A fresh wave crashed against the carrack’s side, sending a surge of icy saltwater sloshing across the battered deck. Lightning flared overhead, illuminating the sky brilliantly and casting everyone into stark silhouettes. The shrieking storm winds tore at hair and clothes alike, but none of that mattered to the princess.

She was done with her useless silk slippers, slipping on the soaked planks beneath her. Every step had been a struggle, and she needed her footing now. With a frustrated tug, she yanked the slippers off. The chill of the rain-drenched boards bit at her bare feet, but the sensation rooted her more firmly, bracing her for what came next. Distantly, she registered the roar of the ongoing battle and the monstrous Kraken’s attacks, but all else faded when a door swung open in front of her.

The blond man stood, rain gleaming off his golden hair and three of his cloaked accomplices crowding behind him. The howling wind whipped around them, lashing at their clothing. For a heartbeat, everything slowed. The princess’s keen emerald gaze locked on the orb in the blonde man’s grip, glowing with the intense brilliance of a white-hot star.

In that instant, the princess stopped hearing the storm’s fury and the cacophony of battle behind her. There was only the Orb of Astralyth. She understood what her duty was. This star-blessed relic belonged to her people, a sacred trust since the founding of Elytheris, and she would recover it. Or die trying.

She drew in a breath, lifeforce flaring through her veins. Her bare toes dug into the slick wood, securing her stance as Elytheris’s light pooled at her fingertips, crackling with electric potential. Though the air tore at her hair and drenched her clothing, she seized that raw energy and channeled it into the slippers she stripped from her feet.

The princess hurled one slipper like a javelin. The cloth was imbued with flickering, radiant energy, cutting through the storm-lashed air. A startled look flashed across the blonde man’s face, and he ducked just in time. The projectile missed him but caught one of his cloaked companions instead.

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A deafening boom shook the ship as the spell-charged slipper impacted. Its force slammed the unfortunate target straight through the already damaged hull. Wood splintered, water gushed, and debris rained down on the deck. The slipper disintegrated into ash. The hole it left behind gaped ominously, large enough to swallow a man whole.

The princess wasted no time. She sprinted across the deck, freed from the hindrance of soaked silk slippers, her bare feet gripping the wet planks. Each footfall landed precisely as rain pelted her, droplets stinging her cheeks and clumping her hair to her forehead, but she could move now – quick and sure.

An electric tingle raced over her skin now that the Voice of Twilight began to stir from the depths of her being. Her hands glowed faintly, and then the spectral colors of dusk and dawn swirled in the air. Long, ghostly fingers of light reached across her face, coalescing into a mask that snapped into place – white with red ribbons swirling like living shadows. As soon as it settled, the Voice of Twilight sank back into her essence, sealing its power within the princess. Her muscles were stronger, her reflexes sharper, and the world slowed around her.

She lunged for the blond man. He looked up just in time to see her barreling forward, eyes narrowed behind that eerie mask. He tried to raise his arm but was too slow. Her leg swept out in a low arc, tripping him, and she followed with a hard punch to his midsection. His breath whooshed out in a guttural gasp, and he slammed into the splintered wreckage of the rail behind him. The Orb flew free from his grip, tumbling high into the air. Its brilliant glow cut through the darkness, mesmerizing even as it spun like a falling star.

The princess launched upward, determined to snatch the relic before it hit the deck. Her hand outstretched, fingertips brushing the orb’s searing surface—

A swift shape blurred past. One of the other cloaked figures discarded his dripping mantle, revealing pointed ears and dark hair plastered to his pale skin by the incessant rain. An elf. A traitor. The criminal vaulted upward, snatching the orb a breath before her.

Their gazes locked mid-leap. His blue-green eyes were distant and cold met her fierce emerald ones. There was no triumph in his expression, only a quiet detachment as though this were a task he was obligated to complete, no more, no less. The princess’s heart twisted, disappointed that an elf… one of her own was complicit in this theft.