Chapter 4 Unwanted Journey

(Part 1 of 2)

"Some journeys begin with fire. Others begin with silence-and the aching question of whether you can trust the one walking beside you."

They left the forest just after sunrise, stepping into a wide, rugged trail that wound between low cliffs and golden fields. The air was crisp, clear, and too quiet. As though the land itself held its breath.

Kael walked beside Liora in tense silence, his pack slung over his shoulder, his heart still half-buried in the ashes of Eldor.

She moved like someone used to being alone-fluid, purposeful, always three steps ahead. She didn't wait for him. Didn't ask if he needed rest. She just kept moving, as though her presence was gift enough.

Kael had questions. Hundreds of them.

But he wasn't ready to speak.

Not yet.

Not to her.

By midday, they crested a hill overlooking a shallow valley dotted with rocks and pale trees. A long ridge stretched along the far horizon. In the distance, smoke rose faintly from a ruined tower.

Liora stopped.

"That's our path," she said, pointing east. "We need to reach the Sanctuary of Light before the next moon."

Kael glanced sideways. "And what happens if we don't?"

She didn't answer.

He frowned. "You know, I'd appreciate more than five words at a time. You did just drag me from my entire life and march me into prophecy."

She didn't look at him. "You can stay behind, if you'd rather."

"Not really an option, is it?"

"No," she said. "It's not."

Kael exhaled. "Right. Just checking."

They kept walking.

The road narrowed into a stony trail, and by afternoon, the sun beat down through thinning trees. Kael's feet ached. His shoulders screamed from the pack. He was hungry, sore, and irritated.

So he picked a fight.

"Do you ever smile?" he asked.

Liora gave him a brief, dry glance. "No."

"Laugh?"

"Rarely."

"Blink?"

She blinked.

He smirked. "Got you."

Her lips almost twitched.

Almost.

But the amusement didn't last long. Her posture stiffened again, and she scanned the treeline ahead.

Kael sobered. "Do you feel something?"

She nodded once. "We're not alone."

The ambush came fast.

Two figures burst from the trees-bandits, probably. Not shadowspawn, but desperate men in tattered armor, wielding rusted swords and wild eyes.

Kael stepped back instinctively.

Liora didn't.

She moved faster than thought.

Her blade flicked out in a silvery arc, catching the first attacker across the thigh. He screamed and fell. The second lunged for her-but Kael stepped forward without thinking, grabbing a fallen branch and swinging it hard.

It cracked across the man's skull.

He dropped like a sack of stones.

Kael stood there, chest heaving, still holding the branch.

Liora stared at him.

"I had it," she said evenly.

"I noticed," Kael muttered. "But I'm not going to stand there like a damsel while you do all the heroics."

For the first time, her expression wavered.

Not approval.

But respect.

A flicker.

They dragged the unconscious bodies off the road and kept moving.

That evening, they camped in a clearing surrounded by tall, whispering grass. Liora lit a fire with a simple spell-her fingers tracing a circle in the air that sparked flame from dry twigs.

Kael sat across from her, rubbing his sore arms.

"You move like you've done this before," he said. "The fighting. The traveling. The surviving."

"I have."

"For how long?"

"All my life."

He stared into the fire. "You were raised for this, weren't you?"

She didn't answer.

"I wasn't," he added. "I'm just a carpenter's kid. Or... I was." His voice broke slightly. "Now I don't know what I am."

"You're marked," she said. "That makes you important."

"Great," he muttered. "Tell that to my dead friends."

She glanced up sharply, but Kael didn't flinch.

"I don't want to be important," he said. "I want to be useful. There's a difference."

Liora was quiet.

Then she said, "You were useful today."

He blinked.

"Saving you was instinct," she said. "But standing your ground against that bandit-that was you. Not the mark."

Kael swallowed. "Is that your way of saying thank you?"

She looked into the fire. "Don't get used to it."

Later, as they lay beside the embers in separate bedrolls, Kael stared up at the stars. The sky here was clearer than he'd ever seen-like velvet laced with diamonds.

He whispered, "Do you think we're being watched?"

"Yes," Liora said.

He turned. She wasn't looking at him. Just listening. Sensing.

"By shadowspawn?" he asked.

"By fate."

Part 2 of 2

The next morning, the wind shifted.

It blew colder now, carrying the faint scent of damp earth and something older-stone, ash, and silence. The sky had gone gray, overcast. The trees bent beneath the breeze as if whispering warnings the travelers could not hear.

Kael and Liora moved without speaking, their footfalls muffled by soft moss and fallen leaves.

By midday, they crested a ridge and saw it: a village. Or what had once been one.

The roofs were caved in. Walls crumbled. Doors hung open like broken mouths. Ivy and rot had reclaimed the wood. Birds circled above, but there were no voices. No people. Only stillness.

Kael's throat tightened.

"It looks like Eldor," he said quietly.

Liora nodded. "It wasn't attacked recently. Years, maybe more."

"Still feels haunted."

"It is."

They descended into the ruins. Liora moved cautiously, her senses alert. Kael tried not to step on anything that looked like a grave.

The village square was choked with weeds and cracked stones. A dry fountain stood at the center, its basin filled with leaves and old rainwater.

"I don't like this place," Kael murmured.

Liora stepped into the square and paused, eyes narrowing. "Someone's here."

Before Kael could ask, a voice called from the shadows.

"You shouldn't have come."

They turned.

An old man stood in the doorway of a leaning house, a long coat draped over his thin shoulders. His eyes were milky white, but they stared directly at Kael.

"You carry it," he said. "The Balance. I can feel it in my bones."

Kael stepped back. "How do you know that?"

"I saw it once," the man said, his voice trembling. "Long ago. Before the shadows came for us. I told them the boy wasn't here... but they came anyway."

Liora stepped forward. "What is this place?"

"Rhun Vale," he said. "It died a decade ago. Just after the last marked child appeared. He didn't survive."

Kael went still.

Liora asked, "The child... was he like him?"

The man looked at Kael. "Not quite. He didn't shine as bright."

They spoke with the man for a short while. He remembered little, but he said this before they left:

"Power like that draws more than prophecy. It draws jealousy. It draws fear. Be careful who you trust, child. Especially those who say they love you."

Kael didn't know what to say.

Liora did.

"We trust no one," she said, and they turned to leave.

The wind howled harder as they climbed back toward the ridge. Kael kept glancing back at the ruined village, at the stillness, the grave-like silence.

And then-his mark pulsed.

Violently.

Kael staggered, clutching his chest. The glow beneath his tunic flared, hot and erratic.

Liora turned immediately. "Kael?"

He dropped to one knee. His head spun. The world tilted. His skin burned.

Something inside him was breaking open.

"Kael!" she was beside him now, grabbing his shoulders, grounding him.

"I don't know what's-" he gasped. "I can't breathe-!"

"Stay with me," she said. "Focus on my voice."

He felt heat rising in him-not pain this time, but light. Wild. Fierce. Alive.

And dangerous.

"Let it out," Liora said, her voice firm but calm. "Don't fight it. Just feel it."

He looked at her-and her hands touched his chest, just over the mark.

His whole body trembled.

And then-the light burst out.

A pulse of radiant energy exploded from Kael in a ring, blasting outward across the trail. It knocked back leaves. Shook the stones. Lit up the woods for a brief moment like sunrise.

Then it faded.

Kael collapsed against her, breathless, dazed.

Liora caught him before he hit the ground.

They sat like that for a long moment-his head against her shoulder, her arms steady around him. Neither moved.

Finally, he whispered, "What the hell was that?"

"You're awakening," she said, quietly. "The power's responding to emotion. You have to learn to control it."

He pulled back slowly, still shaking. "I didn't mean to hurt you."

"You didn't," she said. "You protected us. And yourself."

She looked at him longer than she needed to.

Then she stood and offered him her hand.

He took it.

And for a moment-their fingers lingered.

That night, their campfire was small, and their bedrolls were closer.

Kael sat watching the flame flicker between them.

"You could've let me fall back there," he said.

"I wouldn't."

"You didn't trust me yesterday."

"I still don't," she said softly. "But you... surprised me."

Kael looked at her, and for once, her silver eyes weren't cold.

They were warm. Curious. Almost tender.

He swallowed. "Can I ask you something personal?"

"You can ask."

"Have you ever... felt this kind of connection before?"

She hesitated.

"No," she said. "But I've trained my whole life to resist it. Maybe that's why it's so... strange. So loud."

He nodded. "It's loud for me too."

They didn't touch.

But they didn't look away.

Somewhere in the dark, something moved.

Not close.

But watching.

Waiting.