled by. All carefully bound. All brimming with desperation.
And yet, none of them caught his eye.
The seating hall was grand—divided cleanly down the middle. On the left, the Light Court: golden and radiant, with floating platforms, velvet banners, and gods who sat openly, basking in divine glow. Their faces were unmasked, regal, proud.
On the right, his side—the Dark Court—was shrouded in low magic and smoke. Curtains of shadow clung to each private alcove. Most gods here stayed hidden, faces veiled or twisted into monstrous forms. Whispers curled between the chairs like snakes.
He rested his chin on his knuckles, eyes lazily scanning the light side.
And then—he saw her.
Silver-haired. Radiant. Stiff-backed with unease barely masked by her grace. Her presence was impossible to ignore. A goddess of the elven pantheon—Kaios.
He narrowed his eyes beneath the hood.
"So… she's here."
Kaios sat near the center of the Light Court, her gaze fixed on the stage with a little too much interest. Her fingers clutched the armrest, knuckles pale.
"She looks rattled," he muttered to himself. "Odd. Not like her at all…"
He followed her gaze toward the back of the stage, where a new cage was being wheeled into place—smaller, reinforced with etched silver and protective runes. Inside, a girl with long silver hair and wide, frightened eyes stared out through the bars.
A mortal. Young. Elf-blooded.
His brow furrowed beneath the hood.
"Hm. That one?"
He tried to sense her presence… but there was little. Her aura was faint, quiet, flickering like a candle near death. Drained, maybe. Or hidden.
"I don't sense much… but…" He tilted his head, watching her more closely now. "There's something."
The girl's magic didn't stir like others. It trembled. It waited. Like a sleeping beast beneath the waves.
He smirked faintly, the corner of his mouth tugging up.
"Maybe this auction won't be so boring after all."
From the other side of the room, the silver gaze of Goddess Kaios suddenly flicked in his direction—as if she sensed him watching.
He leaned back into the darkness with a soft chuckle.
Let's see who gets to her first…
Kaios sat perfectly still, every movement calculated, every breath measured. Her silver-white hair cascaded over one shoulder like moonlight woven into silk, her pale fingers resting lightly on the carved armrest of her chair.
To the gathered gods of the Light Court, she appeared the picture of calm divinity.
But beneath that serene exterior, her thoughts churned like a storm behind glass.
It's her. The girl i saw in the alley.
Her gaze was fixed on the cage being rolled to the center of the stage. The girl inside looked barely older than a child, thin and trembling, her magic-cuffs glowing faintly. Silver hair—so rare. Familiar. Her skin, her ears, her blood.
Kaios felt her heartbeat quicken, though her expression remained unreadable.
Why is she here? She shouldn't be here. Not in this realm, not in this place.
She shifted slightly in her seat, her fingers curling ever so subtly. Her divine attendants behind her said nothing, trained to remain silent in her presence. But even they sensed something in her stillness.
Kaios had watched dozens of auctions in this hall. Mortal slaves, fallen celestials, cursed beings—some tragic, some dangerous. But none of them had ever drawn her attention like this. She had always remained passive. Distant.
But this girl… this child… was different.
That aura… it's sealed. Suppressed. But not gone.
It was faint—almost extinguished—but Kaios had lived long enough, seen enough magic in all its forms, to recognize the heartbeat of something ancient. Something powerful buried deep inside the girl.
And that terrified her.
She doesn't belong here.
Not just because she was mortal—but because she was unregistered. Not bound by any of the divine realms. Not born of a pantheon. And yet… her soul shimmered with something dangerously close to divinity.
An unanchored presence.
A potential realmwalker.
Kaios glanced across the chamber toward the shadowed seats of the Dark Court. She felt it before she saw it—him. A presence old and clever, hidden well behind veils of apathy and darkness.
The young man in the hood.
Of course he was watching. Of course he had noticed the girl too.
Their eyes met—just for a breath.
Then he leaned back with that infuriating half-smile of his, like a god who already knew the ending of the story.
Kaios looked away.
Her grip on the armrest tightened until the divine wood cracked faintly beneath her hand.
No. I can't let her fall into their hands. Not them. Not again.
The chime rang out once more—clear and final.
The bidding would begin soon.
And Kaios would not leave this auction without that girl.
Kaios' gaze remained fixed on the girl in the cage, her eyes narrowing as memories stirred like dust in a long-forgotten chamber of her mind.
That face… her features… her aura.
It wasn't just the girl's silver hair or elven bloodline that caught her attention. There was something deeper—familiar. Not in magic, but in memory. An echo of a time before she wore a divine name. Before temples were built in her honor. Before the stars whispered her titles.
She's… from my clan.
The thought struck her like a bell. Clear. Unshakable.
Kaios inhaled slowly, her body motionless but her mind racing. From the old days… back when I was still a mortal. She had been Kaiari then—a young elven priestess of the Moon Grove, born under the eclipse. Long before ascension, long before immortality, when bloodlines still mattered and every child bore the names of their trees.
The girl in the cage had that same look. That same soft angularity in her face. The same light-dappled aura that all of Moon Grove had once carried in their veins.
Thousands of years ago, Kaios thought, her throat tight. My people. My blood.
She didn't know how the girl had survived. The clan had long since vanished—lost to time, war, and the reshaping of realms. The bloodline was supposed to have died out… along with everything else from her mortal life.
But here the girl was, trembling in chains, unaware of who watched her or why.
Kaios blinked once and whispered beneath her breath, so quietly only her inner guard might hear:
"She's… one of mine."
The words left her mouth like a vow.
Her divine attendants glanced at one another, startled by their mistress speaking during the auction—she never spoke. But they dared not question it.
From across the chamber, in the shadows of the Dark Court, the hooded god leaned forward slightly, as if he'd sensed her shift.
Kaios ignored him.
Her heart no longer beat with mortal rhythm, but it beat all the same—and now it beat for that girl.
I swore I had no ties left to the mortal world. I lied to myself.If she bears my blood, if even a sliver of it flows through her… I will not let her be sold.
Not to him. Not to anyone.
Kaios straightened her back, chin raised, her hand lifting slowly—graceful, radiant, divine.
As the auctioneer called for the first bid, her voice rang out across the hall:
"I bid 10 essence," the hooded figure said with a smirk.
Kaios looked at the hooded man and snarled, "I bid 50 essence," she said.
"100 essence," the hooded figure said with a deviant smirk.
"500 essence," Kaios said loudly, which shocked most of the gods and goddesses in the guard, as Kaios was known for her patience. But this was new. It felt personal.
"Oh, little Kaios," the hooded figure said as he stood up from his chair. "So, this elf is from your old world. Ha, now I have to have her. 10,000 essence." The hooded figure said, lowering his hood to show his face. A pale-looking, long-haired demon now stood tall, revealing his true power.
"Damion, you bastard. Don't you dare!" Kaios yelled.
Tian, looking at the two, rang a bell, and soon everyone turned to him. "So, do I hear any higher bids?"