Aether Bound

ARC 1:The First Spark. Chapter 1: Where Light Begins

In the world of Elarion, Ether is everywhere.
It glows in the lamps along the streets, warms the baker's ovens at dawn, and hums in the wind that carries travelers from town to town.
Some people use Ether for small comforts—lighting stoves, mending tools, warming their homes on cold nights.
But others devote their lives to mastering it.
Those people are called wizards... and among them stand the guilds.

Guilds that took on requests from every corner of the land.
Guilds that protected towns, escorted caravans, cleared monsters, and sometimes caused as much trouble as they solved.

But our story doesn't begin with the great guilds spoken of across the continent...
It begins far from crowded cities and tall spires, in a quiet harbor town on the coast.

Today... our story begins in Marinveil, where two young mages from the AetherBound Guild walk side by side on Aria's very first quest.

The narration fades like a voice carried away on sea breeze.

Marinveil Harbor — Morning

The world was brighter than Aria expected.

She had seen drawings of Marinveil in the guild library—little sketches of a crescent-shaped bay and the ring of buildings hugging the docks—but books couldn't capture the way sunlight scattered over the waves, or the way the air tasted faintly of salt and fresh bread at the same time.

Seagulls cried overhead, swooping low and bold. Fishermen shouted prices across the pier. Nets hung to dry between posts, dripping faintly into the water below. Wooden planks thudded under carts and hurried footsteps, the whole harbor moving with an easy, noisy rhythm.

Aria walked a little closer to the edge of the street to look at the water again.
The morning sun spread a path of light across the bay, shimmering each time the waves rose and broke against the hulls of docked ships.

...It really is pretty.

She had to stop herself from slowing down. The small delivery parcel in her hands felt almost too light for something called a "quest," but the AetherBound emblem on the back of her left hand made it feel more real. This was her job—her first official guild task.

"Hey, you're gonna fall in if you stare too hard," Ryoto said beside her.

Aria blinked and pulled herself away from the edge. "I—I'm not going to fall."

Ryoto walked with his hands linked behind his head, long legs relaxed, as if they weren't technically on a mission at all. His short crimson-orange hair caught the light every time they passed a patch of open sky. Compared to her, he moved like he'd done this a thousand times.

Which, she reminded herself, he probably had.

"I'm serious," he added, grinning as a gull swooped low. "The sea loves distracted mages. Next thing you know—splash. Aria stew."

She let out a small laugh. "That's not funny."

"Kind of is," he said. "I'd jump in and save you though. I'm cool like that."

"You can't even swim that well," she murmured.

"I can float aggressively," he corrected. "It counts."

It didn't. But Aria smiled anyway.

They turned off the busy main pier onto a narrower cobbled street lined with small shops.
A woman swept her doorstep. Two kids ran by carrying a basket, the smell of warm bread trailing behind. Somewhere, a bell chimed the hour.