The air thickened, heavy as iron. Rain pattered around them, dripping from the oak's roots like blood. Aria's brother didn't move, yet his presence filled the clearing danger coiled in the stillness between them.
"Stay away," Aria whispered, though her voice betrayed the tremor in her chest.
Her brother tilted his head, eyes glittering beneath his hood. "You think you can keep this power to yourself? That tree already chose. It whispered your name, Aria but it was mine first."
The shadows at his feet stirred.
Aria's stomach knotted. She had seen him wield steel, seen him twist words, but this ,this was something older. The dark stretched toward her like fingers clawing across the earth.
Instinct roared in her veins. Her palm burned where blood had touched the roots. The oak shuddered, and suddenly light burst through the cracks in its bark, lancing toward her hand.
A tether formed.
Aria gasped as warmth shot up her arm, filling her chest. It wasn't gentle, it was wild, unshaped, alive. She felt the forest's heart thundering in rhythm with her own.
Her brother's smile faltered. Just for a second.
"You can't control it," he hissed. "It will consume you."
"Then let it," Aria said, surprising herself with the strength in her words.
The clearing erupted. Shadows lashed out from her brother, colliding with the surge of light that flared from her. Branches cracked. The ground split as if two storms had met in one body.
He came at her fast blade flashing from beneath his cloak. She barely dodged, stumbling against the oak's roots. The light in her hand hardened instinctively, forming a shimmering edge like a blade of its own.
Steel clashed against light, Sparks sprayed.
Her brother pressed forward, strikes fueled by years of resentment. Each blow rang with fury: for their mother, for the secrets hidden from him, for the power he thought was his.
Aria blocked, parried, her arms screaming under the weight. She wasn't trained for this. Every instinct screamed to run. But the forest pulsed through her veins, refusing to let her yield.
The oak whispered in her ear, its voice carried on the storm: Stand, or all will fall.
She gritted her teeth and met his next strike head on.
The fight crashed through the clearing, light against shadow, sibling against sibling. The ground scorched where their power struck. Villagers would see this. They would whisper about it for generations if they survived.
Aria caught her brother's wrist mid swing, twisting hard. His blade clattered to the ground. For one heartbeat, she thought she had him.
Then the shadows surged, swallowing him whole.
The clearing went silent. Only his voice remained, cold and certain, echoing from the darkness.
"You can't win, Aria. The bloodline binds us both. And when the war begins… you'll be standing at my side, whether you want to or not."
The shadows collapsed inward. He was gone.
Aria fell to her knees, chest heaving, the oak's glow dimming at her side. Rain hissed on the scorched ground. She was alone again.
But not for long.
From the tree's hollow, something stirred shapes moving in the dark water, watching her. Not her brother this time, Not even human.