Blaze straightened from the tree, robes settling around her like a living shadow.
Maze and Aleric lay on the ground near the dying fire, full and careless, the forest reflected faintly in their eyes. For a moment, they almost looked peaceful.
Blaze looked at them with faint irritation.
"Done," she said. "Time to move."
Aleric groaned softly, then froze under her gaze and sat up at once. "Y–yes. Of course."
"Do not complain on the road," Blaze added coolly. "Not about your legs. Not about hunger. Not about fear."
He nodded so fast his hair fell into his eyes.
Maze rose more gracefully, brushing dirt from her clothes, her flames barely stirring.
Blaze turned away and began walking.
The forest answered her movement.
Branches creaked in places where no wind existed. Leaves shifted in patterns too deliberate to be natural. Roots tightened beneath the soil as if bracing.
Blaze felt it.
Something dangerous.
Not powerful.
But bold.
Someone has a death wish, she thought calmly.
She did not slow.
If anything, her steps became lighter.
Behind her, Aleric felt it too. A pressure. A wrongness crawling along his spine. "S–sister… I think something's following us—"
"Of course it is," Blaze replied without looking back. "Everything follows what it cannot understand."
Maze glanced into the darkness, her flames dimming slightly. "Master… it's not just one."
Blaze's lips curved faintly beneath the veil.
How inefficient. They never learn.
A branch snapped somewhere far too close.
Another shadow moved where no body should fit.
Eyes opened in the dark.
Aleric's breath hitched.
Blaze finally stopped walking.
She turned slowly, calmly, as though answering a door knock rather than a threat.
Her gaze swept the forest.
"Come out," she said quietly.
The forest held its breath.
"Or I will remove the concept of hiding from this land."
The darkness trembled.
And something, somewhere, made the mistake of listening.
The forest answered Blaze's command.
Not with silence.
But with impact.
The ground split ahead of them.
Roots tore free as something massive forced its way out of the soil. Bark snapped. Stones rolled. A body thicker than a fallen tree uncoiled from the earth, scales black-green and wet like polished rot.
A giant snake.
Its eyes burned a dull, ancient yellow. Its tongue flicked, tasting the air—then fixed on Aleric.
Aleric froze.
His breath locked in his chest. His legs shook so violently he nearly collapsed.
"D–don't… don't move…" he whispered to himself.
Blaze did not move either.
She only looked at him.
"If you faint," she said calmly, "I will leave you here to become its food."
Aleric straightened instantly.
His spine went rigid, legs still trembling but holding. "I–I'm awake. I'm standing. I'm alive."
"Good," Blaze replied. "Try to stay that way."
The snake lunged.
Maze stepped forward.
Her body dissolved into fire in a breath — not violent, not wild — but elegant. A phoenix of gold and ember rose where the girl had been, wings spreading wide, lighting the forest in burning dawn.
The snake recoiled with a hiss.
Maze struck first.
Flames wrapped around the creature's head as she swept past it, her wings slicing heat through scale and shadow. The snake twisted, tail smashing into trees, crushing bark and stone alike.
Blaze did not step in.
She merely lifted one hand.
A translucent barrier formed before Aleric just as the snake's tail slammed down. The impact shook the ground, but the barrier did not even ripple.
Blaze stood behind it, unbothered.
Aleric stared, frozen in awe and terror.
Maze circled in fire, striking again, burning deep lines into the serpent's body. The creature shrieked, a sound like splitting metal.
Blaze watched.
Such a pathetic little thing, she thought coolly.
It does not deserve my energy.
The snake reared back, preparing one last desperate strike.
Maze crashed into its skull in a burst of flame.
The creature collapsed.
Its massive body hit the forest floor with a quake that sent leaves raining down like ash.
Silence followed.
Maze returned to her human form, breathing lightly, hair glowing faintly at the edges.
Aleric stared at the fallen beast, then at Maze, then at Blaze.
"…You didn't even help," he whispered.
Blaze finally moved.
She stepped past him, past the corpse, past the broken trees.
"I did," she said calmly. "I allowed it to die quickly."
She did not look back.
Maze followed her.
Aleric hurried after them, heart still racing.
Behind them, the forest slowly closed around the body of the snake.
And deeper in the woods, other creatures watched.
Learning.
Fearing.
Waiting.
The forest did not warn them.
It did not rustle.
Did not whisper.
Did not breathe wrong.
It simply… shifted.
Blaze stopped walking.
Maze felt it instantly and straightened. Aleric did not notice until Blaze raised one hand.
"Stay," Blaze said.
Aleric froze mid-step.
The air thickened, like invisible pressure pressing against his chest.
From the shadows between the trees, something moved.
Not rushed.
Not clumsy.
Measured.
A shape unfolded itself from bark and vine and bone — tall, thin, its body bent at angles that did not belong to any living creature. Its head tilted sideways as if studying them, not hunting.
Then another stepped out.
Then another.
Three.
Aleric's breath broke. "Sister…?"
The creatures did not charge.
They smiled.
Their mouths split open too wide, lined with pale, uneven teeth.
Maze's fire flickered instinctively. "Master… these aren't like the others."
"No," Blaze agreed calmly. "They're thinking."
The middle creature spoke.
Its voice sounded like leaves dragged across stone.
"The Scarlet Specter."
Aleric flinched hard.
He did not know the name.
But the way they said it made his skin crawl.
The creature bowed slightly — not in respect.
In recognition.
"You wear your face well," it said. "No one remembers it anymore. No one living has seen it."
Her veil did not move.
"Speak," she said simply.
"Are you still hiding from the world," it whispered, "or is the world hiding from you?"
Aleric's hands trembled.
He glanced at her, confused, afraid.
"Sister… what are they talking about?"
She did not answer him.
"They believe," she said instead to the creatures, "that I care what they remember."
The forest fell silent.
Maze felt the heat in her chest tighten.
The creature's grin faltered.
"You are unchanged."
"No," she replied. "You are simply still alive."
The creature took one slow step closer.
Its joints bent the wrong way, bark cracking softly as it moved. Its head tilted, studying the veil that hid Blaze's face, as if trying to remember something it was not meant to remember.
"You hide behind a veil," it whispered.
Its voice dragged through the air like roots through stone.
"Does it still burn beneath?"
Blaze exhaled.
Not in anger.
Not in fear.
In boredom.
How tiring.
She did not look at the creature.
She did not acknowledge the others.
She simply lifted two fingers.
The forest answered.
Not with fire.
Not with light.
With weight.
The ground tightened.
Trees groaned as if their trunks were suddenly too heavy to support themselves. Roots tore free from the soil, surfacing like veins forced from skin. Leaves froze mid-fall, trembling in the air.
The wind collapsed inward, folding around Blaze like a bowed servant.
The creatures were driven down.
Not thrown.
Not attacked.
Pressed.
Their bodies slammed to their knees, bark splintering, vines snapping, bone grinding against earth. They did not understand what had struck them — only that resisting was impossible.
Their smiles vanished.
Their teeth chattered.
One tried to lift its head.
It couldn't.
Maze's fire flared violently, then shrank, struggling to stay stable under the sudden pressure. Her breath caught in her chest.
Aleric was thrown backward, landing hard against the roots of a tree. The air ripped from his lungs. He gasped soundlessly, eyes wide, body shaking.
He could not look at Blaze.
He could only feel her.
The forest itself was kneeling.
Blaze finally lowered her hand.
The pressure did not vanish.
It remained.
Controlled.
Balanced.
Waiting.
She turned her head slightly toward the creatures.
Her voice was quiet.
Almost gentle.
"Leave."
No threat.
No emotion.
No effort.
The word itself was law.
The forest released them.
The creatures collapsed forward, scrambling in terror. They did not rise with dignity. They crawled. They dragged themselves backward, limbs shaking, bark cracking, teeth chattering.
One looked up one last time.
It whimpered.
Then they fled.
Not running.
Not retreating.
Escaping.
Branches tore at their bodies as they vanished into the deeper woods. Roots caught their limbs. Thorns ripped through bark and vine — and still they did not stop.
Silence returned slowly.
Painfully.
The forest exhaled.
Maze remained frozen, her flame dim and unsteady.
Aleric lay against the tree, shaking, his chest rising in broken breaths.
Blaze stood where she always had.
Unmoved.
Unchanged.
Uninterested.
No struggle.
No fight.
No threat.
Just law.
And in that moment, Aleric understood something he could not yet name:
He was not traveling with a powerful being.
He was walking beside something the world itself obeyed
Aleric did not move at first.
His body still trembled from what he had witnessed. The forest no longer felt like a place. It felt like a memory trying to forget itself.
His hands clenched in the dirt.
Then his breath broke.
A sharp, uneven sound escaped his throat. He tried to swallow it down. Failed. Another followed. Then another.
Tears blurred his vision before he realized they were falling.
"I… I can't…" he whispered.
Maze turned toward him instantly, concern lighting her eyes. "Aleric—"
He shook his head violently. "I thought I was going to die. I really thought— I couldn't breathe, I couldn't move— I thought the world was ending—"
His voice cracked completely.
He stood unsteadily and took two steps forward.
Toward Blaze.
Without thinking.
Without sense.
Without courage.
He reached her and leaned into her side, clutching her sleeve like a child who had lost every safe place at once.
His shoulders shook.
"I'm sorry," he cried quietly. "I'm really sorry. I don't know why I'm here. I don't know why you brought me. I don't belong in this world—"
Blaze stiffened.
Instantly.
Her body went rigid, like stone rejecting water.
She looked down at his hands gripping her black robes.
Tears soaked into the fabric.
Her eyes narrowed beneath the veil.
Unhinged. Completely unhinged.
She pushed him away.
Not violently.
Not gently.
Decisively.
He stumbled back, nearly falling.
"Do not touch me," Blaze said flatly.
Aleric froze, humiliation flooding his face.
Blaze brushed her sleeve once, sharply.
I do not want him to ruin my dress again.
She looked at him as if he were something inconvenient that had made noise.
"Crying does not change reality," she continued. "It only advertises weakness."
Aleric lowered his head, hands shaking at his sides.
Maze stepped forward slightly, eyes soft, torn between them.
Blaze turned away from him.
"I did not bring you to be stable," she said coldly. "I brought you because you were useful. If you cannot endure what follows, then you should break quietly."
Her robes whispered as she moved.
Behind her, Aleric stood in silence, tears still falling — but now without sound.
Not because he was calm.
But because he had learned where not to lean.
Maze looked at Blaze's back.Then at Aleric.
And in her heart, she understood something painful.
Blaze did not reject weakness.
She rejected closeness.