The night Anefiala took her, Lunara did not look back.
The merchant's mansion burned behind them, swallowed by vines and roots that tore through stone like paper. The witch's scream still echoed in the distance, carried by the wind.
Anefiala did not slow down.
She moved like someone who knew they were being hunted.
"Do not speak," she warned.
"They are already searching."
They entered the forest before dawn. Not an ordinary forest.
This one felt alive. Watching. Listening.
Every branch bent as they passed. Every tree seemed to bow to Anefiala. But the deeper they went, the more the wind around Lunara began to stir violently, like something inside her was waking.
"You feel it, don't you?" Anefiala said quietly.
Lunara nodded.
Fear lived in her chest now. Heavy. Breathing. Growing.
"Witches will come," Anefiala continued.
"Hunters too. Some will want to use you. Some will want to kill you before you grow."
"Why?" Lunara whispered.
Anefiala stopped walking.
"Because," she said, turning slowly,
"the air has not chosen a ruler in centuries. And the last one nearly destroyed the world."
Silence fell.
Then the wind exploded.
Leaves lifted violently. Branches cracked. The sky above the forest twisted into a spiral of moving clouds. Lunara gasped as invisible force pulled at her hands.
She wasn't controlling it.
It was responding to her fear.
Anefiala slammed her staff into the ground.
Massive roots burst from the earth, forming a protective circle around Lunara.
"Breathe!" she ordered.
"If you lose control now, they will feel you."
Too late.
A howl echoed across the forest.
Not animal.
Not human.
Witches.
From the darkness between trees, shadows moved. Cloaked figures stepped forward slowly. Smiling. Patient.
They had followed the wind.
"Child of Air," one of them called softly.
"You don't have to run. We can teach you."
Another voice whispered from the trees:
"Or we can break you."
The forest grew cold.
Anefiala stepped in front of Lunara, vines already creeping across her arms like living armor.
"Stay behind me," she said.
But Lunara's hands were shaking.
The wind around her had begun to scream.
And somewhere deep inside her, something terrifying was starting to wake.
The witches smiled.
They could feel it too.