The morning the world discovered what she truly was, the sun rose blood-red over Eldergrove.
Aelindra stood barefoot on the cold earth; her fingers curled around the handle of a wooden bucket. Dawn had barely broken, yet the village was already awake with the kind of restless energy that meant trouble. People gathered with whispers flying around, doors slammed, chickens scattered and somewhere over at the square, you could hear shrill wails of a woman. Aelindra froze.
Crying at this hour was never a good sign.
She quickly set her bucket down and followed the sound, her breath fogging in the crisp air of the early morning.
By the time she reached the center of the square, a small crowd had already gathered around a fallen tree, one of the towering old elms that lined the village road. Its trunk had split during the night storm and crashed onto the ground, crushing the wooden stall beneath it.
And beneath the stall… a limp body of a boy.
His mother knelt beside him, shaking so violently her hands barely touched her son's cheek.
Aelindra's heart lurched, it was Kito, the baker's son. He could not have been more than seven.
"No, no, no wake up, my sweet boy, please," his mother sobbed, pressing her forehead against his.
Aelindra pushed her way through the crowd before she realized she was doing it, she didn't know what she planned to do. She only knew she couldn't stand still.
"Kito?" she whispered, kneeling, the boy's small chest didn't rise.
The crowd murmured.
"It's too late" "Fetch Elder Rowan, he'll know what to" "Look at his head… gods have mercy…"
Aelindra's pulse pounded in her ears. It was the same sound she heard years ago, the night her mother died, a hollow roaring that swallowed all thought.
Her hands moved on their own, she touched the boy's cold wrist.
A crack of heat shot up her arm.
Someone gasped behind her "Do not touch him girl, leave it..."
But Aelindra couldn't stop. A warmth spread from her chest to her fingertips, untamed and intense, as if a tiny sun had been set ablaze inside her. Her breath caught, her vision blurred. For a moment, the world flickered white.
Then
Kito inhaled sharply.
The crowd recoiled as if struck by lightning.
His eyes snapped open, wide and confused, taking in the crushed stall, the terrified villagers, and Aelindra kneeling over him with her glowing hands still on his skin.
"Mother?" he croaked.
The woman screamed, but not in grief, in disbelief. She scrambled forward, pulling him into her arms, crying into his hair.
"You're alive… you're alive…" she whispered in-between sobs.
Aelindra tried to stand, but the world swayed violently, her knees buckled. A sharp pain shot through her skull, and suddenly she couldn't remember something.
Something important.
She clutched her head as images shattered like glass, a woman laughing, a soft hand brushing her cheek. Brown eyes, warm like firelight.
Gone.
Aelindra's breath hitched. "No… no, no, what..."
With every blink, she could feel the emptiness growing, hollowing something out of her.
The villagers slowly backed away. The square fell eerily quiet for a few seconds.
"She healed him." "Her hands, did you see the light?" "That magic is forbidden." "Is she one of them? A Healer?" whispers fill the air.
A Healer.
The word cut through the air like a blade.
Kito's mother held her son tighter, her expression now twisting from one of gratitude to fear.
Her stomach dropped, this was wrong, she was wrong. She never should have touched him. Shouldn't have helped.
She staggered onto her feet as the crowd widened into a cautious circle around her.
Then Elder Rowan stepped forward, his eyes dark and unreadable.
"Aelindra," he said quietly. "Do you understand what you've done?"
She swallowed, trembling, her voice barely a whisper.
"I… I don't know."
He drew himself up, his tone heavy with meaning.
"Soldiers from the capital patrol these roads. If word spreads about what happened here…" He paused, glanced around at the murmuring crowd. "You must leave. Now."
The crowd grew silent.
Aelindra's hands trembled. The warmth inside her had faded, now replaced by a chilling sense of dread.
Above them, the blood-red sun rose fully over the village, as if marking the beginning of something she could not yet comprehend.
And as she turned to run, she felt it:
A piece of her memory… gone forever.
The price of saving a life.
...
Aelindra ran.
Branches whipped against her arms as she tore through the forest path behind Eldergrove. Dawn had barely settled, and the golden light leaking through the trees felt too calm, too peaceful for the storm inside her chest.
Her breaths came ragged, clouding the cold air. Her legs burned, her heart hammered so loudly it disturbed the rather quiet atmosphere of the forest.
You must leave. Now.
Elder Rowan's voice echoed in her mind, sharp as a blade.
Leave.
Run.
Disappear.
But where? And from what? Her memories felt shredded, pieces missing like pages torn out of a book. She could feel the holes where they used to be, little pockets of cold nothingness.
She didn't know what frightened her more: the power she somehow possessed… or the price she had already paid for using it.
A memory gone.
A life saved.
Her footsteps slowed.
She leaned against a pine tree, squeezing her eyes shut as she felt the forest spin around her. She felt lightheaded, unanchored, as if her mind was floating several inches behind her body.
Who did I forget?
All she could see was the silhouette of a woman… blurred out like a smudged drawing, swirling around trying its hardest to become perceivable.
A sob crawled up her throat, but she pushed it back down. She didn't have the luxury of breaking down, not now.
Not when,
A sound froze her. Boots, steady and heavy, marching towards her.
She pressed herself tightly against the tree, breath strangled in her throat. The forest held its breath with her.
Closer.
Closer.
A dozen boots, maybe more.
And then she heard it. A man's voice, deep and clipped.
"Search the area. The Healer girl is nearby"
Her blood turned cold.
Healers. The word she had heard whispered like a curse her entire life. The kind of magic that had gotten people executed decades ago. The kind that was supposed to have gone extinct.
And now they thought she was one.
Leaves crunched under approaching steps.
Aelindra dropped into a crouch, heart pounding so hard she was fairly certain it would give her away. She slipped between the roots of the tree, crawling behind a fallen log just as the first soldier appeared through the trees.
The man wore the dark silver Armor of the royal guard, the capital's elite. Not the harmless patrols that visited villages occasionally. These were hunters.
His eyes swept the forest with chilling precision.
Another soldier stepped forward.
"Sir, they said she revived the boy. Just touched him and..."
"Magic has a price," the captain cut in sharply. "She can't have gotten far."
Aelindra flinched. The man's voice had a coldness that made her bones feel brittle.
He took a slow step forward, and the sunlight caught the emblem on his chest.
A black sun.
She felt her stomach drop.
The Order of Shadows.
Kingdom enforcers, known for exterminating forbidden magic.
They weren't here to capture her; they were here to kill her.
Her heart hammered against her ribs.
The captain lifted his hand. "Split up and spread out. If she's alone, she won't survive long."
Aelindra's breath stalled. Alone. Yes. Completely alone.
She heard a twig snapped behind her; her blood froze.
She turned ever so slowly, a hand seized her wrist.
Her scream got caught in her throat as she was dragged upright and shoved behind a wall of dense bushes.
"Quiet," a voice whispered against her ear, a big dirty hand was held over her mouth to stop any sound she intended on releasing.
A man stood behind her, tall and hooded, with muscles strongly defined that she could feel it against her back, dressed in worn leather. Not a soldier, not a villager. She looked up trying to catch a glimpse of the man restraining her, his face was shadowed beneath the hood, but she could see the glint of sharp eyes.
She struggled violently, panic exploding inside her. "Let me go, please" she tried to get those desperate words out, but her attempt was futile
"If you don't stay still, they'll hear you." he hissed out in a very low growl.
The boots were getting closer, she could see dark shapes moving through the trees, spreading out, searching.
The stranger pressed her gently but firmly into the bushes, his hand still tight around her mouth.
"Breathe," he whispered.
"I, I can't", His hands fall from her mouth, then proceeded to grip her shoulders.
"You can. Look at me."
She looked up. His face remained half-hidden, but she could see enough to know he wasn't frightened. He was watching her with a calm intensity that steadied her pulse despite herself.
The boots thudded past them.
Aelindra held her breath.
One heartbeat.
Two.
Three.
The soldiers marched deeper into the forest.
Silence returned.
She sagged against the bushes, trembling. The stranger released her slowly.
"You shouldn't be out here alone," he said.
She swallowed hard. "Who are you?"
He pulled back his hood.
And her breath caught.
He was young, maybe twenty-one, with dark hair curled up loosely into waves, sharp cheekbones, a stubble that indicated he hadn't cleaned up in at least a few days, and the most unique hazel-colored eyes that seemed too intelligent to belong to a simple traveler. There was something undeniably regal in his posture, something dangerous in the way he assessed her.
He stepped back just enough to give her space.
"My name," he said quietly, "is Severin."
Aelindra blinked. The name tugged at her mind.
Severin.
Where had she heard, no not heard,
known, somehow.
A shiver ran down her spine.
The stranger, Severin, looked her over with unsettling certainty.
"You're the girl they're hunting," he said. "The Healer."
She took a step back. "I'm not... I don't know what I am."
He studied her face for a long moment. He then said something that made her heart jolt: "I saw what you did in the village."
Her breath hitched. "You what?"
"I saw you," he repeated, a strange softness entering his voice. "You saved that boy's life."
Her knees nearly gave out.
He had seen. He knew. And he hadn't turned her in.
Why?
Before she could ask, the sound of distant horns echoed through the forest.
The soldiers had regrouped.
He touched her arm gently.
"You need to leave this forest," he said. "They won't stop until they find you."
Her voice trembled. "Why are you helping me?"
He hesitated.
For the first time, uncertainty flickered across his eyes, not doubt, but something deeper. Something conflicted.
Finally, he said:
"Because if they catch you… the kingdom loses its last hope."
Aelindra's breath stopped.
Before she could respond, Severin's gaze sharpened.
"They're coming back. We have to move."
And for the first time in her life, she took the hand of a stranger,
because she feared what would happen if she didn't.