The mist swallowed the three of them as they followed the narrow path deeper into the grove. The air cooled further, carrying the faint scent of damp moss and crushed herbs beneath their boots. Above them, ancient branches interwove so tightly that not a sliver of sky could be seen. The grove was a world unto itself, quiet, sealed, watching.
Aelindra walked without hesitation. Fearlessness made her stride steady, her breath calm, her senses wide open. If anything, she felt more alert, not because danger frightened her, but because she understood intuitively that information mattered.
Behind her, Severin's steps were heavier. She could hear it in the uneven rhythm of his boots against the mossy ground. He was thinking too much, he always seemed to be thinking too much.
Seraphine finally stopped at a circular space surrounded by towering blackthorn trees. Their branches bent inward as if to hide a secret. At the clearing's center lay a shallow pool no wider than a table, the water dark and still.
"This is where your lessons begin," Seraphine said. "Both of you."
Severin frowned. "I thought Aelindra was the one training. I just..."
"You," Seraphine interrupted, "are at the center of the threat hunting you. Your ignorance is as dangerous as their blades."
Severin shut his mouth.
Aelindra stepped forward. "What do you want us to do?"
Seraphine knelt beside the pool and dipped two fingers into the water. Ripples spread outward, though her touch was barely there.
"Magic leaves echoes," she said. "Traces. Threads woven through the body and the world around it. Healers draw from these threads instinctively, often without understanding what they touch."
She looked up at Aelindra.
"You healed Severin. That act connected you to him, subtly, yes, but undeniably. You will feel its effects in time."
Aelindra absorbed that with her usual calm. "How?"
Seraphine's gaze shifted. "That depends on him."
Severin stiffened. "Me? I didn't do anything."
"Magic does not care whether you participate," Seraphine said. "It cares only that a bond was formed."
Aelindra sensed a slight tension radiating from Severin at those words. Not fear, just discomfort, uncertainty, it didn't sway her.
Seraphine stood and motioned to the pool. "Aelindra. Come."
Aelindra approached the water and knelt beside it.
"Look in."
She leaned forward until her reflection rippled across the dark surface, pale skin, luminous eyes, steady expression. No fear hiding anywhere.
"What am I looking for?" Aelindra asked.
"Your loss."
A faint hum trembled beneath the words, as though the pool recognized the command. The water brightened, illuminating her reflection with an unearthly glow.
Then it shifted.
Her face blurred, shadowed. Parts dissolved like smoke.
"What you gave away," Seraphine said, "has loosened your inner map. Your instincts have been reordered, your perception changed."
Aelindra stared, unflinching, as the image continued to blur and reform in strange, incomplete ways.
Severin moved closer, drawn to the sight. "What does it mean?"
"It means," Seraphine said, "that she is no longer governed by fear. When she should retreat, she may stand still. When she should hesitate, she may not, and when she should flee…"
Aelindra finished it for her: "I won't."
"That is the danger," Seraphine murmured.
Aelindra didn't disagree, she simply filed the information away.
Seraphine's gaze sharpened. "But you are also less clouded by panic, doubt, or instinctive resistance. You see clearly where others would freeze. This can be a strength, if you control it."
Aelindra nodded. "I want to learn how."
"You will."
Seraphine turned to Severin.
"And you."
He stiffened again. "What about me?"
"Your training begins with truth."
Severin's jaw tensed. "I don't even know what truth you speak of."
"No," Seraphine said, "but your blood remembers even if you do not."
She gestured for him to kneel on the opposite side of the pool.
Severin hesitated.
Aelindra watched him, curious more than concerned. "It won't hurt."
He glanced at her, exhaling. "That's easy for you to say, you can't feel fear anymore."
"True," she said simply. "But I can still recognize danger."
Severin cracked a hollow laugh. "Comforting."
Yet he knelt.
Seraphine touched the water again. It brightened once more, this time, gold instead of green.
The surface stilled, then Severin's reflection transformed.
Not into shadows, like Aelindra's, but into fragments.
Broken images.
Pieces of a crest she didn't recognize. A crown wrapped in thorn. A sigil of fire. A sword piercing the sun. And behind all of it… a shape like a closed eye.
"What is that?" Severin whispered.
"Your inheritance," Seraphine said softly. "The rebels seek it. The old magic recognizes it."
Aelindra leaned closer, studying the shifting symbols. "Is it dangerous?"
"Yes," Seraphine said.
Severin swallowed hard. "Why? What does it do?"
Seraphine stood and stepped back.
"That, I cannot yet tell you. But this much you must understand, Severin: there are things in this world that sleep because your bloodline commanded them to. If those things wake…"
She let the meaning hang in the air like smoke.
Severin's eyes widened. "I don't want any of this."
"Want is irrelevant," Seraphine said. "Destiny chooses. Blood binds. Whether you stand or run, the path remains."
Aelindra's voice entered the space calmly. "So, what do we do?"
Seraphine studied them both.
"You train. You learn to see beyond what is shown. You learn control. And you prepare for those who seek to use him, for their rise or the world's ruin."
The tension settled deeper into the grove.
But Seraphine wasn't done.
She moved to a nearby blackthorn tree and pressed her palm against the bark. The tree shuddered, groaning softly as a hollow cavity opened in its trunk. From within, she drew out two objects: a small vial of dark liquid and a thin obsidian blade.
She held the blade first.
"This is not a weapon," she said. "It is a conduit. Severin, hold out your hand."
He hesitated again.
Aelindra simply said, "Do it."
His eyes flicked to hers, and for a moment, something passed between them, something quiet and unspoken. He obeyed.
Seraphine placed the blade in his palm. The obsidian pulsed faintly, reacting to him but not harming him.
"What does it do?" Severin asked.
"It reveals," Seraphine said. "Light from darkness. Truth from lies. Blood from blood."
Aelindra tilted her head. "Blood from blood?"
"Yes." Seraphine closed his fingers around the blade. "You will understand when the time comes. But know this: those who hunt you fear this blade more than they fear you."
Severin's fingers tightened.
"And the vial?" Aelindra asked.
Seraphine lifted it.
"This," she said, "is for you."
Aelindra accepted it. The liquid inside was thick, black, and slightly luminous, as though holding starlight.
"What is it?" she asked.
"Focus." Seraphine's voice softened. "It will help you control the changes happening within you. It will not restore fear, nothing can do that, but it will anchor the instincts you still have."
Aelindra inspected it, unbothered. "How do I use it?"
"Drink one drop at dawn for three days."
Aelindra nodded.
Severin exhaled. "So that's it? Lessons over for today?"
Seraphine laughed quietly, the sound dry and humorless. "Hardly."
She walked back to the pool.
"Now," she said, "we begin truth-sight."
Aelindra straightened. Severin looked exhausted already.
Seraphine motioned for them both to stand beside her.
"Look into the water," she instructed. "Together."
They leaned over the pool.
At first, they saw only their reflections, steady, still.
Then the water darkened, swirled.
Shifted into something deeper than sight.
Aelindra saw flashes, branches bending, shadows twisting, blades glinting in torchlight. Figures in cloaks moving through the woods. A symbol painted in ash on a wooden door. The closed eye from Severin's reflection, open now.
Severin gasped.
He saw something too. A hand reaching for him. A voice calling his name. Flames. A throne room shrouded in smoke. Someone familiar standing over him, face blurred, expression unreadable.
Aelindra reached out instinctively, not because she feared the visions, but because she recognized Severin was on the verge of unraveling.
Her hand steadied his arm.
He didn't pull away.
Seraphine's voice cut through the haze.
"Good," she murmured. "You see what hunts you. You see what you may become. And one day… you will see who will betray you."
A chill, not fear, but something colder slid through Aelindra.
Severin's breathing quickened. "Who, who betrays me? Who was that?"
"Truth does not give names," Seraphine said. "Only warnings."
The visions faded. The pool returned to stillness.
Aelindra lowered her hand from Severin's arm, slowly, deliberately.
Seraphine stepped back with a long breath. "Enough for now, your minds are not ready for more."
Aelindra simply nodded. Severin rubbed his face with both hands.
As they began walking back through the grove, Aelindra's voice broke the quiet.
"We'll manage this," she said. "Together."
Severin looked at her, really looked at her for the first time since the visions.
He didn't smile, but something softened.
"We don't have much of a choice, do we?"
"No," Aelindra said honestly. "We don't."
They stepped through the mist, shadows shifting around them.
Behind them, Seraphine watched with unreadable eyes.
And the grove whispered a truth neither of them heard:
Not all dangers come from enemies,
Some come from those who walk beside you.