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**Deep Grove Path – Twilight Hours**
The sky above the forest began to dim, not from sunset, but from the thickening energy in the air. Vines crept higher, flowers closed protectively, and spirit wisps blinked out one by one—drawn away by an ancient call.
Elira rubbed her arms. "Alright, anyone else feel like we just stepped into the opening of a very bad bedtime story?"
"Something familiar approaches," Yuki murmured, tail flicking.
Sylvaeria hovered near him, her glow dimming slightly. "No malice... but there's weight behind it. A knowing."
Then, through the arching trees, a figure stepped forward.
She wore a travel cloak dusted with spirit moss, silver badge glinting faintly under the canopy light. Her features were unmistakable—elven, sharp-eyed, and calm. A longbow of ethereal wood rested over her shoulder. Beside her padded a massive spectral wolf.
Elira blinked. "Wait… Lirae?"
The elf girl inclined her head with a faint smile. "I see your spirit still sings, Elira."
"Okay, now I *know* I'm dreaming," Elira said, rubbing her eyes. "The quiet archer girl I met for like ten minutes at the academy just walked out of a spirit gate riding a ghost puppy."
"Shade is not a puppy," Lirae said evenly. The wolf gave a low huff that sounded disturbingly like agreement.
---
**Yuki's Perspective – Silent Assessment**
Yuki's gaze swept across the new arrival.
Not hostile. Not entirely welcome.
But not ordinary either.
His **Territory Lord's Intuition** thrummed with layered signals: spiritual resonance, partial binding, old echoes of fae magic.
"She's been marked," he said softly.
"By the forest?" Sylvaeria asked.
"By fate," Yuki answered.
---
**Moments Later – Settling in the Grove**
Elira and Lirae exchanged brief, awkward explanations. Lirae had been guided by a dreamlike calling. Something in the roots. In Elira's voice. In the shifting tides of the forest's power.
"I'm not here to intrude," Lirae said. "Only to watch… for now."
"That's comforting," Yuki said dryly, "in the way wolves are comforting when they sleep beside sheep."
Elira snorted. "That was... actually kinda poetic. And terrifying."
---
**Elsewhere – In the Shadows**
Beneath a hollowed root system, another figure knelt in silence. Black hair. Copper skin. Masked eyes.
**Limit**.
She whispered to the soil, her fingers glowing faintly as she traced sigils of containment.
"Too many pieces are moving. But I will not be left behind."
Behind her, three blades hovered silently. Unattached. Sentient.
"Let her awaken. Let the forest stir. When the balance breaks, I will be ready."
---
**Closing – At the Grove's Edge**
Yuki stood at the edge of the clearing, watching the spirit winds circle above them.
"Elira has her past," Sylvaeria murmured. "And now, it seems, she is gathering her future."
Yuki gave a deep, contemplative rumble.
"If they're going to keep showing up like this, I should start charging rent."
Sylvaeria grinned. "You'd make a terrible landlord."
Yuki smirked. "Good. Because I'd rather be the tyrant of trees."
---