The land trembled beneath Lila's feet as she raced through the jagged mountain path beyond the Hybrid border. Her breaths came sharp and ragged, her once-pristine robes now smeared with dust, blood, and ash. Trees bent away from her passage as if sensing the volatile current of power that clung to her skin. Her amethyst eyes, gleaming faintly with the mark of prophecy, darted left and right. Her escape had carved a line of fury across the Hybrid territory—sneaking past guards, blinding them with foresight, then incinerating obstacles with Lyseria's crimson flames that danced unnaturally, singing the very air.
She was no longer hiding. She was fleeing in full flight.
The sky above her churned strangely, the clouds folding in upon themselves like an ancient eye slowly blinking open. There was no mistaking it—something was watching.
