The deeper they went, the quieter the forest became.
Not peaceful quiet, the kind that felt like the trees themselves were listening.
Aelindra's steps were steady, deliberate. There was no tremor in her chest, no pulse of panic. Her fear was gone, ripped out by the magic she had used to save Severin. The absence of fear was strange, almost alien, yet she moved with clarity and focus.
Severin, on the other hand, limped along beside her, his poisoned body still weak. He kept glancing behind them, his eyes narrowing with the suspicion of someone hunted, someone carrying a dangerous secret.
Aelindra broke the silence. "What exactly is the Black Grove?"
Severin didn't answer immediately, his gaze stayed fixed on the twisted shadows ahead. "It's a place old as magic itself," he said finally. "It offers protection, but only to those who can survive its tests."
"Protection from what?" Aelindra asked, voice even and calm.
"From them," he said. He didn't elaborate, and she noticed the subtle hesitation in his tone. "But not just because of you, or your healing." Aelindra's brow furrowed. "Why would they be hunting you too?"
Severin shook his head. "I don't know exactly why. Something in my bloodline… or maybe something I carry. I wasn't meant to survive this long, that's all I know. But it's why they want me. The rest… I'm not sure."
Aelindra processed the word, her mind sharp without fear clouding it, considered the possibilities. Whatever it was, it was significant, a danger bigger than she could see yet tied to him, and by extension, now tied to her.
They walked in silence, the trees bent inward overhead, thick vines creating a shadowed corridor. Pale green mist swirled around the roots. Symbols carved into the bark pulsed faintly, as if alive.
"This is…" Aelindra began, then paused. The grove's hum brushed against her mind, a low, vibrating resonance. She felt no unease, only focus, almost clinical in its intensity.
"Do not listen to it," Severin warned, his voice low. "The grove… it reacts to thought and intent. It can distract the careless, even take pieces from the unwary."
Aelindra nodded, unconcerned. "Not worried."
Severin glanced at her, startled by her composure, then quickly looked away. "You… aren't afraid," he murmured as if he was trying to remind himself.
"I lost that," she said flatly. "When I healed you. Fear doesn't exist for me anymore."
He swallowed hard, there was something in her calm that unsettled him, something sharp and unnatural, yet he also realized it made her terrifyingly effective.
Aelindra moved forward and pushed aside a curtain of hanging vines.
The clearing that opened before them was breathtaking and dangerous. Trees arched inward, roots choking a stone altar in the center, mist curled across the ground, pale green and thick. Symbols glowed faintly on the bark of the surrounding trees.
Severin slowed, bracing himself against a tree. Aelindra stopped beside him, scanning the grove. She felt no fear, only a clear, sharp awareness of every branch, every shadow, every shift of light.
"We're close," Severin said finally.
"How do you know?" Aelindra asked.
"You'll see," he replied, voice tight.
Before she could question him any further, a low hum swept through the grove. A melody, eerie and beautiful, threaded between the branches. Aelindra observed it analytically, feeling its subtle pull, but she remained unnervingly calm.
Severin's voice dropped to a warning: "Do not let it draw your thoughts."
Aelindra tilted her head. "It's distracting, but not dangerous."
"Not yet," he said, though his eyes betrayed unease. He pushed off the tree, and they continued walking forward.
They approached the altar. Aelindra noticed the intricate runes pulsing faintly, and the mist curling unnaturally thick at the far edge of the grove.
Severin leaned back against the stone, catching his breath, Aelindra crouched beside him, hands steady.
"I still don't understand why they're after you," she said quietly.
Severin looked at her, hesitating. His eyes flicked toward the distant trees, as if the answer might be hiding there. "There's something I carry," he said finally, "Something they believe I can unlock. Something dangerous, even if I don't fully understand it yet. That's why I'm hunted. And why you… by being near me… are at risk too."
Aelindra absorbed the words with cold clarity. Whatever it was, it was significant. And now it involved her.
The mist shifted, and at its far edge, a figure emerged. Tall. Cloaked in green-black fabric that moved like smoke, eyes glowing faintly like embers beneath moss.
The witch of the Black Grove.
"Welcome," the figure said. Her voice was both melodic and sharp, carrying weight. "I've been expecting you."
Aelindra felt… nothing. No fear, only focus, as if her mind had sharpened into a blade. She stepped forward, ready to face whatever truths the witch had to reveal.
Severin, still limping, remained beside her, wary, and watchful, aware that the journey ahead was only beginning.
.....
The witch stood at the edge of the mist, silent for a long moment. Her eyes glowed faintly, as if she could see straight through the forest and through Aelindra herself.
"You are bold," she said finally. "Most who enter the Black Grove cower and flee. You… do not."
Aelindra shifted her weight, steady, unshaken. "Fear doesn't exist for me anymore," she said evenly. "It left when I healed him."
The witch's gaze sharpened, "I can feel it. It has made you… sharper. Dangerous, perhaps, but incomplete. Fear is not just a weakness, it is a guide, a warning, a tether to yourself. Without it, you are free… but vulnerable."
Aelindra's hands stayed relaxed, her posture calm. She listened, her mind alert and calculating. She had no fear, but she understood the warning.
"You," the witch said, turning her attention to Severin, "are not the reason they hunt him. But you are the reason she came."
Severin's brow furrowed. "Explain that".
Seraphine's lips curved faintly, "Healing you took something from her, you may not realize it yet, but the loss of fear changes everything. It is a rare gift, dangerous in its own rights and it ties her fate to yours more tightly than either of you understand."
Aelindra frowned. "Ties our fate… how?"
"Because power draws attention," Seraphine said. "Not just from men, or hunters, or kings, but from forces older than this kingdom. Forces that do not act openly, but always watch, always test. The blood you carry, boy, carries a key and the healer beside you… her courage, or rather her lack of fear, will determine whether that key unlocks salvation or ruin."
Severin's face tightened, he had never spoken of his bloodline openly, not even to himself. "A key… to what?"
Seraphine's eyes glinted. "I do not yet know, but they know and they will not wait. That is why you are hunted, why you move in shadows, and why she has lost the one thing that might have kept her cautious."
Aelindra's mind absorbed the words without panic. No fear, only the sharp realization that she had been thrust further into a danger larger than any soldier or hunter.
"So," she said flatly, "you're telling us that I've lost fear, he carries a key, and everyone with power wants both of us."
"Precisely," Seraphine said. "And yet, here you are. Together. Strangers who must rely on one another. That is… fortunate. For now."
Severins's voice was quiet, taut with frustration. "We don't even know what the key does. We don't know why it matters, how are we supposed to survive this?"
Seraphine lifted a hand. A circle of light spiraled around her, and the mist thickened, moving as if alive. Symbols on the trees pulsed brighter.
"Survival requires knowledge," she said. "And you will have it, if you can endure the lessons, and if she can bear the cost of using her powers. Every healing takes from her, yes? But the world is about to demand more."
Aelindra's expression remained calm. She had no fear, only focus. "I can endure it," she said. "But I need to understand the rules, I need to know what happens if I keep using my power."
Seraphine nodded slowly. "Very well. The grove will teach you that, but first… you must understand that not all dangers are visible. Some hunt in shadows, some in trust betrayed, some in blood itself. And the key you carry, boy… it will shape the path before you in ways you cannot yet imagine."
Severin swallowed, feeling the weight of every unspoken truth. he nodded, and threw a glance at Aelindra, acknowledging that they would need to rely on one another though reluctantly, still strangers in circumstance.
The witch stepped aside, motioning to the heart of the grove. "Come. Learn what you must, but know this, every lesson has its cost and every action leaves a mark."
Aelindra glanced at Severin. "Then we start learning."
Severin's eyes met hers for a fraction of a second, guarded, careful, a recognition of mutual reliance.
Aelindra stepped forward first, leading them into the dense mist. Her mind, clear and fearless, noted every detail: the way the roots twisted, the glowing symbols, the energy in the air. She felt the absence of fear as a sharpened edge, guiding her more than caution ever could.
Severin followed, every step wary, aware that his survival and the secrets he carried, depended on both of them.
But neither yet understood the depth of what the Black Grove would demand.