"Roxy, where are you heading?" Plasma said
"Town Allure, Plasma." I said through my thoughts
"Last visit, Roxy."
"Indeed, also, you will now call me Eirene, the Roxy is dead.
"Sure Eirene."
The midnight air over Town Allure was cool and indifferent, a sharp contrast to the suffocating heat of the cellar. I glided through the clouds, a shadow among shadows. To hide the pale, scarred truth of my body, I had donned a heavy, tattered black coat scavenged from one of the fallen bandits. It was too large, smelling of tobacco and cheap ale, but it served as my shroud.
I banked low, my blood wings were remained just before my feet touched the damp grass of the cemetery in the Southern District. The silence here was peaceful, not the heavy, terrifying silence of the manor.
"Plasma, how do you remove this wings. I don't wanted to get caught seeing a dead girl with a monster apperance."
"Eirene, these wings were not for decoration, they were a delicate from your blood curse. Every time you evolve, your body change, such as your fangs, and especially, your wings."
"So I'm just stuck here."
"Indeed Roxy, that wings made of blood will be your life."
I moved through the rows of headstones like a ghost. My heart, or what was left of it, hammered against my ribs as I approached a fresh mound of earth. The flowers laid there were still vibrant, lilies and white roses. Mochi's favorites.
I stopped. My breath hitched in my scarred throat.
There, standing stark and clean against the moonlight, was a stone I was never meant to see.
EIRENE RYND
A Brave Soul. A Loyal Friend. Gone But Never Forgotten.
I reached out a trembling, gore-stained hand, my fingers tracing the carved letters of my own name. It felt cold. Final. To the world, the girl who loved the sun and the Flower Guild was buried under six feet of dirt. They had cried for her. They had said their goodbyes.
I looked down at my reflection in the polished granite. I saw a hollow-eyed specter in a stolen coat, a mouth that couldn't speak, and a soul stained by the blood of a dozen men.
A soft sob, a wet, broken sound, escaped my throat. I was home, but I was a stranger. I was alive, but I was dead. I sank to my knees before my own grave, the black coat pooling around me like ink, finally letting the weight of the last seven days crush me in the one place where I was allowed to be at peace.
"Well, care to leave this town of yours."
"Yes Plasma."
I exited the cemetery and began wandering the streets of Allure, it was nostalgic, my last visit of this place.
The streets of Allure felt like a dream I was no longer allowed to inhabit. Every cobblestone and every flickering streetlamp carried a scent of nostalgia that cut deeper than any blade. I caught the faint aroma of freshly baked bread and the crisp night air of the harbor, things that used to mean safety. Now, they just felt like reminders of a life I had been evicted from.
I pulled the stolen black coat tighter, feeling the uncomfortable bulge of my folded blood-wings pressing against my spine. I moved like a phantom, staying in the deep shadows of the eaves, until I reached the familiar wooden sign that I know of.
Rynd Meat Shop.
The shop was closed for the night, but the lights in the living quarters upstairs were warm and inviting.
I crept toward the side window, pressing myself into the darkness of the alleyway. My breath hitched in my scarred throat as I peeped through the glass. Inside, the world was moving on without me.
I saw them. All of them.
Natalie was sitting at the sturdy oak table, her armor polished and leaning against the wall. Ned and Barry were laughing quietly over a map, their faces lit by the hearth, while Carin was busy helping Mya, my little sister, with her chores. The silver-ranked members of my guild hadn't just moved on, they had moved in.
"You crying, Eirene." Plasma muttered
They were keeping the promise I had made them give me before I left for that cursed mission. I promised Mya that this is my final mission, and I promised her to quit adventurering, but I been through hell, locked in the cellar for a full six days without sleep.
Also, the silver-ranked all kept my promise, they were now in-charge of the Rynd household, as well as the meat shop, and through my suprise, They were protecting Mya. They were running the shop.
Then my eyes landed on Mya. She was wearing one of my old sweaters, her eyes red and puffy from days of mourning, but she was eating. She was safe. She was surrounded by people who loved her because of the legacy I had left behind.
I saw Natalie reach out and pat Mya's hand, a silent gesture of solidarity. They looked like a family. A strange, makeshift family born of my sacrifice, they were living the life I had fought for, a life of warmth and laughter, even in the wake of my death.
A sob threatened to tear through my chest, but I pressed my hand over my mouth, stifling the sound. Tears flowed freely now, washing through the grime and dried blood on my cheeks.
I wanted to smash the window. I wanted to scream, I'm here! I'm alive! I'm right here! I wanted to feel the warmth of that fire and the touch of a hand that wasn't trying to flay my skin.
But as I looked at myself, the hollow eyes, the glasgow smile, the monstrous wings hidden under a thief's coat, I realized I couldn't. I was a creature of the cellar now. If I walked through that door, I wouldn't be bringing back their Eirene. I would be bringing a nightmare into their sanctuary. My presence would shatter the peace they had found. I was a reminder of a horror they shouldn't have to imagine.
I stood there for a long time, watching them live. I memorized the way Mya smiled at something Barry said, a tiny, flickering light in her grief.
"Be happy, stay safe. Forget the salt. Forget the dark. Forget me." I thought
With a final, lingering look at the sister I had died for and the friends who had honored me, I stepped back into the shadows of the alley. I turned my back on the Rynd Household, my heart breaking in a way that no blood curse could ever heal.
I walked away from the light, vanishing into the midnight fog, leaving Eirene Rynd behind forever.
"Let's go! Eirene. Proceed to take off"
I unbuttoned the cloak, revealing the arc of my blood wings, no one is nearby so it is safe to fly in the midnight sky. The wind at this altitude is cold, but it doesn't bite like the cellar did. It's a clean cold. A cold that belongs to the sky, not to the stone.
I look down at the lights of Town Allure one last time as they shrink into tiny, flickering embers. Somewhere down there, in a house that smells of cedar and cured meat, my sister is sleeping. Somewhere down there, my name is carved into a rock. They will visit that rock, they will bring it flowers, and they will remember a girl who was soft and kind.
Let them have her. Let them keep that memory untainted.
I am something else now. I am the girl who ate salt and shadows. I am the girl who drank the life of her captors to keep her own heart beating. My skin is new, but my soul is covered in scars that no magic can reach. I can still taste the iron. I can still hear the hammer.
I spread my wings, not of feathers, but of the very blood that almost failed me, and I bank toward the horizon, toward Caria City. I'm heading to a place where no one knows the name Eirene Rynd. A place where I can be a stranger to everyone, most of all to myself.
My left arm is a blade of hardened grief. My tongue is a silent witness to a horror I can never speak of. But as the first light of a new dawn touches the tips of my wings, I realize the truth. They tried to unmake me. They tried to grind me into the floor like waste. But instead, they forged something that cannot be broken.
I am not a hero anymore. I am not a friend. I am not a friend.
I am a survivor.
And for now, in this vast, terrifying world... that has to be enough.
Goodbye, Mya. Goodbye, Roxy.
The wind is calling, and for the first time in my life, I don't have to look back. I am flying. And I am free.