The fire crackled gently, casting long shadows across the quiet glade.
Tashina sat across from Hatku, the glow of the flames soft against her pale face. Her strength was returning—slowly—but something heavy still weighed in her eyes. Not exhaustion. Not pain.
Memory.
Hatku set down the half-finished fish and asked again, voice low, "How did you know those people back at the temple?"
Tashina didn't speak for a moment. Her fingers tightened around the edge of the blanket he'd wrapped her in. Then—finally—she looked at him.
"Because they used to be my unit," she said. "I trained with them. Bled with them. Killed with them."
Hatku froze. "You… were one of them?"
"No," she said quickly. "Not by choice."
The fire flickered as a breeze passed. Tashina exhaled, eyes narrowing.
"After the day Mother was cursed… after everything fell apart… I was taken."
Hatku's stomach sank.
"They didn't just leave me behind. The Universal Gods sent the Collectors. Their enforcers. I tried to run. I screamed your name. But they were faster." Her voice trembled, but she didn't look away. "They told me I was spared. That I'd been chosen."
"For what?"
"To become something useful. They stripped away my identity, but I never forgot my name, Hatku. Never. I just… learned not to say it. They gave me a number. Molded me with words, pain, rituals. The Collectors delivered me to a temple buried in silence. That's where I was remade."
Hatku clenched his fists. "Remade into what?"
She stared into the fire, voice turning cold. "A Cleansed."
He didn't interrupt. He let her speak.
"They trained us to wipe out all beings that defied the divine order. Half-borns. Beast-fusions. Cursed bloodlines. Anything the Universal Gods feared. They called us 'purity in flesh.' Said we were righteous. Above corruption."
Tashina shook her head slowly.
"They never told me where I came from. Only that I had survived something terrible and was reborn to serve. I wanted to believe it was all lies. But they showed me images… manipulated memories. For years, I didn't even know which parts of me were real anymore."
Her voice cracked.
"But I remembered your green flame. I remembered Father's sword. When I saw them again, it shattered everything. That's when I ran."
Hatku felt his heart twist in his chest. "And the others?"
"They came to kill me. Not because I betrayed them—because I was becoming something else. Something they were trained to destroy."
Her eyes darkened.
"They feared the thing growing inside me. The mixture. Beast and human. They feared what I might become. So they sent the entire unit. To erase me."
Hatku looked into the fire. It was all too much. And yet… it explained everything.
He whispered, "Why didn't you tell me sooner?"
She looked up, eyes glassy but strong. "Because I was afraid… that if you knew what I'd done—who I'd been—you wouldn't want to save me."
Hatku stood, stepping around the fire to kneel beside her.
"I don't care what they made you do. You're not one of them anymore."
"I still remember the things I did," she said. "The lives I ended."
"Then remember this too," he said, placing a hand on her shoulder. "You didn't choose that life. They forced it on you. And now… you get to choose something else."
A long silence followed.
Then, off in the distance, thunder rolled low across the sky. The faint shimmer of lightning illuminated the trees—blue and violent.
Tashina looked up.
Hatku followed her gaze. The storm wasn't natural. It carried weight. Like another realm breathing too close.
"They'll come again," she said. "The Universal Gods don't let things like us walk free."
Hatku's expression hardened.
"Let them come."
And in the firelight, between the ashes of who she was and the unknown of what came next, Tashina leaned gently against her brother's shoulder.
A pause.
A breath.
A vow unspoken but deeply felt.
We survive. Together.