Warden's mind might be playing tricks on him, or perhaps it was the disorientation, but his instinct telling him he knew this girl even if he couldn't find a reason for how it was possible.
"What are you staring at?" she asked, her eyes glaring at him. "Never seen a woman, have you?"
Warden blinked and looked away. He stood up, cleaning the drool from his lips. "It might sound a little foolish, but I feel like I should know you..."
The girl took a step forward and examined him thoroughly. "No, it isn't foolish at all," she said, turning back to look at the vortex of wind drifting away. "Most people I meet seem to feel the same... I have that kind of effect on them."
Warden rubbed his chin, inspecting her just to be sure his mind wasn't playing a trick on him. She was young and had innocent-looking eyes; she had shoulder-length, bone-white hair, which brimmed vibrantly in the sunlight. Her skin was pale white, stood as tall as Agnes in height, though looked to be half a decade younger than the captain.
Her face was heart-shaped, with a golden ring mark between her brows, which looked to be a mark of the sun. A white sleeveless robe draped over her slender form, matching her white hair.
Now, why did he think that he should know her? His brain wasn't providing any hints either. Was she someone from his past? But that simply couldn't be true. While there was a chance of the people inside the trial being real, it was likely they were merely records of them, and that too of ancient times.
Pierce's trial took him into the court politics of an ancient kingdom which had no records in the history of Ezim. It was likely over tens of thousands of years ago, before there was a huge chunk of rift that divided the land of Ezim.
This girl was likely a record of a girl who lived tens of thousands of years ago. Which meant the inheritance ground should be likely that old as well. Well, considering the superior time dilation system they imply, Warden didn't think any organisation of the current time could match that.
As Warden was staring blankly at her, the white-haired girl turned her head to him.
"I get it," she said with a sigh. "You don't meet someone of the opposite gender as gorgeous as me, but you aren't going to win anything by acting like that."
"Good thing, I'm not trying to win you then," Warden snorted as he jumped out of the crater. "Sorry, but you're too young for me."
She really looked no older than a fifteen-year-old teenager, no matter how impressive she was. Warden had no strange fetish of any sort that he would succumb to it.
"You have no idea..." she walked away, taking in the feel of the wind on her form.
Warden sat down a few paces away from the hole, under a tree. He was about to meditate when he noticed what the girl was doing. She raised her finger in the air, somehow manipulating the wind.
The wind danced on her fingers as she lashed out. A sharp blade of wind whipped out, reverberating through the ambient winds.
"How do you do that?" Warden blurted out without thinking. He was that surprised, but considering she hadn't supplied any energy from her end, he had every reason to be surprised about it.
"How do I do what?" she said, sounding a little playful. She curled up another wisp of wind in her fingers and smiled. "You mean this?"
The wind blade lashed with her finger, vanishing into the ambience.
"What?" Warden was flabbergasted. The girl could be as young as fifteen with her looks; if he were to halve that, she would be just a couple of years older than toddlers.
"As I mentioned, do not try to explain my existence through normal means," she said. "Regardless, you should be going then. You can come back when your awareness is better, and your affinity stronger... Perhaps when you're gold... For the current you, Elysian only holds pain and failures."
"I'm not afraid of pain," he said as he sat upright. "Or failure."
She shot him a prying gaze. "Suit yourself, then."
She was about to leave, but Warden stopped her by asking the important question. She hadn't answered before, but now she was kind—she literally said that. So, he could hope for an answer.
"How do you manipulate the ambient wind?"
"That's a stupid question," she said. "I'm sure you can do it too, though to a lesser degree than myself... but you've never stopped yourself from having a deeper gaze into the patterns, have you?"
"Patterns?" Warden frowned. "I can do that just by watching patterns?"
"No, but that's the first step of it."
"What's after the first step?" Warden asked, sitting down cross-legged.
The white-haired girl rubbed her forehead. "I'm not getting through to you, am I?" she muttered. "Light curse me, but I have never seen anyone as stubborn as you."
"Perhaps that's because you're only seven, eight years old?" Warden grinned. "Little girl..."
"You know, trying to antagonise me will only decrease the chances of you getting your answers," she said, snorting.
"Sorry, sometimes I can't stop myself."
"At least have the decency to look embarrassed when you apologise," she glared, though a little playfully. There was an innocence to her, which couldn't be mistaken. Perhaps she was as young as she implied, though with greater humour and a grasp over everything. "You're as uncultured as they come, isn't that right?"
Warden shook his head. "So, what's the next step?"
"It should be obvious, no?" She said. "Perhaps you're way more far away from the threshold than I anticipated. Just read the pattern of the wind; the answer might come to you if you're not stupid enough... Anyway, this is goodbye, I guess. Weird, half-naked stranger..."
Waving her hand, she flew away again.
"Hey, wait," Warden shouted, leaping to his feet. "I don't even know your name."
"Catch up to me if you want to know."