The sanctuary felt different as the afternoon deepened, too quiet, too still, a silence that pressed down like a hand over the mouth. Even the wildlife seemed to hold its breath. Aelindra walked beside Severin down the path toward the lower terraces, but her attention kept snagging on the treeline, on the shimmer of the wards, on the sense that something, someone, leaned close from the other side.
Waiting.
Watching.
Arveth tried to pretend he wasn't on edge, but the way his fingers never fully relaxed around his staff told the real truth. Mira sharpened imaginary blades with her nails. Caelan tried not to look terrified and failed spectacularly.
"Let's resume," Arveth said, though the words rang hollow.
But they didn't make it far.
Because the wind shifted.
Suddenly.
Sharply.
It sliced through the clearing with a coldness that did not belong to late morning. Aelindra's breath caught. Severin straightened like a wolf catching scent.
The wards pulsed, once.
A shimmer rolled across them, a ripple like something heavy had pressed against the barrier from the outside.
Caelan yelped and stumbled back. Mira's hands curled into fists. Arveth raised his staff, eyes narrowing with ancient caution.
Aelindra's heart hammered as the presence, the same one that had brushed the sanctuary twice that morning, returned. Stronger. Closer. Focused.
Like it had finally decided to stop hiding.
Then, the wards crackled.
IT stepped close to the edge of the ward.
A silhouette took form just beyond the shimmering barrier, tall, motionless, utterly still. A cloak as dark as river-stone. A mask carved in the shape of a closed eye.
Mira swore under her breath.
Caelan choked on air. "What in the name of the ancestors is that?"
The figure lifted a hand and pressed its palm against the ward.
The barrier hissed.
The closed eye on the mask opened, a slit of pale unnatural light peering straight at Severin.
Severin staggered as though shoved from the inside. The ember beneath his skin flared hot and frightened.
A single word whispered through the trees:
"Found."
Aelindra grabbed his arm.
Arveth stepped forward. "Wards hold. They cannot cross."
"And yet he's touching it," Mira hissed.
The prescence tilted its head.
Not at Arveth.
Not at Aelindra.
At Severin.
"Crownfire," it whispered. "Your prescence has been… noted."
The ward shuddered again. A crack of light rippled through it, small, hairline, but real.
Arveth's face drained of color.
"That shouldn't be possible."
The prescence lowered its hand. And in a voice that seemed to echo too closely around Severin's ribs, it said:
"We will return for you."
Then it vanished, dispersing like smoke sucked into the dark.
The breath that followed was a collective collapse.
Before anyone could process what, they'd seen, a frantic, staggering shape pushed again, only this time it asnt malicious. It wasnt even trying to force entery, it thrashed like someone drowning, flinging weak bursts of energy against the wards, not to break through, but to get attention.
A voice through, barely audible, shredded by fear
"Open it, please"
Aelindra froze. She knew that voice.
Marienne.
And then the figure collapsed against the outside of the barrier, sliding down until she was slumped on her knees.
Her clothes torn, her braid half-undone, her chest heaving with exhausted sobs.
"Arveth!" Aelindra choked out. "Let her in!"
Arveth hesitated only long enough to ensure it wasn't some kind of trap, then he slammed the base of his staff into the ground. The wards peeled open like a curtain, leaving a thin gap just wide enough for one person.
Marienne stumbled through and fell straight into Aelindra's arms.
She was shaking violently. Blood stained her sleeves; dust choked her once neat braid.
And her eyes, normally sharp, normally steady, flicked wildly, unfocused with terror
Caelan froze.
His voice broke. "Marienne?"
She flung herself at him, gripping him so tightly it hurt. "Caelan, Caelan, I ran, I didn't know if I'd make it"
Aelindra rushed to her side. "You're hurt"
"No, no, listen,LISTEN" Marienne gasped, gripping Caelan's tunic with trembling fingers. "The settlement, our settlement"
She swallowed a sob that scraped raw through her throat.
"It's gone."
Silence.
Aelindra felt Severin go still beside her.
Mira's lips parted in shock.
Caelan's knees buckled. Marienne held him upright only because she refused to let him fall.
"They came before dawn," Marienne whispered. "Not bandits. Not raiders. People in black masks, an eye carved on them, just like, just like that thing you were looking at." Her voice cracked.
Severin's jaw clenched. "How many? Were there survivors?"
Marienne closed her eyes. Caelan's stomach dropped.
"They were searching for someone. They kept saying a name."
Her gaze lifted.
Straight to Severin.
"They were looking for you."
Severin's stomach dropped.
Aelindra grabbed his wrist instinctively, grounding him.
Marienne continued, voice trembling violently:
"They burned everything when they didn't find you. Everyone who resisted, they..."
Her words broke in half.
Caelan clutched her tighter, burying his face in her shoulder.
Severins heart hammered against his ribs. He felt Aelindra's hand steady on his arm, grounding him.
"They said something else", Marienne whispered, voice trembling so hard she had to choke the words out. "Something about... a door. And someone called the Herald. They said the Herald had seen you."
Arveth's face drained of color. "The Herald? That title hasn't been spoken in a century."
He stepped forward, cloak rustling. "You came here alone?"
Marienne flinched back, finally noticing the strangers, eyes wide with fear. "Who, who are you? Where am I? I only followed the old forest path, I didn't know where else to go, Aelindra was the only healer I knew" Her voice cracked. "I prayed the spirits would let me reach her."
Aelindra touched her cheek gently. "You did. You're safe now."
"Are we?" Marienne whispered.
"Aelindra… they won't stop. They tore through everything just trying to draw you out. If they find this sanctuary..."
Arveth lifted a trembling hand.
"They won't," he said, too quickly. Too uncertainly.
But the wards behind them shimmered again.
Harder.
Like something from the outside had heard every word.
Severin rose sharply, eyes blazing with protective fury. "We need a plan. Now."
Marienne wiped her face, breath still shaking. "There is one last thing I haven't told you."
Everyone turned to her.
Marienne's voice dropped to a whisper.
"When the settlement burned… when the smoke rose… I heard a voice inside the fire." Her eyes flicked to Severin. "A man's voice."
Severin's breath hitched.
Aelindra touched his arm. "Sev, what is it?"
Marienne answered for him:
"The voice said your name."
The clearing fell into a dead, ringing silence.
Severin stared at Marienne as if the ground had vanished under him. "You're sure?"
"I would not lie about something like this," she whispered. "Someone in the fire called for you. Reached for you."
Aelindra felt Severin's arm tremble.
They felt something faint beyond the wards pulse again, slow, deliberate, aware.
Arveth lifted his staff.
Mira stepped closer to Caelan.
Marienne clutched Caelans's sleeve like a lifeline.
And the sanctuary hummed with an old, ancient warning.
Something was coming
. A single leaf fell from the canopy overhead, curling, burning at the edges as though touched by unseen fire.
Severin stared at it.
Because just for a heartbeat, in the flicker of flame on that leaf, he heard a voice again.
The same voice from his vision.
Calling his name.
______
The sanctuary felt as though it were folding inward, shrinking around them as the weight of Marienne's final words settled over the clearing. No one breathed for a long, stretched moment, too stunned, too afraid of what else might break loose from the silence if they dared to move first.
Severin's pulse thudded in his ears. Aelindra didn't even realize she was still gripping Severin's wrist until she felt his skin tremble beneath her fingers. His heat, normally steady, usually contained, wavered like a flame caught in a draft, flickering toward something dangerous, something raw. The faint glow beneath his skin pulsed once, then again, before dimming under the force of his control.
Marienne continued to shake in Caelan's hold, every breath rattling through her as if her lungs were fighting for space after hours of running. Caelan held her so tightly his knuckles went white, the fear in his eyes rapidly collapsing into grief. He wasn't ready. None of them were. But Caelan looked like someone who'd had the ground ripped out from under him and hadn't yet realized he was falling.
Above them, the canopy shivered, not from wind, but from something deeper, a pressure that felt like attention pressing down on the world. The wards trembled in response, threads of light tightening as though bracing for impact. Arveth glanced sharply up, as if anticipating the trees to split open.
Mira stepped closer to Severin, not protectively but tensely, ready to drag him backward if his powers lashed out without warning. She didn't understand fire-magic, not truly, but she understood danger. And Severin in this state was danger.
Marienne's breath hitched again. "It wasn't a hallucination," she whispered, as though someone might accuse her of lying. "It wasn't the heat or the smoke. The voice… it reached for him. Like it knew him."
Severin swallowed hard, throat bobbing, eyes locked on a point far beyond the trees, somewhere only he could see. Aelindra squeezed his wrist gently, grounding him again, pulling him back into his body, back into the clearing, back into now.
The wards rippled faintly.
A warning.
A promise.
A reminder.
Something was coming.
And whatever had spoken his name through flame was no longer content with visions.