─────────────⋆˖☽ 𝑨 𝑳𝒊𝒏𝒆 𝑫𝒓𝒂𝒘𝒏 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑴𝒖𝒅 ☾˖⋆─────────────

Sierus stood before me, a spectre of mud and misery. His body trembled, not from the chill, but from the grief that racked him. Tears had carved twin rivers through the grime on his face, leaving pale, clean tracks in their wake. I lifted my foot, the instinct to close the space between us a physical ache, but I hesitated, planting it again in the cold, damp earth. A line drawn.

“Sierus,” I breathed, my voice a splinter of its former self. “You shouldn’t be here. If they see you with me, they will label you as cursed next.” The words bled into a raw whisper. “I don’t want that for you.”

His lower lip trembled, but his gaze, dark and shattered, locked onto mine. “Let them,” he said, the tears now flowing freely. “Let them call me what they will. What does a name matter if I lose you?”

He took a step, breaching the line I had drawn, and my breath caught in my throat. He was too close.

“Alanah…” His hand lifted toward my cheek.

Don’t soften now, I commanded myself, shutting my eyes tight. I heard his hand fall, defeated, to his side. When I looked back at him, his expression was shattered.

“That,” he said, his voice a ghost. “That look on your face. That isn’t you. That’s their mark on you.”

I took a reflexive step back, wrapping my arms around my waist, a desperate, physical shield against him, against the truth in his words. “I’m fine. This is how it has to be.”

“Please,” he begged, and the sound of his voice breaking was a new kind of pain. “Don’t listen to them. Don’t leave me. I know it’s selfish, but I’m asking you.” He reached out again, his fingers trembling as they brushed against my hand. His skin was cold. Or maybe it was me. My entire body went rigid. “Please… just look at me.”

I forced my gaze upward, into the depths of his eyes, glistening with unshed tears in the faint moonlight.

“Don’t go,” he repeated, his voice thick with a promise of shared sorrow.

With a final, terrible surge of resolve, I tore my hand from his. “I’m sorry, Sierus.” I shook my head, the motion sharp, final. “I’ve done all I can. Caelfall has already devoured everything I have to give.” I turned my back on the ruin of his face and moved toward my tent. “I need to pack.”

I paused beside the large rock that marked my campsite, forcing myself to glance over my shoulder one last time. “I am done with this place.”

Then, whipping my head forward, I faced the tattered canvas. My home. A ruin, just like me. A bitter smile twisted my lips. Only hours ago, we had fought to stitch it back together. Now, I was tearing down my own small corner of it for good. I pushed the heavy flap aside and plunged into the familiar darkness.

My eyes searched for my pack. I couldn’t take much. The thought was freeing.

A soft footfall behind me. The flap rustled, and Sierus slipped inside, letting it fall closed. The oppressive dark was sliced by scarlet and silver ribbons of moonlight, weeping through a dozen gashes in the tent wall. They painted stripes across his anguished face.

“Alanah,” he began, his voice barely a whisper. “I’m sorry. For being selfish.”

“Don’t be.” I found my pack and began stuffing a spare shirt inside, my movements jerky and graceless. “It changes nothing.”

He moved to stand beside me, a shadow in the fragmented light. “Then let me come with you.”

For a heart-stopping second, the stone inside me cracked. Every fiber of my being screamed yes. But the word died on my tongue. I turned to face him, arranging my features into a mask of indifference. “No, Sierus. You can’t. Your place is here.”

“My place is with you!” he countered, throwing his hands up in a gesture of pure frustration.

“No,” I repeated, my voice leaving no room for argument, for hope. “It can’t be.” I stepped around him, the brief distance feeling like a canyon. “I appreciate everything you’ve done. More than you will ever know.” My hands found my mother’s dagger. I slid it securely into a sheath in my pack. “This is a path I have to walk alone.”

His voice was strained, incredulous. “So that’s it? Just… goodbye? After all this time?”

Ignoring the serpent of guilt coiling in my stomach, I began to roll up my bedding with brutal efficiency. “I don’t know what the future holds.”

“We’ve been friends for years!” The words tore from him, cracking with disbelief.

The word was a stone in my gut. I had never truly let him in, had I? Not really. I held him at arm’s length, and for the first time, I felt the cold burn of regret for it. I focused on my task, tying the bedroll so tightly the knots bit into my fingers.

“Where will you even go?” he demanded, his voice turning sharp with desperation.

Silence stretched, heavy and suffocating. An image surfaced in the chaos of my mind: Elisheva. Her kind, weathered face. No, I can’t be a burden. But the thought was a lifeline. Maybe she would know what to do.

“Stonehollow,” I said, the name tasting foreign. “I’m going to Stonehollow.” As if summoned by the decision, a sudden gust of wind howled through the gashes in the tent, making the canvas shudder around us.

His shoulders slumped, a fraction of his tension easing. “That’s not so far,” he said, a fragile hope in his tone. “I could visit.”

I cinched the final strap on my pack and set it on the ground with a soft, final thud. “Maybe.” The word was flat. Empty.

His face hardened again. “Stop it, Alanah. Stop building walls while I’m still trying to tear them down.”

My head snapped up, my gaze colliding with his. “Enough, Sierus,” I choked out, the words a betrayal as the tears I’d fought so hard against finally spilled, hot and stinging. I dropped my gaze to the dusty floor, unable to bear the sight of his pain. “It’s time for you to go.”

“Fine,” he breathed. The fight bled out of him, leaving him hollow. Each footstep was heavy, deliberate. He pushed the tent flap aside but paused in the opening, his form a dark silhouette against the pre-dawn gloom. He glanced back, his face lost to shadow. “Goodbye, Alanah. Be safe.”

Then he was gone.

I stood frozen, staring at the empty space where he had been. The silence in the tent was a crushing weight. Finally, a whisper escaped my lips, stolen by the oppressive quiet. “Goodbye, Sierus.”

My movements were instinctive as I shouldered my pack and gripped the familiar, worn wood of my bow. Stepping out into the cool night, I saw the twin moons were already sinking, their light fading from the sky. Dawn was coming. I started down the path toward Stonehollow but paused, turning for one last look at the silhouette of Caelfall. The ghost of smoke still hung in the air, a permanent stain, but the fires themselves had died, leaving only skeletal remains of burned-out huts.

The silence he left behind pressed down on me, heavier than the night itself. My chest ached with a hollow I could not fill, and even the forest seemed to grieve with me—the Chitterwings had gone quiet, the wind itself holding its breath. 

For a heartbeat I thought it was the weight of goodbye, the stillness of sorrow settling over the trees. But then the hush cracked open. A shriek ripped through the night, sharp enough to split the air, and a hurricane of displaced wind slammed against me, driving me into the trunk of an ancient oak. A colossal shadow bled across the canopy, blotting out the last of the stars. I forced my eyes upward. 

A dragon, scales the color of molten crimson, circled once in terrible grace before descending. A concussive impact vibrated up through the soles of my boots as it landed somewhere deep in the woods ahead.

My path to Stonehollow was forgotten. The ache for Sierus, the ruin of Caelfall—it all vanished, burned away by a sudden, terrifying clarity.

There, I thought, my heart hammering with a strange and savage purpose. That’s where I’m going.

──────────────────◯ ☽ ◑ ● ◐ ❨ ◯──────────────────