The following days, Mau's training intensified—but something had changed.
The combat drills, the ambushes, the healing exercises—they weren't just lessons anymore. Her body remembered in ways her mind didn't.
A vine snapped behind her during a tracking drill. She twisted, dagger in hand, and disarmed a mock "attacker" with a precision that startled even Tay Eming.
"Enough," he said, laughing softly. "You're terrifying now. I may have created a monster."
She tilted her head, smirking faintly. "Awkwardly efficient, remember?"
"Ah yes," he said, feigning exasperation. "Unpredictable… lethal… awkwardly efficient."
Later, tending to herbs in the clearing, Mau felt the tingling under her ear again. She arranged the plants with care, grinding leaves into fine paste. But her fingers paused as a faint image flickered in her mind—silk, light brushing across her skin, patterns and symbols she couldn't name, yet instinctively recognized.
She touched the red mark. The images deepened: a tall man, a woman, a city of towers. A little girl being carried away.
"Someone wanted me gone," she murmured softly.
Tay Eming's expression darkened. "Yes. And the forest… the forest kept you alive until you could be ready."
Her eyes narrowed. "…Ready for what?"
"Ready for them. Ready for yourself. Ready to remember who you were and take what was stolen."
Mau's breath caught. Somewhere between instinct, muscle memory, and fading dreams, a realization began to form: the life she had lost, the city, the family, the designs—none of it had truly gone. It had been waiting for her.
And so had the danger.
Far away, in the cold silence of a glass-and-steel office, Dave White tapped his fingers on the desk. He studied sketches, shipments, M Designs' growth—all orchestrated by Aida in Mau's absence.
A smirk curled on his lips.
"She's awakening," he whispered. "And the forest has made her… stronger than anticipated."
His eyes flicked to the folder labeled: Mau White—Unaccounted.
"Yes," he muttered, voice low and satisfied. "She will find her way back. And when she does… everything changes."