In the dim hut, the girl with the white-outlined hand kept her gaze fixed on Flint's still face.
His internals are shredded. This will take time.
The door creaked open.
Asami stepped inside. The girl's eyes flicked up instantly.
"Miss Asami," she said evenly. "What brings you here?"
Her right hand remained pressed to Flint's forehead. Thin threads of white energy continued drifting upward from his body; the glowing outline around her own hand pulsed in quiet rhythm.
Asami crossed the small space and sank to her knees beside her son.
"I was worried about him," she murmured.
The girl studied Asami for a moment, then spoke again.
"I noticed Flint only has the black lines. Not like mine."
She withdrew her hand from his forehead. The energy threads snapped and faded.
With her free hand she tugged back the sleeve of her right arm.
The scar swallowed her entire hand and climbed to her shoulder dark, mottled brown-black, sharply bordered by that same luminous white outline.
Her expression flattened.
"It does look bad, doesn't it?"
She let the sleeve fall and returned her palm to Flint's skin. The healing resumed without flourish.
Asami's voice was soft but firm.
"Divine Scar defines your potential. It doesn't matter how it looks."
Near a glassy pond of the village, children laughed and chased one another through dappled light.
One boy shoved another into the water with a gleeful shout.
The splashed kid surfaced sputtering, the pusher doubled over laughing.
Others darted behind slender trees, shrieking, pretending the world held nothing darker than wet clothes and muddy knees.
Back in the hut.
The girl exhaled.
"I'm wasting it anyway. Flint will wake soon. I've done what I can."
She stood. The white outline around her hand dimmed to nothing.
Asami looked up.
"Not every chosen one has to fight. Some are allowed to live quietly. Blessings can be…puzzling." She offered a small, tired smile. "And you don't have to call him 'Mr.' Flint."
The girl hesitated.
"I don't regret it. Because of Our Ruler. He's kind."
A faint softening touched her face. "I'll just call him Flint. I should check on my little brother now."
Asami gave a single nod.
The girl slipped out. The door closed softly behind her.
Asami stayed beside Flint. She rubbed the back of her neck absently.
"Felt like something just touched me…"
She glanced down.
A mosquito rested on her skin.
She brushed it away without force and returned her eyes to her unconscious son.
In another room entirely, two thin bolts of pale light crossed above an empty bed like a crooked X.
The girl lying beneath them stirred.
"I should just wake up already," she muttered.
She sat upright.
A scar ran along the side of her neck dark at the center, framed first by a crisp white outline, then by a second, fainter border the color of deep space: swirling purples, star-flecked indigo, impossible black.
She swung her legs over the edge, feet finding soft slippers.
She padded out.
Time slipped.
Steam curled in the shower room. Water streamed over her closed eyes, tracing the lines of her scar.
As her mind slipped into a memory.
Asami stood at the village entrance, Flint cradled in her arms like something already slipping away. Akarum waited beside her, silent.
Asami's voice cracked.
"Kashime, please help me. I don't want to lose him."
Tears welled, threatening to fall.
Kashime opened her eyes.
She stepped from the shower, wrapped a towel around herself, and walked the hallway to her room.
I need to report to Denu about the boy Akarum. He's caught between bad and good now.
She shut her door.
Stopped at the closet.
Reached for clothes.
Is Flint going to live here now?
Heat crept into her cheeks.
"I don't know."
The door swung open without warning.
Akarum stood in the frame.
Kashime still in nothing but the towel snatched a hanger from the rail and hurled it at him.
"You bastard! Creep!"
Akarum sidestepped smoothly. The hanger clattered against the wall.
Kashime froze.
He dodged.
Akarum yanked the door shut and bolted down the hallway, heart hammering.
"What was that?"
He slowed when he reached the wall map.
He approached.
"Why are you staring at it?" he muttered to the empty air, half to himself.
He pointed at a specific section of the map.
CoS Children
The words sat at the very top, written in careful, faded ink.
Akarum's expression cracked for a split second before he forced the words through clenched teeth.
"Father will be to CoS. Brave."
Kashime appeared in her doorway.
Delicate silver earrings caught the light. Her long white coat fit like armor two bold yellow lightning bolts crossed on the back, and on the right chest, in sharp capital letters "HEAD". Black pants, practical and unadorned.
She met his gaze without softening.
"We have to go somewhere. Follow me."
She turned and started down the stairs.
Akarum blinked, caught off guard.
"Huh? Just that? No explanation?"
Kashime stopped mid-step. She looked back over her shoulder, fury already tightening the line of her jaw.
"Explanation?" Her voice dropped, edged with ice. "That's what I heard."
Akarum lifted both hands fast.
"No, you heard wrong. I was saying, let's go."
Kashime exhaled sharply through her nose.
"Come then."
She continued down.
Akarum muttered as he followed, keeping pace a step behind.
"She's furious about that. It's messed up."
Halfway down she spun without warning. Her fist snapped toward his head in a clean arc.
"Can you stop yapping about that?"
He leaned aside just enough. The punch cut empty air.
Kashime froze, eyes widening for half a heartbeat.
"Again."
She coughed once short, forced and turned forward again.
"Anyway. Let's continue moving."
They descended the rest of the stairs in tense, crackling silence.
Near the pond in of the village, the children had clustered around Aeni like moths to a gentle flame.
The splashed boy still dripping, shirt plastered to his skin looked up with wide, hopeful eyes.
"Sis Aeni, when's that floating thing gonna come now?"
The others pressed closer in an eager semicircle, voices overlapping in a bright rush.
"Yeah, tell us!"
"Tell us!"
Aeni tilted her head, the white outline on her hand catching faint sunlight.
"When people need resources."
The splashed boy grabbed her hand without hesitation.
"Show us magic, Sis!"
Aeni crouched to their level, her smile small but warm.
"Magic?" She reached out and patted his wet hair first, gentle. "It's not magic, my little ones."
The rest surged forward in a joyful wave.
"We want pats too!"
Aeni laughed soft, surprised and opened her arms. One by one she touched their heads, their cheeks, steadying the bright, fragile excitement in each small body. For those few seconds, the world narrowed to wet grass, laughter, and the simple comfort of her hands.
At the entrance to the Village of Queens, two male guards straightened as Kashime approached.
"I'm heading toward Light's Mansion."
The guard in right side nodded once, crisp.
"We'll take care of everything in your absence."
Akarum frowned, voice low.
"Where are we going there?"
Kashime didn't turn.
"You'll find out. Now get on my back."
Akarum crossed his arms.
"I can walk on my own legs. And I won't be slow. Don't worry."
Kashime studied him for two measured seconds.
"Maybe." She turned to the guards. "After Flint regains consciousness, report to them about this."
The left side guard inclined his head.
"We will."
They were already moving Kashime and Akarum breaking into a steady run that carried them past the last houses, into the thickening trees, until the village faded to green memory behind them.
Kashime glanced back once. The roofs had vanished.
Akarum as a kid is too fast.
She matched his pace effortlessly, stride for stride.
Akarum kept his eyes forward, jaw tight, thoughts churning.
Emotionally I still long for Sinu… I hate Darkens. Father. His expressions watery.
Kashime caught the subtle drop in his shoulders.
"What's with that look, Mysterious One?"
Akarum's voice came out flat, guarded.
"Nothing."
They ran on, each sealed inside their own silence.
In Aeni's house, Asami sat beside the low bed.
Flint had not stirred.
She dipped the handkerchief in cool water again, wrung it with careful hands, and laid it across his forehead as lightly as breath.
She stayed like that back straight, hands folded in her lap waiting.
The silence pressed in, thick and unbroken.
Every few minutes she whispered his name, so softly it might have been only a prayer.
Trees blurred past in green streaks.
Kashime's voice cut through the rhythm of their footfalls low, serious.
"Akarum. You notice something?"
Akarum's eyes narrowed.
"Did."
Somewhere behind and to the left, a Darken crouched high in the branches.
Kashime didn't break stride.
"Split then."
Akarum veered right without hesitation.
Kashime broke left.
The Darken hesitated only a second then dropped silently after Kashime.
Behind him, unseen in the undergrowth, a patch of red slime oozed along the forest floor, following the same trail. Silent. Patient. Unnoticed.