Two weeks.
Two weeks since Nyssa, the seer, blew into our village and dumped a future full of cultists and darkness on our doorstep. Two weeks of double patrols, nervous faces, and the ley lines feeling like a guitar string wound too tight.
I'm supposed to be "resting." Seraphine's orders. Apparently, three nights of prophetic nightmares—which mostly consisted of shadows with glowing purple eyes—leaves a six-year-old "drained."
Right. I'm drained. But sitting still while the world gears up for a fight is its own kind of torture.
"'Just grabbing some herbs,' I tell Kaela, slinging a basket over my shoulder. 'Mama's low on silverleaf.'"
Kaela, who's almost seven and lives for this stuff, is already checking the fit of her wooden practice sword. "Your mom's gonna skin us if we get caught outside the perimeter."
"Then we don't get caught." I try to sound more confident than I feel. "The grove's inside the safe zone. Barely. We'll be in and out before the watch changes."
Yeah, right.
The forest is wrong.
It's beautiful, sure. The light's all golden and dappled. But it's... quiet. Too quiet.
The ley lines feel wrong, too. Jittery. Like a heart skipping a beat.
"You're making your 'thinking-too-hard' face," Kaela whispers, scanning the trees.
"Something's off."
"Off how?"
"The birds are gone. Just... stay sharp."
We make it to the silverleaf grove. It's peaceful, the plants shimmering faintly in the little clearing. I get to work, using the techniques Miren taught me—never take the whole plant, leave a little water, all that.
Kaela practices her forms. She's gotten fast. Her movements are sharp, economical. That wild, brawling style she used to have is smoothing out, becoming something... dangerous.
"You're staring," she says, not missing a beat in her flow.
"You've gotten good."
"I know." Her grin is all teeth. "Aunt Greta says I'm a natural."
"You are."
I'm reaching for a perfect, fat-leafed plant when it happens.
The forest just... stops.
No birds. No bugs. No wind. The silence is so total it's like a physical weight. It's the kind of quiet that means something with teeth is nearby.
Kaela's sword is up before I can even breathe. "Ren. What was that?"
"Time to go. Now."
We start backing away, moving quiet, just like Toren taught us.
We get maybe twenty steps.
It steps out of the shadows and onto the path.
Oh, hell.
It's a wolf, but... wrong. It's way too big, for one. Taller than Toren. Its fur is so black it looks... empty, like a hole in the shape of a wolf. Sickly purple crap, void energy, snaps and spits along its spine. And its eyes... those same glowing purple eyes from my nightmares.
A corrupted dire wolf.
We're dead. We are so, unbelievably dead.
"Run or fight?" Kaela's voice is tight, but she's not screaming. Her knuckles are white on the hilt of her wooden stick.
My brain is just... static. Run. We can't. It's blocking the path. It's too fast. Fight. We're kids. We have sticks.
Then, through the sheer, white-knuckled panic, the Weird Brain kicks in.
It's favoring its right leg. A slight limp. The energy is thickest on its spine, like... like a saddle. It's not part of the wolf. It's on it.
Maybe. Just maybe.
"Distract it!" I gasp, my voice squeaking. "Just keep it moving. I'm... I'm gonna try the thing. The magic."
"The thing you're bad at?"
"Got a better idea?"
She doesn't. She just nods, her face pale but set. "Don't get eaten."
"You first. On three!"
Kaela doesn't wait for three. She lets out a yell that would make a banshee proud and darts left, jabbing her sword at the ground.
The wolf's head snaps toward her. It lunges.
She's not there. She rolls, comes up, and smacks it on the flank. The thwack of wood on hide is tiny, pathetic, but it's enough. The wolf turns, enraged.
I reach for the ley line.
The one in this grove is thin, just a little stream of power, but it's clean. I grab it. The power slams into me, hot but not burning. I've practiced this. Small amounts. Control.
Finesse, not force. Seraphine's voice in my head.
I shove the energy at the wolf. Not to fry it. To... clean it.
The wolf screams. It's not a howl. It's a shriek of pain and... something else. The purple energy flares, fighting back. The wolf thrashes, snapping at the air, its movements getting wilder, faster.
"Ren, it's getting faster!" Kaela shrieks, diving behind a log as the wolf's claws tear bark where she'd been.
Crap, she's right. It's getting more dangerous. My first instinct is to flood it. Just... dump all the power I can grab and hope it works.
Scalpel, not hammer, Ren!
I grit my teeth. I force the stream of power, narrowing it, focusing it. Not the whole wolf. Just... just the spine. That one spot where the corruption looks thickest.
The wolf rears back, howling, and the purple light just... pops.
It vanishes. Evaporates.
The thing that lands is... just a wolf. A really, really big, exhausted-looking dire wolf. It shakes its head, looks at us, and I see... confusion. Gratitude.
Then it's gone, melting back into the deep woods.
My knees give out. I just... hit the dirt.
"Did we...?" Kaela's breathing in huge, gulping sobs. "Did you just...?"
"Yeah."
The adrenaline drains away, and I realize I'm shaking. Hard. But... no nosebleed. No white-hot pain. I'm... just tired. I stayed in my limits.
It worked.
Kaela sits down next to me with a thud. "That... was the most terrifying thing. Ever."
"Same."
"And... kinda cool."
I can't help it. I start to laugh.
We limp back to the village, Kaela half-carrying me. We're trying to sneak back to our houses when Toren finds us.
He just... appears. His face is unreadable. He's relieved. He's furious. He looks... old.
"My house. Both of you. Now."
Miren's waiting. She just takes one look at my face, at the magical residue I can feel on my skin, and points to a chair.
"What. Happened."
We tell them. Everything.
Toren just listens, his face carved from stone. When we get to the part where I purified it, Miren makes a small, strangled sound.
When we're done, the silence is worse than the wolf.
"You left the safe zone," Toren says finally, his voice flat. "You disobeyed a direct order. You engaged a Class-A corrupted beast."
"Yes, sir."
"And... you worked as a team. You kept your heads. You analyzed the threat. And you won."
I blink.
"I am proud of you both," he says, his voice rough. "And I am furious with you both. Those two things can coexist." He looks at Miren. "He did it right, Miren. He stayed in his limits."
"He could have been killed," she whispers.
"We couldn't run," Kaela says, her voice small. "It was fight or... nothing. Ren saved us."
Miren just sighs and pulls me into a hug that threatens to crack a rib. "You're grounded. Both of you. One week. No leaving the house except for training. With me."
"Worth it," Kaela mutters into my shoulder.
The council meeting, three days later, is... different. They're not shocked anymore. They just look... tired. Resigned.
"Another beast," Elder Stoneheart says, rubbing his temples. "Another 'miraculous' survival. At what point, young Ren, does 'miraculous' just become... 'Tuesday'?"
"I hope it never does, sir."
Tomis Ironwood, of course, looks like he's chewing wasps. "This is unacceptable! A six-year-old child... recklessness..."
"He used his head, Tomis," Captain Felric cuts in, his voice bored. "No magical explosion. No coma. He applied his training, and it worked. That's... you know... the point of training."
"He shouldn't need that training!"
"But he does," Seraphine's voice cuts through the room. "The cult is coming. The corruption is here. We can either argue about what should be, or we can deal with what is. And what is... is that this boy is our best chance."
The argument fizzles out after that. They give me more rules. No leaving the village without Toren. Kaela doesn't count as an escort. More training with Seraphine.
It's fair.
As we're leaving, Elder Stoneheart catches my arm. "You used your head, kid. Measured force. Not just... power. That's the hard part."
"Seraphine's a good teacher."
"That she is." He looks at me, his eyes ancient. "Keep learning that balance, Ren. We're going to need it."
That night, Kaela and I are sitting on my roof, watching the ley lines.
"We're a good team," she says.
"We are."
"I distract 'em, you blast 'em."
"I purified it."
"Same thing. When I get a real sword, we'll be unstoppable."
"That's the plan."
We sit there for a long time. The curse... I can feel it, just under the surface, watching. It feels... stronger. Every time I use the magic, it feels like the curse gets a little snack.
But it's quiet. For now.
The darkness is coming. I know it. But sitting here, with Kaela, the sky full of magic... I'm not as scared as I should be.
Maybe that's what hope is. Just... being less scared than you should be.