I gave Bristle a thorough scrubbing before shoving him off , just as Serith stepped through the portal. “Gather whatever you need so we can move out,” she said, lowering herself cross-legged beside and releasing a long, weary breath.
Harua was already rummaging through clutter, examining odd trinkets and artifacts before casually tossing each one behind her, deciding none held much worth.
“She’s… she’s coming, isn’t she?” I groaned under my breath.
Serith’s eyes stayed closed as she answered with calm finality. “Seems that way.”
I glanced around the small, hollowed-out cave, and another question surfaced. “How’d you trace exactly? And how did you end up at the perfect spot for Bristle?” I asked, batting aside my own tail as it thumped the air with restless energy.
“Your trace,” she replied simply. But when my silence stretched, she elaborated, rcifully. “Every living thing leaves an identifiable mark… think of it like a scent. Once you grow strong enough, you’ll start sensing them too. By then, though, anyone worth tracking will have learned how to hide it well.”
I chuckled softly. “Guess you didn’t think I was worth the effort.”
This ti, she paused, letting the quiet breathe between us. “If I taught you to mask your trace, then I’d lose the ans to find you… if you ever disappeared.”
I brushed my damp hair from my forehead, appreciating her honesty. “Or if I got kidnapped,” I added lightly, hoping to soften the weight in her voice, but apparently she felt like continuing. Maybe Harua’s presence loosened her tongue.
“If you decided to run away from ,” she said, tone low yet touched with wry humor, “I’d be screwed. It would just make finding and dragging you back slightly harder.”
I leaned back to avoid a carved wooden cup that whizzed past my head, etched with tiny figures of Nikes in flight. “So no running away—got it. Speaking of, how old is she?” I nodded toward Harua. Given Serith’s age, Harua couldn’t have been young.
Serith tilted her head from side to side, thinking. “Would’ve been not long after I evolved. Sooo… give or take a few hundred?” she said.
I widened my eyes, not so much at the number as at her openness. It felt like a rare mont of honesty, so I kept to the questions that mattered. “What kind of trouble did you get into? You seed pretty tense about the giants.”
Serith took a deep breath, her cheeks flushing a faint crimson as if recalling an old embarrassnt. “It’s… complicated. When I first ca here, I had a goal, too much arrogance, and only so of the power to justify it.”
“How much has changed?” I teased with a grin.
She went quiet, considering, then answered deadpan. “I’ve got more power.”
I blinked. “You can tell jokes?”
The most critical inquiry of the night.
“Joke?” she echoed, genuinely puzzled.
“I think she’s funny!” Harua shouted from behind, tossing what looked like an umbrella missing its pole. “Just bring drinks and she’s better!”
I ntally filed that away for later.
“Anyway,” Serith resud, her tone settling into sothing softer. “This was the only place I could find real privacy, and get away from everyone back ho and…” She hesitated, shaking her head and muttering just loud enough for to catch, “Not like you don’t know who.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Powerful but not omnipresent?”
She nodded. “I don’t like to speak poorly of the one who granted my power, but honestly, who enjoys living under another’s constant gaze?”
“You were being watched?”
Her shoulders lifted in a weary shrug. “The Guardian at that ti—Dreama—was a… loyalist.” She nodded to herself. “Yeah, that’s the best way to put it.” She t my gaze, her orange eyes burning like smoldering embers against my brown. “You know I’ve never spoken too harshly about the ancestor, but that doesn’t an there’s much good to say either. There was a calamity. I was granted power. And because of him, I rose to where I am now.”
I waved a hand dismissively. “You don’t need to justify anything to . I doubt you even had a choice in receiving that power. But even if you did—tragedy was so common in your era that even children were forced to fight. They’re not called blessings for nothing.”
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As my words settled, my thoughts drifted toward Creation itself. Janus once said he had seen the birth of his own world: a lone man bursting in violet energy. Was it created in malice? Was the Bloodline he spread born before or after he beca what he is now? And even then… was it truly wrong to wield what was created?
“The Giants?” I asked, steering the topic before my head sank too deep into speculation.
Serith nodded, her expression firm. “Yes. We fought.”
From just over my shoulder, a hooked beak silently erged, making jump.
“She thought they were bullying ,” Harua said matter-of-factly, “but we were just having a conversation.”
Serith rubbed at her temples and stood. “They were bullying you. You’re just too—” she stopped herself, exhaled, and continued, “I fought them. They liked . They chased —”
“And we ran!” Harua chid, grinning as she finished the story for her.
I blinked in disbelief. “Wait, you fought them, and then they liked you?”
Serith grimaced, as if reliving the mory was physically painful. “Yeah. They were… difficult. Beat them down, and they stand right back up… sotis blushing.”
I shuddered at the image that imdiately ca to mind. In my bias, I was picturing hulking n—You know what. No. Erasing that thought entirely.
I tried to stand, but Bristle refused to budge, his stubborn weight pinning my lap. With a resigned sigh, I scooped him up instead, cradling him in my arms. His mouth lolled open, head tilted back, tongue dangling out before his eyes slipped shut again.
“Guess we’re all ready?” I said, glancing toward the one who was ‘packing’ despite having no visible bag. “What exactly did you need to grab?” I asked, eyeing the object in her hand.
Harua held it up proudly. “Stick.”
There was really nothing to argue with. It was a plain stick about as thick as my thumb and as long as my forearm.
“Is it special?” I ventured.
She tilted her head. “Does it have to be?”
Yeah. My fault for asking.
A new rift tore open before us, this one making a harsh, ripping sound more jagged and grating than her previous ones. “You’ll only have a little ti to rest,” Serith warned, her voice carrying a trace of exhaustion, “then we have to travel again.”
“We’re not having the match at ho?” I asked.
She shook her head as Harua stepped through first without a second glance. “The Elder will be watching, and it wouldn’t be polite to make him co to us.”
Drawing in a deep breath, I followed her through.
Monts passed in a blur of twisting sensation, agony just mild enough to be tolerable. I couldn’t see much, but I could feel Bristle barely stirring in my arms. Sohow, he’d fallen asleep through the chaos, oblivious to the violent turns of our passage.
Sound reached first this ti in Elric’s voice, grumbling through the haze.
“—took longer than she said. None of this makes sense,” he complained as my vision gradually adjusted.
Then ca the temperature shift. Cool air brushed my face. I would never again complain about tropical heat. This place felt like a giant, natural air conditioner by comparison.
“It makes perfect sense!” Harua chirped in protest. “I’m here. So are you.”
I blinked a few tis, lowering Bristle carefully to the ground.
Shapes solidified. The group ca into focus—Thea, Elric, Drake, Griffith, Marcus, i, and the rest—seated in a loose circle around a small fire near the living area, faces lit by the flickering glow.
“Hi,” I said, attempting not to make the situation any more awkward than it already was, lifting a weak, uncertain hand in greeting. “That’s Harua,” I added, pointing toward her.
The group remained silent, their faces drawn in a mix of unease and caution. “Uhhh…” I searched for words and ca up empty. It wasn’t exactly the warst welco I’d ever received. Even Thea’s faint smile carried a shadow of tension behind it, her eyes tight with thought.
Sei rose next, posture straight and voice steady. “You had a visitor just before you ca. Soone who ca looking for you specifically.”
Serith, who had stepped through the portal behind , was already standing nearby. When I turned to her, she only shrugged, offering no explanation.
Ai sighed from her seat beside Sei. “We can’t act without thought, as you know, but—”
“I took care of it,” Sei interrupted firmly.
I raised both hands, confused. “You’re going to have to explain that a little more clearly.”
Drake’s voice ca from near the fire, roughened with fatigue. “Lucan sent a Starborn… and he was strong. They wanted you, and they weren’t gentle about the demand. Sei dealt with him, but with one gone, more will follow.”
My thoughts tangled in disbelief. Were they truly that desperate to uncover my training thods? What little had been revealed publicly was trivial compared to the might of a Starborn. So why now? Why the sudden urgency?
Perhaps sensing the rising tension, Serith stepped forward. “I’ll give you all a day,” she said quietly. “But it can’t be delayed. I’m sorry.” She turned toward Ai, her exhaustion visible in the slow exhale that followed. “We have preparations to make.”
Ai stood imdiately, but before she and Serith vanished, I sent a Phantom Whisper her way knowing that Harua, Sei, and Ai may here.
“The Great Ancestor knows about my Bloodline. He saw . I can’t elaborate right now, but to paraphrase—‘I’m no longer an insect, but a blessing.’ More than ever, he wants to get his hands on .”
Serith froze mid-step, her head snapping toward , eyes wide and gleaming in sudden shock.
No words passed between us, but sothing in her expression shifted. It wasn’t fear. Nor was it surprise. It was sothing deeper, an emotion beyond simple explanation, exchanged in the silence between heartbeats.
It was as if she’d been struck by lightning, her breath stolen before she could react. Then, without a word, she turned and disappeared alongside Ai—the two vanishing in a flash of hurried, muted conversation.
Left in the heavy quiet that followed, I turned back to the others and forced a crooked smile, pushing away the weight that pressed down on .
“So,” I said, voice thin but steady, “does this an we can officially call it our sect’s first war?”
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