Madame Irene didn’t have the book Leila needed, and she felt a wave of disappointment.

Leila stood in the shop, gazing at the shelves filled with books and amulets, feeling her hope gradually fade. She didn’t know much about runes, and finding information was proving difficult.

“Well, Madame Irene, it seems I’ll have to look for answers elsewhere,” Leila said with a sigh. She adjusted her simple but neat dress, made from old but still durable material.

Madame Irene, an elderly woman with gray hair neatly tied in a strict bun, watched Leila’s sadness with a thoughtful expression. She drummed her fingers on the table, as if recalling something. Suddenly, her face lit up, and she slapped her forehead.

“Oh, how didn’t I think of this sooner\!” Madame Irene exclaimed. “What if you ask Lord Alderic for help? He lives in that gloomy mansion on the edge of town and rarely goes anywhere. But once a year, he needs someone to recharge his lighting artifacts—it’s beneath him to do it himself.”

“Aren’t his clan mages supposed to handle that?” Leila asked, surprised.

“There’s no clan anymore. He disbanded it due to the curse on the Alderic family. So, he hires outside mages.”

Leila raised her eyebrows, looking at Madame Irene with interest.

“Do you think he could help me?” she asked, her face lighting up with hope.

“I think so,” Madame Irene nodded. “Leila, you could go to him and offer your services in exchange for access to his rune books. Lord Alderic may be an odd one, but he’s always respected knowledge.”

Leila felt a surge of enthusiasm. She didn’t know how the mage would receive her, but she couldn’t pass up this opportunity.

“How do I get to him?” Leila asked, feeling a renewed sense of excitement in her heart. “Do I need to go through the magic quarter?”

Clan mansions were usually located in the magical district, and outsiders were rarely welcomed there.

“Not exactly,” Madame Irene replied with a slight smile. “His mansion is on the very outskirts, so you can take a roundabout way to avoid going through the entire quarter. It will take more time, but it’s better than explaining to every passerby what a clanless girl is doing on their territory, right?”

“Sounds reasonable,” Leila agreed, a small smile forming on her lips. “Can you show me the way?”

“Of course, no need to waste time,” Madame Irene nodded. “I have a map of Argenta somewhere. I’ll show you the route. And even if I’m off by a little, it won’t be hard—you’ll recognize the mansion by the clan symbols. Look for the intertwined runes on a shield, just in case.”

“I remember the Alderic clan symbol,” Leila assured her.

Madame Irene went to the back room and soon returned with a small bundle. Her movements were smooth and precise, like someone who was used to working with magical artifacts. She handed the bundle to Leila, her wrinkled hands surprisingly strong and warm. Leila carried it to the table and unwrapped it. She touched the artifact in the corner of the map cloth, sending a familiar magical pulse of one lumen. The map instantly gained color and depth, and Madame Irene nodded in approval. She took a pencil and pointed out the path.

“You’ll bypass the magic quarter from the side of the market stalls, head north, and the Alderic mansion will be... about here,” she indicated a point on the map. Leila carefully memorized the route.

“Thank you, Madame Irene\!” Leila exclaimed, her eyes shining with gratitude. “I’ll do my best to find him and offer my services.”

“Take care of yourself, my dear,” Madame Irene replied warmly, her voice soft and caring. “I hope you find what you’re looking for. This is all I can do to help you…”

Leila took her hand in her own and gave it a grateful squeeze.

“You have no idea how much you’re doing for me.”

Leila decided not to delay her visit to Lord Alderic. She said goodbye to Madame Irene and left the shop, heading along the route she had been shown. The city was in the middle of a busy day. The bustling streets were full of life, especially in the market districts: merchants shouted out their goods, children played in the shadows of old houses, and passersby hurried about their business.

Argenta was an ancient city with narrow, cobbled streets and tall buildings, many of which still bore traces of their former grandeur—untouched by the disaster known as Doomsday, when the magical source ruptured and wiped out nearly a third of the city. Among the destroyed houses was Leila’s own. Her mother, father, and almost all the servants had perished in an instant. Only Leila had survived, found among the wreckage.

Leila walked past the old houses, breathing in the fresh daytime air, mentally preparing herself for her meeting with Lord Alderic. The houses became fewer and fewer until the city was left behind, and before her lay a path that skirted the magical quarter. Leila followed it, as Madame Irene had advised. She walked, carefully noting the clan symbols adorning the fences that surrounded the mansion grounds. There were the crossed swords of the Hargreaves, the alchemical flasks of the Valmonts, the wings of the Nightwings, the flames of the Drakes, and many others that Leila didn’t recognize.

The Alderic mansion turned out to be the very embodiment of gloom. Perhaps, in its prime, it had looked different, but now it resembled a haunted house. The old, almost crumbling walls were covered in thick ivy, seeming to absorb any light that touched them, while the grimy windows stared out at the world like empty, dark eyes. The roof appeared on the verge of collapse, weighed down by moss and the centuries it had endured.

“Well, would you look at that,” Leila muttered as she approached the massive wooden door, which looked like it hadn’t been opened in ages. “I guess visitors aren’t exactly frequent here.”

She knocked, and the sound of her knock echoed through the empty corridors inside. For a moment, nothing happened, and Leila began to doubt whether anyone even lived there. But then, the door slowly creaked open, revealing Lord Alderic—disheveled and in a dressing gown, as if he had just woken up. He looked pale and grim, like he might have overindulged in wine the night before.

“What do you want?” he asked, squinting at her.

“Good day, Lord Alderic,” Leila began, trying to sound confident. “Madame Irene mentioned that you need help recharging your lighting artifacts. I can assist you with that if you’ll allow me to read your rune books.”

Lord Alderic stared at her intently, his gaze softening slightly.

“Irene, you say?” he squinted even more, a flicker of madness in his eyes. “No, leave. I know nothing about your runes\!”

It was as if the word “runes” triggered something in his mind, causing him to reject the offer instantly. He tried to shut the door, but Leila quickly wedged her foot in the gap.

“Wait\!” she exclaimed, trying not to show how much her foot hurt under the weight of the old door. “You’ve already helped me once by giving me my mother’s Journal. I just want to understand what the runes mean. And I can really help with the artifacts.”

The mage paused, his weary eyes fixating on Leila again.

“Remind me, what’s your name, daughter of Ilina Stormhart?” he asked, his voice softening a little, though he still tried to close the door.

“Leila,” she replied, keeping the door open with some difficulty. Fighting for the door was no easy task, but Leila had learned a few things from her years in the orphanage. “Please, let me explain.”