I approached Grim with a resolve that had been building since the moment the witch in Vania spoke her name without speaking it. She never uttered the actual name, but the shape of her description was enough for me to understand that this encounter would not be walked through.
I traveled through the region with care, not because I feared its forests or its shadows, but because I understood that Conaska's witches weave their influence into the ground itself. The land listens to them. The trees remember them. The air bends for them.
This would not be a simple conversation between two women who practiced magic from different corners of the world. This would be a reckoning shaped by intent.
I reached the heart of Grim just before nightfall. The sky rested heavy overhead with clouds that seemed to absorb sound. I found her standing beside the river that wound through the region like an unbroken ribbon of mercury.
She looked younger than I expected. She wore the calm expression of someone who had waited a long time for this meeting, not with impatience but with certainty.
She studied me without greeting. Her gaze carried no hostility, yet it held a knowledge that settled uneasily across my shoulders.
"You found me," she said, her voice smooth and deliberate. "I wondered how long it would take."
I told her that I would have come sooner if I had known where to look. She smiled at that and her amusement felt genuine. She carried herself with a poise that belonged to someone who understood the consequences of every word she spoke.
She made no attempt to hide her magic. It flowed around her in patterns I recognized from Nadia's teachings. Every movement of her fingertips shaped the air. Every shift of her weight altered the energy in the soil beneath her. She existed in harmony with her surroundings and it made her formidable.
I asked her why she aligned herself with Apex. She did not answer immediately. She turned her attention to the river, watching the steady passing of the current before she responded. She said that Apex had become an interesting vessel. She said that they were on the edge of transformation and that she wished to guide their next evolution.
She spoke with the calm confidence of someone who believed she had every right to influence the path of an entire pack.
I pressed her for a reason. She finally turned her eyes to mine. She said she studied the dynamics of power among wolves. She said she observed them for years without interfering. She said she believed they could reach a new stage of dominance if shaped by a capable mind.
She said she saw potential in their aggression and ambition. She said she saw opportunity in their internal fractures.
I listened carefully. Her explanations did not reveal the entire truth. There was something beneath her words, something she did not want to reveal. Her presence carried the faintest echo of old wounds and old rivalries. She was not guiding Apex for the sake of evolution. She was doing it for a purpose that reached much farther than the pack itself.
I stepped closer and told her I would not allow her to use Apex for her own ambitions. She laughed softly, not unkindly, but with a degree of certainty that I found intolerable. She said I had no authority over Apex any longer. She said I abandoned that claim the moment I walked away from the title of Alpha.
She said that if I wanted to challenge her influence, I would need to show her that I had something worth respecting. It became clear that she did not plan to end our exchange with conversation alone.
The air tightened around us with an unmistakable pressure. The river stirred as though responding to her rising power. I felt the ground shift beneath my feet as her magic reached outward in expanding waves. She was preparing for conflict because she believed it inevitable. She believed I would fight her for the right to decide Apex's future.
I felt my power rise within me. It had been some time since I allowed it to expand at full force. The familiar warmth rushed through my limbs and settled behind my ribs with a strength that steadied me. The trees around us bent slightly as the energy between us collided. She lifted her hands, shaping the air around her with complex sigils that shimmered with silver light.
I answered with my own magic, which erupted from the ground in a surge of red energy. The two forces clashed with a sound that rippled through the forest.
She was fast. Her spells layered over each other in intricate patterns that attempted to bind my movements. I countered with a wave of power that shattered her bindings and forced her several steps back. She recovered quickly, her expression shifting from amusement to respect.
The river rose behind her as she summoned water into a spiraling column that cut through the air toward me. I met it with a burst of heat that transformed the water into a cloud of steam before it reached me.
She advanced then. Her movements were graceful, each one supported by a deep connection to the terrain. Roots burst from the soil, twisting upward like serpents as she attempted to ensnare me. I answered with a pulse that broke them apart.
She raised both arms and the sky responded with a ripple of dark energy. I countered again. Neither of us spoke. The forest carried the sounds of our conflict as branches cracked and the river churned violently.
I pressed harder, weaving a spell that condensed the air into a crushing sphere around her. She responded by shattering it with a shockwave that sent me sliding several paces across the riverbank.
My shoes dug into the earth as I regained my footing. I met her eyes and saw a spark of exhilaration. She had not fought someone who could match her in many years. I understood that look because I felt the same spark igniting within me.
The battle stretched on, each exchange growing more intense. Magic crackled across the river.
I unleashed a spell that carried the combined force of earth and flame. The energy slammed into her, driving her backward until she fell to one knee. She raised a hand as if to counter, but I stepped forward and placed my power directly against her chest, forcing her still.
Her body trembled with exertion. She looked up at me with a mixture of defiance and reluctant admiration.
She smiled faintly. She told me I had earned her attention. She told me I had proven my claim to challenge her. She told me our conflict did not end with victory or defeat. She told me this was only the beginning of a larger struggle.
I told her I understood. I told her I would come again if she continued to steer Apex toward destruction. I told her I would not allow her to shape their future alone. She accepted my answer with a tilt of her head and vanished into the forest as silently as a falling leaf.
"Didn't Faye fight that same witch?" Sous asked herself.