There were a few precious minutes when the sun was at a precious angle on the sky, when it colored the horizon a lovely shade of sunset which looked to Claire like the dying flames of a campfire with people roasting game over the firepit, laughing with family or friends. She hoped it was her memory, but Claire had no recollection of nights spent on the woods with her friends. Did she ever have friends or family? Everybody ought to have been born into the world to a mother and a father, perhaps a sibling too. Every time she looked out into the sky at sunset, her mind wandered into the dark void that was her past. 

A gentle nudge and the whir of the airship’s dying engine called her back into the present. Unconsciously, she tugged the lapels of her gray jacket and hunched over a bit. The cap hid most of her reddish-brown hair save for the fringes over her cool blue eyes.  

The passengers of the airship were ushered to a government officer’s desk to verify identities and purpose of visit. The Capital was not a safe place for a woman, she remembered grandma advising her before she left the ranch. Perhaps she was mistaken, but there was no harm in trying to blend in as a middle-class gentleman. 

The officer looked her identity papers over. His dark, tired eyes, glanced up at Claire’s poker face a moment longer, before turning away and placing a stamp on the documents. “Don’t make any trouble. Don’t get into any trouble,” was his grumbling advice before shoving the papers back to her. Claire nodded then shoved everything back into her sling bag. This was where she would find out who she was, like the man at the tavern back home told her. Like the invitation letter told her so. 

She stepped up into the docks, savoring the somewhat metallic smell that was distinctly the Capital’s. It was very different from the laidback country life she had woken up to some years ago. She missed it already. 

“Right,” Claire sighed. The Green Fairy was where she should be. She hoped grandma was wrong about the Capital. She hoped she did not look too much like a country boy who had his first field day at the city. She hoped, above all, not to get mugged on her first day even as she risked asking a stranger with silvery strands of hair. “Excuse me, sir.” Her voice was a notch lower when she spoke. “I wish not to disturb you and your apple, but could you tell me where the Green Fairy is?” It was an inn or a pub of sorts. 

But if the silver-haired Natural would spare her a glance, the face he’d be looking at would be a familiar sort of face. 

[hr]

The kind that could charm even the queen of the underworld – that was how Levi was described. He was a young noble, heir to a dukedom, an eligible bachelor, and an Elemental. He had been summoned at the capital to help put the rebels to their place, but ever since his arrival, he had spent most of his time at the war room, with the King’s advisors. He stepped out of the hall to catch some fresh air and ---

“Lady, the palace floor is not lacking in blood nor is it requiring your face planted on it.” Levi caught a lady, apparently, before she fell to her disgrace. He commanded the air around the young woman, enveloping her and gently guiding her back onto the sturdy marble flooring. 

He met her gaze briefly, before turning away. His status as a duke’s son taught him that there were only a handful of persons he needed to show respect to. This woman was not one of them.