Nox caught himself before he could say the name, after all, he had only met her as the Grey Warden.

His question was, why was she here?

Could it be that she had somehow found out that he was the Grey Warden?

No, that wasn't it, since she had requested to see both him and Ayla, so this was definitely for something different...or at least he hoped it was.

"Nox's here," the headmistress said with a smile causing the blonde haired girl to turn towards him.

Seraphine's eyes mischievously narrowed for a second before she smiled at him and went back to drinking the tea before her.

Since the office was still in its normal form, Nox guessed this was supposed to be a serious meeting.

Slowly, he walked to the empty seat, which just happens to be next to her. Ayla regarded him with her best attempt at a smile, but said nothing.

"Hi," Seraphine said with a smile on her face as she put the cup down.

Nox didn't know how to reply to that so he just turned to the headmistress who also had a smile on her face.

"Nox, this is Seraphine Solaria," she introduced.

Solaria?

Nox slowly turned to the girl by his side, that last name was one everyone in Aureum knew regardless of whether or not you grew up in one of the major cities.

Why?

"The princess requested this meeting herself," The headmistress said, confirming his thoughts.

She really was from the royal family, and a princess no less.

But why was a member of the royal family here by herself? After all, the prince and princes were barely known to the general public.

"I've been observing the academy for a while now," Seraphine said, as if responding to his thoughts, her tone was casual but her words were the complete opposite. "Certain… anomalies tend to stand out."

Nox resisted the urge to tense.

"And you're one of them," she continued. "So is Ayla."

The headmistress interjected calmly, "this conversation remains within these walls."

"Don't worry," Seraphine nodded, then looked directly at Nox again. "I'm not here as a princess today. I'm here as someone curious."

"Curious about what?" Nox asked.

"About how a boy with no core can wield Solar Energy like it's part of his body," she replied calmly. "And how a girl can turn a Tier Five Eclipsed into her shadow."

The room fell silent.

So she knew.

"Ah, I hope you don't mind," Seraphine added, "I happen to stumble on your latest expedition in that settlement with one of my drones."

Nox frowned at her words, if she saw that, then did that mean she knew about his identity as the Grey Warden?

But Seraphine didn't say anything about that, instead, she stood up and walked toward the window overlooking the academy grounds through the artificial clouds.

"The kingdom is changing," she said. "Old systems are cracking. New threats are emerging faster than we can label them."

She turned back to him.

"And people like you don't fit neatly into any box we've prepared."

The headmistress smiled faintly. "Which is precisely why she wanted to meet you."

"So is this an attempt to get rid of the variables in whatever your plan is?" Nox asked with a frown on his face.

The princess turned to him and her grey eyes locked with his golden ones and for quite a while, the air became tense.

But it all diffused when Seraphine suddenly chuckled and shook her head.

"Nothing like that," She said with a smile, "instead, I'm here to make a request."

"A request?" Nox asked.

"Yes," Seraphine nodded, returning to her seat with an ease that made it hard to remember she was royalty. "A personal one."

"And that request is?" Nox asked looking at her.

"A rift raid," Seraphine said as casually as possible, "just after the academy tournament."

"Huh?" Nox took a minute to realize what she just said, he turned to both Ayla and the headmistress to ensure that he hadn't heard wrong.

But one had no emotion on her face, while the other only had a small smile on hers.

"A rift raid?" He repeated and she nodded in response.

"You don't know what a rift raid is?" Seraphine asked, seeing the look on his face.

"That's not what I mean," Nox shook his head, "why would the princess want to raid a rift with just me and Ayla?"

"Well, you see," Seraphine searched for the correct words to use, "this rift is unlike the others."

"How so?" Nox asked again.

"For one," she paused, "this does not lead to the Eclipsed realm."

Nox's eyes widened but the princess wasn't done yet as she continued.

"This one led into some type of structure," she explained, "a structure we do not recognize nor understand it, it is very much an anomaly, just like you two."

Nox was silent for a while for a while before he asked again, "can't you just raid it with some higher ranked Solar knights?"

"We tried," Seraphine answered, "but the rift only lets two people in, me and the one who discovered it."

"Discovered it?" Nox repeated with a frown.

"That's right," The headmistress spoke, and a second later, a knock was heard on the office door.

Without waiting for an answer, the person walked in and Nox immediately recognized her.

Astra Dawn.

"The rift officially belongs to her," the headmistress said as Astra walked towards them.

Astra had a small frown on her face as she looked at the two most annoying people she had ever met, the headmistress and this cunning princess.

"Hello Astra," Seraphine said with a bright smile, "it's been a while.'

"What do you want?" Astra simply asked.

"This is how you treat your friend?" The princess had a mock sad face, "I'm hurt."

Astra just looked at her with a deadpan expression so the princess just sighed and said,

"I'm planning a rift raid."

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