The forest did not move.It only listened.
Aira sat where the vision had broken, knees drawn to her chest, hands still faintly glowing as if the light refused to leave her alone. Her palms trembled, the veins beneath her skin faintly illuminated like cracks in glass. She felt hollow, like something vital had been scraped from within her and left to bleed into the dirt.
Her breath came in small, uneven gasps. She tried to count them one, two, three but even the rhythm faltered. The world had no edges anymore; the forest around her pulsed, breathing in slow, monstrous calm.
"Kieran…" she whispered, the name breaking on her tongue.The sound vanished before it reached the trees.
She pressed her forehead against her arms, trying to remember the warmth of her village before the fire, the laughter before the curse, her brother's hand before it turned cold. But memory slipped through her like water.
For the first time, she wasn't sure what part of her was hers anymore.
Was the fire hers?Was the fear?Or had both been carved into her since birth, written in a language her blood could never forget?
Aira lifted her head slowly. Her hair clung to her damp cheeks, streaked with ash and tears. The air tasted metallic, bitter like lightning had brushed her tongue. She wanted to scream, to let the forest hear her rage and her sorrow, but the weight in her chest wouldn't move.
When she finally forced herself to stand, the trees seemed taller. Their shadows stretched longer. The forest was watching, waiting for her to choose to yield or to rise.
She stumbled forward a few steps, her legs shaking, vision swimming. The glow beneath her skin flickered, then dimmed entirely. What was left of her power retreated deep inside, curling up like an exhausted animal.
Stand, child…
The oak's voice was faint now, a thread unraveling in her mind.
The forest tests what it fears.
Aira swallowed, the sound too loud in the silence. "Then it fears me," she whispered, though the words felt like a lie.
No answer came.
Only the hush of leaves shifting high above her or perhaps not leaves at all.
She sank against a tree, sliding down until the bark dug into her spine. Every muscle in her body throbbed with fatigue, every thought with noise. Her fingers dug into the dirt, searching for something solid, something alive.
All she found was the cold.
And beneath it, the faint vibration of something vast.
Something ancient.
Something awake.
Her eyes drifted shut despite her will. Sleep dragged at her, but behind it was no peace only the memory of Kieran's voice and the promise in his tone.
You will come to me.
Her last thought before darkness claimed her was not denial.It was fear that he might be right.