The morning mist clung to the earth as the trio made their way down the narrow slope, the forest thinning into open plains that stretched far beyond the eye could see. The map Rhazir carried showed faint topography lines, ghost-pale against the parchment, with a blinking resonance mark pulsing faintly to the northeast.
Kazi led the way for once, her fingers flickering with a subtle warmth; the ember in her palm ready to ignite at a moment's notice. She was used to the silence by now, the space between them filled with thoughts none of them dared to speak aloud.
But her thoughts churned anyway. She couldn't help but believe that Rhazir, in some way, was not there to really help them.
"Why is he here? How did he know about me to begin with?" She began questioning.
Kazi's questioned Rhazir's calm control and his constant knowledge of the path ahead. She found that it left her unsettled. He hadn't lied to them, not directly… but that made this feeling worse. His half-truths came wrapped in usefulness. You had to hold onto them, even when they burned.
Behind her, Dakarai muttered under his breath as he trudged forward, rubbing a kink out of his shoulder.
Kazi paused as the trail widened into a field dotted with stunted trees and fallen stone. The sun was rising now, pale gold peeking over distant hills.
She turned to Dakarai.
"We need to train."
Dakarai blinked, caught off guard. "Here?"
"We need to be better," she said. "Faster. If we're going to face another bearer, I want more than just good timing and luck."
Rhazir raised a brow but said nothing. He stopped walking, leaned against a crooked boulder, and pulled out the scanner again.
"I'll watch the area," he said simply. "You two… do what you need to."
Kazi and Dakarai stood facing each other in the clearing. The wind was still. The world seemed to pause.
Kazi raised her arm, igniting a flicker of ember light across her palm. Flames danced up her forearm, coiling lazily as she took a steady stance.
Dakarai mirrored her, sparks gathering at his fingertips, crackling between his knuckles.
"You ready?" she asked.
"I thought you'd never ask."
They moved at once.
Kazi charged forward, slashing a wave of flame across the field. Dakarai responded with a bolt of lightning that zipped through the flame's edge, causing it to burst outward in a shower of crackling sparks.
The fire responded to the charge, it didn't burn brighter, but hotter, tighter, controlled.
They had discovered it accidentally weeks ago in a joint attack, lightning fused into the core of Kazi's flame made it bend, twist and detonate outward or collapse inward depending on her will.
They began testing it now in motion.
Kazi would launch twin arcs of flame like spinning discs, and Dakarai would whip bolts of lightning through them, detonating them midair. The blasts were precise. Focused. Controlled chaos.
Again. And again.
Each movement bled into the next, until their movements became a kind of dance; fire spiraling with arcs of white-blue lightning, crashing against imaginary enemies with explosive force.
They paused, breathless, hearts pounding, muscles burning.
Kazi lowered her hands, her arms trembling slightly. Dakarai leaned on one knee, grinning between breaths.
"You're faster," she said.
"You hit harder," he replied.
They stood in silence, their eyes meeting, not as fighters, but as survivors. There was trust in that look now. An understanding born of shared failure.
"We'll get her back, don't worry," he said quietly.
Kazi didn't answer.
Because deep down… she wasn't sure they would.
Far away, in a place called Nkwanta Hollow, a town nestled at the edge of a fog-wrapped forest; the sky was darker than it should have been.
Clouds moved oddly, twisting as if pulled by unseen strings. Shadows flickered across the rooftops, not caused by sun or torchlight.
The shadows came from her… Luma.
She stepped from the alleyway, cloaked in a long gray mantle, the hood hiding most of her face. Her eyes, once soft and full of wonder, now glowed faintly with the same fractured violet pulse that marked her fall.
The streets were quiet. She preferred it that way.
She began walking down the street, sightseeing, and passed a merchant stall with wilted fruit, a boarded-up inn, and a crumbling watchtower, each one marked by years of neglect. But that wasn't why she was here.
Rhazir had given her a task.
Observe… Influence… Test…
Her corrupted Mark tingled beneath the wrappings on her arm. She felt the resonance faintly here, someone had awakened. Not fully. Not completely. But the pull of it brushed against her senses like the memory of a fire not quite dead.
A child passed her on the street. He froze, staring up at her with wide eyes.
She didn't smile.
She just raised one hand.
The mist thickened around her fingertips, a gentle ripple of fear released into the air like perfume.
The child ran in terror.
"Fear left deeper marks than flame ever could.
Let them remember my shadow. Let it linger."
Without another glance, she turned and slipped into the forest beyond Nkwanta Hollow, where the resonance pulsed stronger with every step.
She could feel it, raw, unrefined, and close.
There was someone here.
Someone like her… but not fully awakened yet.
She would find them, test them, and if they weren't worthy; she would break them before the others ever got close.
Back on the plains, Kazi sat cross-legged in the grass, her skin cooling from the heat of their training. Dakarai lay nearby, arms folded behind his head, watching the clouds drift by.
"I wonder what the next bearer will be like," he said softly.
Kazi didn't answer at first, but soon responded.
"I hope they're not like us."
Dakarai turned his head toward her. "Why not?"
"Because we were blind when we awakened," she said. "We didn't know what we were stepping into. Maybe if someone knew what they were doing from the start… they'd stand a better chance."
He nodded once. "And maybe they'll still choose the wrong side."
Kazi didn't say it, but it sat between them anyway.
Like Luma.
Like Rhazir.
Like what could happen to any of them.
As night fell, Rhazir moved away from the fire, speaking softly into a device the others couldn't hear. His shadow stretched long behind him, then split, dividing into smaller slivers that slithered silently across the ground like smoke.
They moved in different directions, each with a purpose.
Each with an assignment.
And Rhazir watched them go, a small smile playing at the edge of his mouth.
"One step at a time."
"Everything was falling into place."