The private courtyard of the Aegis of Flame was a gilded cage of staggering proportions. Towering walls of seamless dark ironstone enclosed a massive garden that thrived on extreme temperatures. Instead of water features, slow moving streams of bright orange magma flowed through carved trenches. They illuminated the space with an eternal and flickering twilight.

  Exotic flora, like the crimson leafed Sun Lotus and the twisting and thorny vines of the Ash Rose bloomed brilliantly in the oppressive heat. To Li Yu, it felt like sitting inside a very ornate oven. To Asha, it was the boundary of her entire known world.

  The two of them sat near the center of the courtyard and beneath the shade of a heat resistant parasol woven from the silk of fire spiders. While Sovereign Ignis and Demon Lord Malos were elsewhere in the palace discussing the logistics of the ongoing medical crusade, Li Yu had been left to his assigned task: keeping the Sovereign’s daughter distracted and entertained.

  Li Yu leaned back in his comfortable chair and was fulfilling his end of their bargain. He spoke of his travels to her. He was carefully weaving tales of the open road and the distant realm he had come from . He kept the details light and was focusing on the sheer wonder of the world outside her dark stone walls.

  He told her of sprawling subterranean cities carved directly into the roots of trees. He spoke of vast, floating archipelagos where entire sects built their pavilions on the backs of colossal flying beasts. They were drifting through oceans of clouds.

  He recounted the strange, bioluminescent forests of his home world, where the leaves chimed like glass in the wind and cultivators rode flying swords. Some were made up and some were true. Since learning about multiple realms himself, he knew that somewhere out there, whatever he said was bound to be true.

  Asha listened with rapt attention. Her dull orange eyes were wide with genuine fascination. She sat in a heavily cushioned chair with a thick blanket draped over her lap despite the ambient heat of the courtyard.

  "It sounds impossible," Asha murmured as a wistful sigh escaped her pale lips. "Forests that chime like glass. Floating islands. It all sounds so vast. I have read thousands of scrolls in the palace archives. I know the names of the oceans, the locations of the deepest abysses and the histories of the ancient ruins. But reading and even hearing about the wind isn't the same as feeling it on your face."

  She looked away and her gaze drifted toward the high walls of dark metal that boxed them in. The brief spark of excitement in her eyes faded and was quickly replaced by the familiar exhaustion that seemed to weigh down her very bones.

  "I wish I could travel," Asha said softly to herself. Her voice barely carried over the bubbling of the magma streams. "I have never even stepped foot outside the capital."

  "You will eventually be able to," Li Yu assured her. His tone was steady and encouraging. "Once the physicians find the right method to stabilize your core, the whole realm will be open to you. You'll be able to see all of those things for yourself. With a mother as powerful as yours, you will get to see the world."

  Asha let out another long and quiet sigh. She pulled the blanket slightly higher. "I hope that is true, Li Yu. I really do. But I have been the subject of hopeful theories since I was born. After a while, the hope starts to feel heavier than the illness itself. Sometimes I wonder if my body was simply never meant to leave this warmth."

  Li Yu looked at her. He recognized the suffocating resignation of someone who had been treated like a fragile piece of glass their entire life. She didn't need another physician telling her she was broken and she didn't need another person treating her with suffocating pity. She needed to experience something normal. Something that belonged to the outside world.

  "You know," Li Yu said as he suddenly sat forward and rested his elbows on his knees. "You don't have to wait until you are fully healed to experience a piece of the traveler's life. Have you ever ridden a spiritual beast?"

  Asha blinked and looked at him in surprise. "A beast? No. Mother would never allow it. My mother says it's too dangerous. The healers always said the turbulence of a mount's aura would disrupt my meridians and cause the ash in my core to choke me. I've always been too weak."

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  "The healers say a lot of things," Li Yu pointed out pragmatically. "Most of which, as we saw yesterday, are entirely wrong. I have a companion who travels with me. He’s not wild and his aura is about as turbulent as a mud puddle. Would you like to meet him?"

  Asha hesitated. The ingrained fear of her own fragility warred with the desperate and burning desire to experience something new. Slowly, she gave a small nod.

  Li Yu closed his eyes. The air next to Li Yu rippled. Asha gasped and gripped the armrests of her chair as the physical form began to coalesce out of thin air.

  With a low, rumbling snort that sounded like shifting earth, Muddy materialized in the courtyard. The colossal water buffalo’s thick, dark coat gleaming even in the dim twilight of the caldera. His curved horns swept back majestically and his large, dark eyes surveyed the fiery courtyard with unbothered calm.

  "This is Muddy," Li Yu introduced casually as he was patting the beast's massive shoulder. "He is the most reliable transport I've ever had. Though, technically I haven’t really used him for that yet."

  Asha stared at the beast in awe. She had seen the terrifying drakes her mother’s guards rode. Creatures that snapped and snarled with aggressive and volatile energy. This creature was the exact opposite. He radiated a deep and unshakeable tranquility.

  "He's beautiful," she whispered.

  "Come here," Li Yu encouraged as he stood up and offered her his hand. "Come say hello."

  Asha slowly stood up from her chair and the blanket fell to the dark stone floor. She took a hesitant step forward. As she moved closer to the boundary of Muddy's aura, she braced herself for the familiar and agonizing tightness in her chest. The suffocating sensation that always occurred when her fragile ash core interacted with a foreign Qi.

  But the pain didn't come.

  Instead, as she stepped closer to the water buffalo, the tightness in her chest began to inexplicably ease. The dull, constant ache in her meridians felt as though it were being bathed in a cool and soothing balm. Her breathing, normally shallow and ragged, suddenly deepened.

  Li Yu noticed it instantly. The pale, deathly pallor of her skin didn't vanish entirely but a faint, undeniable hint of color returned to her cheeks. She was standing straighter.

  Asha looked down at her own hands and then up at Li Yu. Her eyes were wide with shock. "I... it doesn't hurt. The air... it feels heavy but it doesn't burn."

  "Muddy has a very grounding presence," Li Yu said casually but his own mind was racing as he observed the physiological change. He hadn't expected it to actually treat her symptoms; he just wanted to show her a beast. But his soul was somehow acting as a counterbalance to her erratic and failing core.

  Asha took another step and reached out. She laid her pale hand against Muddy's body. The beast let out a low and contented rumble. It then nudged her gently with his head.

  "Do you want to get on?" Li Yu offered.

  Asha nodded eagerly. An unburdened smile breaking across her face. She was feeling better than ever and was getting a chance to get on an animal for the first time in her life.

  Li Yu stepped forward and effortlessly lifted her onto the broad expanse of Muddy's back. Asha settled upon his back and was gripping his thick fur. She let out a breath that sounded like a laugh. A joyful sound Li Yu hadn't heard from her since they met.

  She looked comfortable up there. She felt better. The crushing weight of her illness seemed entirely suspended as long as she sat atop the beast.

  "What is the meaning of this?!"

  The booming and terrifying voice shattered the tranquility of the courtyard.

  The heavy iron doors of the garden had swung open. Sovereign Ignis stood in the threshold and her eyes flared with panicked rage. Demon Lord Malos stood just behind her with his hands tucked neatly into his sleeves.

  Ignis had returned from her meetings to check on her daughter, only to find the girl perched atop a foreign beast. To a mother whose child could be killed by a strong gust of wind, the sight was a nightmare.

  The temperature in the courtyard instantly skyrocketed. Ignis took a step forward and her aura expanded with lethal intent. She was fully prepared to vaporize the beast out from under her daughter to save her.

  "Mother, wait!" Asha called out to her mom. Her voice suddenly possessed a volume and clarity it had severely lacked the day before.

  Ignis froze mid stride. The furious flames surrounding her wavered. She looked at her daughter. Really looked at her. The Sovereign's battle hardened instincts immediately picked up on the discrepancy.

  Asha was sitting upright. She wasn't clutching her chest. She wasn't gasping for air in the presence of the beast's aura. In fact, the gray, lifeless hue of her skin had receded significantly. She looked better than she had in years.