When you live in a world of monsters, magic, and masked skeletons made of water, you'd think the scariest things are the ones that lunge at you.
They're not.
The scariest things?
Are the ones that wake up inside people you thought you knew.
Aelira, Unleashed
It started small.
Just a hum.
A faint glowing spiral in her palm during morning training.
"Hey, uh," I said, stepping back, "your hand's doing that exploding-sun thing again."
"It's fine," she replied.
"That's what you said before you set the innkeeper's beard on fire."
"That was fine too."
But then she flinched.
The glow cracked. Expanded.
And her entire body lit up like a living glyph.
Her hair rose.
The grass around her withered.
The clouds above shifted and formed a perfect circle.
Aelira screamed once — not in pain, but in shock.
"What's happening?!" she yelled.
"You're surging!" Ravian shouted. "Drop your focus!"
"I CAN'T!"
Sakamoto Reacts
Without thinking, I ran to her.
Niris pulsed in my grip.
"DON'T!" she hissed. "Her magic is overflowing. You'll both burn."
"She's my party. I'm not letting her go out like this."
I reached Aelira.
The magic struck me like a truck made of thunder and memory. Visions blurred my sight. A massive tree. A girl crying. A crown of flame.
"Sakamoto…?" she whispered.
"Breathe. Listen to my voice. You're not alone."
Her body trembled. Then…
Everything stopped.
The sky calmed.
The light faded.
She collapsed into my arms, sobbing.
"I didn't mean to…"
"I know."
"It hurts."
"I know."
Aftermath: Her Magic
Kael arrived minutes later. So did Priestess Selaine.
They examined Aelira.
The diagnosis?
She carried Ancient Wildweave — a dormant bloodline from the forest spirits of the Old North.
It reacts to emotion.
It cannot be trained — only trusted.
"She will be powerful," Selaine whispered. "Or she will die young."
"No in-between?"
"Not with Wildweave."
Ravian's Bloodline Reveal
That night, after everything calmed down, Ravian sat beside the fire.
He rarely spoke about his past.
But tonight, he did.
"My family isn't noble," he said. "We were blessed. Generations ago, one of my ancestors saved a dying deity."
"What kind of deity?" I asked.
"The Maiden of Embers. She gave our blood her mark. We age slow. Heal fast. See glimpses of paths not yet walked."
"Future sight?"
"Possibility sight," he corrected. "But it comes at a price."
"What price?"
"We don't dream. At all."
That Night: The Blade Bled
I dreamed again.
But this time, it was her.
Niris.
She stood before me. A woman in a torn black cloak, hair wild, eyes burning red.
And she was bleeding.
The blood was black.
It poured from her ribs, staining the dream itself.
"They've found me," she whispered.
"Who?"
"The ones who made me."
"What do they want?"
"To reclaim what they lost."
She reached for my hand.
"Sakamoto. If I fall… you fall too."
I woke up screaming.
Final Scene: The South
Far beyond the forests of Velduin, in the volcanic lands of Arcthen, a voice echoed in a dark temple.
"Echoborne…"
The figure knelt before a broken altar. His armor was molten black, face hidden behind a serpent-like mask.
"The cursed blade bleeds again. Prepare the Shadowsworn."
Behind him, seven cloaked warriors emerged.
One carried a whip of light.
One rode a burning wolf.
One's shadow moved even when they didn't.
"We will bring her home," the masked figure said.
"And if the boy resists…?"
"Then we break the world again."