Kaltrava, dusk creeping in
The trees listened now.
After the Pulse. After the Daemon. After the wrong horn. The woods had changed.
Tavian stood slowly, still shaky. Raijara was quiet inside him, not resting but alert. The Whisperkin perched on his shoulder, unmoving, its tail curled tight. The air smelled of burnt bark and lingering mist, a reminder of what had nearly broken him.
Kaelenna stood a few paces away, staring into the trees, her staff still in her grip. The flickering light of her Ember Pulse had begun to fade, but her posture had not softened. Her Ash-hound, lean and long-limbed, paced in small arcs. The fire-backed drake exhaled short bursts of smoke, as if frustrated the danger had passed too quickly.
"You felt it too," Tavian said, still catching his breath.
Kaelenna did not look at him right away. "We all felt it."
He lowered his voice. "Even that far south?"
She finally turned toward him, curls slipping into her face. Her eyes, though, stayed sharp. "The sky split open. Not just above your head. Trees bent the wrong way. Birds went quiet. The Veil shimmered, Tav. That isn't supposed to happen."
Tavian winced. The bondmark still pulsed along his wrist, heat and ache trading places. He ran a thumb across it. "I didn't mean to. I wasn't trying to tear anything."
Kaelenna raised an eyebrow. "You didn't do it alone. She did."
He nodded once. "She chose me. But I don't know why."
Kaelenna tilted her head and gave a short, not unkind laugh. "Highborn beasts don't explain themselves. They just appear and change everything."
He hesitated. "You think it's real?"
Kaelenna stepped closer and crouched beside him. She reached toward his wrist but stopped just short of touching the bondmark. Her fingers hovered over the skin like the mark itself gave off heat.
"You didn't name her, did you?"
He shook his head. "She named herself. Raijara."
Kaelenna exhaled. "Then yes. It's real."
Raijara stirred inside him. Not pride, exactly. Something cooler. Aware.
"Your sister is not foolish," Raijara murmured. "I prefer her to the noisy one."
"I can hear her, kind of," Tavian said aloud.
Kaelenna gave a slight grin. "She's loud in you. Most new bonds start with a whisper. Yours stormed through the spine."
She stood again and gestured toward her beasts.
"This is Tross. Ash and Ember mixed. Good for tracking, even better for flanking. And Yema, the drake. All Ember. Moody. Burns things she likes and dislikes equally."
Tavian watched both beasts with new eyes. They were smaller than Raijara but grounded. Practical. Their shapes made sense.
"You bonded through the Rite?"
Kaelenna nodded. "Yes. Slowly. Chosen by matching, not lightning strikes. Took seasons. Yours happened in a blink."
Tavian looked down at his hands. His fingers still trembled faintly. "I don't even know what I did."
"Neither do the ones who watched from afar," Kaelenna said. "That's the problem."
A sound behind them made them both turn.
Sariah stepped from the shadows. Cloak loose, boots quick. Maerith moved like fog beside her, Seyla like carved wood.
"You're both here," she said, eyes moving from one to the other.
Kaelenna gave a wry smile. "The forest isn't quiet anymore. And Tavian isn't either."
Sariah's gaze went straight to Tavian's wrist. She didn't speak at first. Then she stepped forward, took his face in both hands, and examined him like a healer might study a fevered patient.
"You're still you," she said. "That's something."
Then she hugged him. Tight. Fierce. He froze, then relaxed.
When she pulled away, her expression darkened.
"Juza knows."
Kaelenna turned fully. "Already?"
Sariah nodded. "That priest never left the ridge. I tracked him myself. He stayed. And three scouts never returned. Mother sent a crow to warn me. She's preparing fallback plans."
"Fallback?" Tavian asked.
"You're leaving. Tonight."
Tavian frowned. "Where?"
Sariah glanced toward the darkening trees. "The Unnamed Grove. The one the elders won't talk about except in riddles. She thinks it can shield your bond."
"From Juza?" Kaelenna asked. "That's not just a flame-monk we're hiding from. They'll send a Flamebound escort."
"She's already on the move," Sariah said. "This bond might start a war."
Raijara flared slightly. "It already did."
A gust pushed through the trees. The Whisperkin chittered low, then pressed against Tavian's neck.
Sariah's beasts went still.
Then came the second horn.
Low. Distant. But closer than before.
Wrong.
The forest stilled again. Even the insects stopped.
Kaelenna said what they all felt.
"They are moving a lot faster than they should be able to."
Tavian looked toward the path.
He didn't need Raijara's voice to know what came next.
But she spoke anyway.
"You need to run. You need to survive."