Alex's body jolted hard as the two hulking men resumed their march toward the bonfire, feet stomping in rhythm to the crowd's newly remixed chant:
"Burn the not-the-curse bringer! Burn! Burn! Burn the not-the-curse bringer! Burn! Burn!"
Each step forward made the heat more intense, hot enough to sting his skin from the distance.
Elina leaned lazily against a nearby wooden post. She looked entirely too entertained for someone watching a man about to get roasted.
"Wait, wait, WAIT!" Alex screamed, thrashing against the ropes. "You can't just rename me and then burn me! That's not how this works!"
Elina raised a single eyebrow. "Oh? And how does it work, then?"
"I—I don't know!" Alex stammered. "But not like this! I feel like there's supposed to be... I don't know, a trial or something? Maybe an interrogation? At least let me defend myself before you all yeet me into hellfire!"
The crowd wavered. Some looked at each other, unsure. Others narrowed their eyes at Elina, silently waiting for her response.
She sighed with dramatically, "Fine. Let him talk. But make it quick—I've got places to be and drinks to steal."
The villagers stepped back slightly, quieting down. Alex, still strapped to the log, took a shaky breath.
He had zero clue where he was, who these people were, or why he woke up in this. But what he did know was that he needed to not be on fire by the end of the next two minutes.
"Alright, listen up," he started, voice wobbling but determined. "You all think I'm some kind of cursed evil spawn or whatever, right? But just look at me! Do I look like I have the energy to curse anyone? Let alone a village. I can barely remember my own damn name. I can't even curse my ex's Instagram feed."
A few villagers squinted at him. Some crossed their arms, others leaned in with skeptical curiosity.
"Ingaram?"
"No, it's sintigram."
"You're deaf fools, he said 'in the gram'"
"Yeah that's reasonable."
"Second," he continued, voice growing bolder, "if I was the so-called curse bringer, wouldn't I have already, I don't know, unleashed a horde of demons? Melted someone's face off? Turned your cattle into stone or something? Well…set a curse already?"
A few people nodded slowly. One even scratched his chin like Alex had made a decent point.
"And third…" He glanced around, scrambling for anything, until his eyes landed on Elina. "If you burn me now, you'll never find out why I was sent here."
That got her attention.
Her amused smirk faded just a little as she pushed off the post and stepped forward, boots crunching against the dry dirt. Her eyes narrowed.
"Sent here?" she repeated. "By who?"
Alex paused, brain firing on empty.
"Think, idiot, THINK." He said to himself.
"…By fate?" he blurted.
A long pause.
Elina stared at him.
The crowd stared at him.
The fire, somehow, cooled down.
"Pfffffft—oh wow," Elina laughed, "That was bad. I mean, really bad. That was your 'get out of fire' card?"
Alex groaned. "Yeah, okay, fair. I panicked. But still—!"
She waved her hand, cutting him off. "Nah, nah, shut up. I like you. You're funny. And stupid. Mostly stupid."
She turned back to the crowd. "Alright folks, show's over. I'm taking him."
Immediate uproar.
"He's the curse bringer!"
"He's going to doom us all!"
"He smells like a demon!"
Elina rolled her eyes. "If this guy dooms you, it'll be by tripping over your vegetable carts. Look at him."
She pointed dramatically at Alex, still awkwardly tied up. "This is the least threatening thing I've ever seen this week—and I don't even believe in curse bringers."
Alex nodded along furiously. "She's right. I'm basically a wet sock with anxiety and back pain. Well…that was a couple of hours ago, I guess."
With a flick of her wrist, Elina drew her sword in one swift, gleaming motion. In a clean stroke, she sliced the ropes.
Alex flopped off the log and hit the ground. His limbs twitched, stiff from being tied, and he let out a pitiful grunt.
"Ow."
"Up," Elina said, already sheathing her blade. "You're coming with me."
The crowd groaned, but none of them dared challenge her.
As they began dispersing, muttering under their breath, Alex scrambled to his feet. He rubbed at his wrists and stared at her.
"Uh… where?"
She grinned, "To get a drink. And then? You're gonna prove you're not the curse bringer or whatever nonsense these people believe in."
Alex raised an eyebrow, caught in curiosity. "How exactly am I supposed to do that?"
Elina's grin sharpened into something wicked. "By helping me break into the most heavily guarded ruin in the entire kingdom."
Alex blinked slowly, taking a beat to process her words.
Then he sighed, rubbing the back of his neck with a tired groan.
"Yep. Definitely a fever dream."
Before he could finish gathering his thoughts, he felt her presence behind him. Elina's arms snaked around his neck from behind, her hands sliding down as she pressed her chest against his back. Her lips brushed close to his ear, her voice a temptatious.
"So," she whispered, "shall we, sweetie?"
"Eh!?" Alex tensed up instantly like someone had dropped a ice down his spine. His heart skipped up to three beats before racing. He hadn't been this close to any girl, in what felt like forever. His body jolted in surprise, and he rushed forward to get distance between them.
Turning around, he faced her with his face completely flushed red. "W-w-what do you mean by 'sweetie'!?"
Elina looked at him for a second—then doubled over, bursting into wild laughter. She clutched her stomach and stomped the ground like she could barely hold herself up. "Did you—did you see your face!? You looked like a red apple fresh from a fire spell!"
Alex crossed his arms and looked away, cheeks still burning. "It's not that red…" he mumbled, barely loud enough to hear himself.
"Yeah, yeah, sure," Elina snorted, wiping a tear from her eye. Her chuckles finally died down into a few hiccups as she took another swig from her flask. "Let's go then, No-Name," she added with a small giggle, intentionally bumping her shoulder against his.
Alex stumbled a bit, barely keeping his balance as he turned to follow her. But the moment he took a step…
Everything vanished.
The world went dark.
The skies, the ground, the trees—gone. Silence swallowed everything. In place of the path was a battlefield, vast and full of shadows. Bodies lay scattered across the blood-soaked earth—motionless, cold, and lifeless. Limbs torn. Faces frozen in fear.
And in the middle of it all stood Elina.
She was clad in full armor, bloodied and damaged, chest heaving as she struggled to remain upright. Her hands shook around a cracked sword, barely able to hold it anymore. A shadowed figure appeared behind her, emerging slowly from the black fog. No face. No voice. Just a blade. Silent and approaching.
Alex's eyes widened in horror. His body moved instinctively—he tried to run to her, to warn her, to scream.
"ELINA! ELINA! BEHIND YOU! ELINAAAA!"
But the sound never left his lips.
His voice echoed only in his mind. His feet felt like they were sinking. The harder he ran, the further she seemed. The space stretched endless. He watched, helplessly, as the shadow raised its sword and drove it straight through her back.
"No!" he screamed internally, arms outstretched.
And then…
Void.
Everything collapsed again. The battlefield shattered like glass, and the silence swallowed him whole.
His senses slowly returned. He was back on the trail, still, just standing there. His heart was racing. Sweat ran down his face.
"Elina… Elina… Elina…" he was murmuring, lost in whatever vision had just consumed him.
When he opened his eyes, she was standing directly in front of him. A knowing smile curled on her lips, and a finger tapped against her lower lip playfully.
"Fell in love already? Oh my," she said with a teasing sparkle in her eyes.
Alex blinked, confused, wide-eyed. "What… what in the world was I just saying?"
Too late. Elina was already bursting into laughter again—harder than before.
"Elina, Elina, Elina," she sang, mocking his tone. "You should've seen yourself. Who is this guy!?"
Alex groaned, hand dragging down his face. "I should've just accepted getting burned alive instead…"