My master, the man I loved, nearly died mastering the Sun-Shattering Strike. To save him, I traded my body for the royal elixir that mended his soul. When he awoke, he vowed to give me the grandest wedding our city had ever seen. Yet on the eve of our vows, he sent the gown I’d embroidered for months to my junior apprentice’s chambers. I found them laughing— "Three days as a pleasure-barge girl… Who knows how many men she entertained?" Caspian’s gaze turned to ice. "Your body is tainted. I am destined for godhood—how can I wed a whore?" He pulled Elara close. "She gave half her life for the elixir. I’ll marry her. At best, you can be my concubine." I shattered our betrothal crystal and accepted the Crown Prince’s proposal. On the day the royal carriage came, Caspian dragged me out, sneering— "Your Highness, this prostitute dares impersonate the Crown Princess!" 1 The night before my wedding to another. Elara came to my chambers, wearing the gown I had poured my soul into for two months. Her face was a triumphant sneer. “Avalon, your reputation is in ruins. Everyone says you’re a defiled whore. Did you really think you could compete with me for Master Caspian’s heart?” she gloated. “All I had to do was say I was the one who got the elixir, and he believed me. All your desperate explanations just made you look like a pathetic clown.” Her eyes dripped with mockery, casting me as the tragic, defeated lover. She expected tears, a breakdown. Instead, I simply looked at her. “The gown fits you perfectly,” I said, my voice eerily calm. “Keep it. A gift from your senior.” After all, I had no use for it anymore. Elara’s jaw dropped. Shock and disbelief warred on her face. “Avalon… why aren’t you fighting?” I gave a bitter smile. For the past six years, everyone in the Mage’s Guild knew I was hopelessly, obsessively in love with Caspian. If another woman so much as walked too close to him, I would throw a jealous fit. My fellow apprentices teased me, calling me Caspian’s “little bride-to-be.” I was a minor noble, a countess of a forgotten house, sent to the Guild by a cruel stepmother. It was Caspian who had soothed my loneliness, who had shown me kindness. I had fallen for him, hard and deep. For him, I had resolved never to return to my family, to dedicate my life to being his wife, to live out our days together within the Guild’s hallowed walls. But Caspian was impatient. His ambition outstripped his skill. He attempted the Sun-Shattering Strike, a forbidden rite of pure power, and it backfired, twisting his magic into a self-consuming fire. Even our Archmage, the head of the Guild, declared him beyond saving. I refused to believe it. I risked everything, fleeing back to the capital, begging the Crown Prince to grant me the one thing that could save him: a vial of undiluted Sun-Elixir from the royal vaults. Even if it meant selling my body to get it. But when I returned, my clothes in disarray, the elixir clutched in my hand, Caspian was saved. He awoke, while I collapsed from exhaustion. And Elara, my ever-present rival, seized her chance. She swore to everyone that she was the one who had procured the cure. And my absence? Several apprentices swore they had seen me during those days, working on a pleasure-barge on the nearby Serpentine River, servicing men. The rumors spread like wildfire. Caspian’s gaze turned colder, then disgusted. I found him with his arms around Elara, whispering, “Avalon’s body is sullied. I walk the path of a true mage. How could I marry a broken vessel like her? It would be a stain on my legacy.” Hearing those words, I had frozen, ice seeping into my bones. But thinking back on it now, it was all my own doing. I had been a fool. Elara, seeing my unnatural calm, didn’t believe it for a second. She deliberately brought Caspian to my courtyard, pressing against him, their bodies entwined in the most intimate display, all for my benefit. I simply averted my gaze and walked past them. “Avalon!” Caspian’s voice was sharp. “If you’re unhappy, just say it. But if you dare disrupt my wedding to Elara tomorrow, I will not be merciful.” I shook my head, my expression placid. “You worry for nothing, Master.” Not only would I not disrupt their wedding, I wouldn’t even be there. But the two of them weren’t finished with me. Elara’s pale hand snaked around Caspian’s neck, her smile a mixture of caution and contempt. “Master, she’s being so quiet. Do you think she’s planning to steal my gown tomorrow and pull some shameless bride-swapping trick?” she simpered. “Otherwise, how could she be so calm? Normally, she would have torn the whole Guild apart by now to stop you from marrying me.” A flicker of guilt crossed Caspian’s face. He hesitated. “Avalon… although your purity is lost and you cannot be my wife, for the sake of our years together… if you truly insist on marrying me, I will take you as a concubine.” “That won’t be necessary.” Caspian stared, dumbfounded. A faint smile touched my lips. “Don’t worry. I won’t cause you any trouble.” Because I had already accepted the Crown Prince’s proposal. I had just spoken to the Archmage, informing him of my departure from the Guild tonight. In three days, I would be married into the Royal House. I would never have to see them again. “Avalon, in the end, it was Caspian who failed you.” The Archmage sighed, pressing a heavy purse of gold into my hand and offering words of advice. I bowed to him one last time and left the Guild without a backward glance. The next day, Caspian, dressed in his wedding finery, was joking with his fellow mages. “Master Caspian and Elara are a match made in the heavens. If Avalon saw how perfect you look together, she’d surely cause a scene.” “I know, right? Last time, Master Caspian just spoke a few extra words to another apprentice, and Avalon was so angry she didn’t eat all night and smashed the girl’s lantern. A woman that jealous could never bear to see him marry someone else.” Caspian listened in silence, a knowing smile on his lips. As he waited for his bride to finish her preparations, he drank a little too much wine, his eyes occasionally flicking toward my empty courtyard. “What does it matter if she’s jealous? It’s a done deal. Master Caspian is marrying Elara. After all, when his life was on the line, it was Elara who saved him.” “And what was Avalon doing? She ran off to frolic with other men. The sounds from that boat were so loud… who knows how many men had their way with her…” Caspian’s face darkened. He crushed the wine goblet in his hand, his eyes filled with revulsion. “Enough. Avalon is nothing but a broken toy. I wouldn’t take her even if she were offered to me for free. Today is my wedding day with Elara. Speak only of good wishes, not of that faithless woman.” Though he said this, his gaze kept drifting toward my courtyard. But no one emerged. When Elara finally appeared in her crimson gown, Caspian stood up, an irritable edge to his voice. “Where is Avalon?” he demanded. “She’s always full of tricks. Her silence on our wedding day… what is she plotting?” “Master, perhaps we should just ignore her,” Elara suggested sweetly. “She’s probably hiding somewhere, crying because she couldn’t marry you.” “Yes, let’s begin! Don’t miss the auspicious hour!” another apprentice urged. Caspian’s brow was deeply furrowed. He refused to start the ceremony. “Wait.” A strange, inexplicable panic fluttered in his chest. He didn’t know why, but he had to wait. Finally, the Archmage spoke, his voice echoing in the sudden silence. “There is no need to wait. Avalon has left the Guild.” Everyone froze. Caspian looked up, his face a mask of disbelief. “Master, what did you say?” For six years, I had treated the Guild as my only home. Even the year I was so sick I nearly died, I had never spoken of leaving. Caspian’s face paled. “That’s… impossible. What new trick is she playing now? Is she trying to ruin my wedding day for her own satisfaction?” The Archmage shook his head wearily and presented Caspian with a wedding gift from me. “She is truly gone. The child Avalon asked me to give you this.” The moment Caspian opened the small, silken box, the color drained from his face. Inside, two objects rested on a bed of velvet. One was the betrothal crystal, shattered into a dozen pieces. He had given it to me in a moment of passion, swearing it was a family heirloom, passed down to the woman who would be his bride. The other was a letter, sent from a thousand miles away, the year he was on a dangerous mission for the Guild. Gravely wounded and believing he was about to die, he had bitten his own finger and written in his blood: Avalon, if I survive this, I swear I will marry you and protect you for the rest of my life. He had broken his promise. And I had no reason to keep these mementos. “She also said,” the Archmage added, “to wish you a happy marriage.” Caspian stumbled backward, collapsing into his chair. “Avalon is really gone? No… how could that be? She said the Guild was her home. She said she wanted to be buried on the back hill, that she would never leave… never leave me…” Before he could finish, the Archmage cut him off. “Caspian, remember your place.” The old man’s face was stern. “You have chosen to marry Elara. You have no more claim on Avalon. Whether she stays or goes is her own affair. Furthermore, she is still the Countess of Silverwood.” Caspian’s hand tightened around the box, the last traces of color gone from his face. Finally, the day of my true wedding arrived. I donned the phoenix coronet and imperial robes sent by the Prince and stepped into the royal carriage that would take me to the palace. Suddenly, a commotion erupted outside. “I told you, I’m looking for Avalon! She’s the Countess of Silverwood! Just tell me how to get to her family’s estate!” A jolt went through me. I knew that voice. It was Caspian. I instinctively drew back the curtain, and my eyes met his across the crowded street. “Avalon? It really is you!” Caspian’s face was a thundercloud of rage. He shoved his way through the crowd and stormed toward me, yanking me from the carriage. “Parading around in this wedding gown! Have you no shame left?” he roared. “So this is why you left the Guild! To come here and play these games of feigned indifference! Avalon, you are a broken, sullied thing. Did you really think dressing like this would make me take you as a concubine?” His voice was loud, drawing the stares of the common folk. In our kingdom, a woman’s honor was paramount. To lose it was to invite scorn. His public denouncement immediately drew whispers and pointed fingers.
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