The fire crackled low. It was the only sound in the deepening silence of the clearing. Leiya crushed the herbs with practiced precision. The stone pestle ground against the bowl in a steady, rhythmic thrum.
The scent was sharp and bitter. It was grounding. Her hands remained steady even though her ears were constantly strained for the sound of snapping twigs or the shift in air pressure that signaled a Void Bearer's arrival. A loud explosion suddenly rolled across the land from the north.
The ground shuddered beneath her boots. Leiya froze. Her head snapped toward the horizon. The sound faded, swallowed by the distance, but its weight lingered in the air like a stain. It wasn't natural thunder. It was an impact. It was power used without care for the earth beneath it.
Her eyes immediately snapped to Kota. He lay still beside the fire. His breath was uneven and shallow. The sickness was leaking from him like heat from a fresh wound. The dark energy shimmered and warped the air around his resting body.
Even in sleep, his black hair was visibly bleeding into a pale, ghostly white at the edges. It was a sign that his system was struggling to contain the rot within.
"We need to get out of here," she murmured to the empty clearing. "But you're in no condition to move." Running would kill him. Staying might do the same. She finished the mixture and poured it into a small iron pot.
The liquid darkened to a deep, murky purple as it simmered over the embers. The fire popped softly. It was indifferent to the struggle for survival happening just inches away. Leiya lowered herself beside him. Her back pressed against a cold, moss covered stone.
Fatigue dragged at her limbs it was heavier than any physical pain she'd ever endured. Years of constant vigilance, of being the shadow behind a boy the world wanted dead, pressed down on her all at once. Her eyes drifted shut.
The present faded into the jagged edges of the past.In the darkness of her mind, she was holding a letter. The parchment was worn thin. It was creased and frayed from being folded and unfolded a thousand times.
The ink had faded to a dull grey, but the words were burned into her soul.
Watch over my son. I trained you for this exact moment. Be his guardian. Don't let him be confused or consumed. Show him the light. She read it again in the silence of her memory.
The calm certainty of the writing wrapped around her. It was a legacy of trust from a woman who'd known exactly what her son was carrying. The dream shifted. The smell of herbs was replaced by the ozone of a coming storm.
The Speedhardt estate erupted around her in a cacophony of alarms and screaming metal. Energy tore through the night. It shattered the stained glass of the high halls and turned the air into a furnace.
Leiya ran.
Her boots skidded on the polished floors. Her heart hammered against her ribs. "Kota!" The distance warped. No matter how fast she moved, the space bent against her. The Void was stretching the halls.
It was folding reality just enough to keep her from him. It was a labyrinth made of Koma's boredom. Then she saw him. Kalamity. Blood soaked his chest. It was a jagged ruin where his heart should've been.
Black red lightning crawled across the shattered stone of the library. The very air seemed to weep from the pressure of his final stand. His eyes found hers. They were clear, urgent, and devoid of fear. Protect my son.The words struck her mind like a command carved into bone. Do not let him fall into the dark."No," she breathed.
She forced her legs to move as power surged through her veins. It was a desperate plea for speed. The attack formed behind her. She felt the cold, indifferent aura of Koma. He was the eldest brother who had decided to be a god. She reached Kota just as the force came down. Light exploded.
Leiya threw herself over the boy. Her body was a shield. A defensive wind barrier flared up. It was raw and imperfect. It was fueled by pure desperation, but it was enough. The impact tore into her back. Pain ripped through muscle and bone as if she were being flayed alive. Kota was untouched.
The dream didn't end in victory. It dissolved into the weight of the years. It faded into the reality of the sickness that was now finishing what Koma's blades couldn't. Dawn arrived quietly. Pale, grey light crept into the clearing.
It illuminated the frost on the grass. The fire had collapsed into a pile of white embers. Ash scattered where the flame once lived.
Leiya stirred.
Her body ached as she sat up. The memories of the estate clung to her like smoke, but her eyes went straight to Kota. He was still breathing. He was still alive. Relief hit her hard enough to steal the air from her lungs.
She pressed a hand to her face, then looked toward the horizon. The air smelled as if the forest was burning from the explosion made by Koa's departure. "I won't fail you," she whispered.
She wasn't speaking to the dead. She was speaking to the boy beside her. Whatever was moving through the Void toward them, it would have to go through her first.