The last week had been devoted to documents: stacks of parchment, endless seals, and approvals for the land for his university. Leaving the magistrate's building, Lomier felt not so much fatigue as a mild irritation. Boring? No. Tedious – yes. But it was still a thousand times better than listening to the saccharine speeches of aristocrats at palace gatherings.

He decided not to take the shortest route back to the palace and instead turned towards the noisy market quarter. The air hummed with the voices of merchants, saturated with the aromas of spices, roasted meat, and fresh bread. A thin magical veil lay upon him – a simple glamour to hide his aura of royal blood and divert gazes. Here, he was just another passerby in an expensive but inconspicuous cloak, and this anonymity was a balm to his weary mind.

He walked, lost in thoughts about the library blueprints, when his rhythm was disrupted by a wave of chaotic movement in the crowd. A girl, darting between stalls with an unnatural, almost bird-like swiftness, caused a slight commotion. He only caught a glimpse of flowing hair and bright clothing before she, tripping over a crate, tumbled forward headlong.

Lomier froze. It was awkward, but nothing more. However, in the next moment, a sharp, burning blade of pain pierced his own palm. He instinctively looked at his hand – it was unharmed. Then his gaze, cold and analytical, returned to the stranger. She was already getting up, brushing off her dress, and a raw graze gaped on her palm, oozing blood. But there was not a shadow of suffering on her face – only mild annoyance at her own clumsiness.

Their eyes met.

In that moment, the world turned upside down. A silence, deafening like a thunderclap, crashed down upon Lomier, drowning out all the market noise. He felt... everything. The gentle breeze caressing her skin. The throb of blood in her injured palm. The fleeting spark of annoyance, replaced by curiosity as she saw him. In his mind, built like an impeccable architecture of logic, a foreign, living, radiant essence had appeared. It was like the click of a single key in the only lock in the entire universe.

His own magic, his protective barriers, his strict control – all of it crumbled to dust in a single breath. His eyes flashed with a bright turquoise light for a second, betraying the internal storm.

He stood motionless amidst the bustling street, looking at her, his ears ringing with a silence broken only by the echo of a foreign, but now forever his own, heart. The destiny he had so meticulously tried to build with his own hands had just dealt him a crippling blow.