Chapter 14: Escape into the wild
The whiteness seemed to have swallowed everything. No walls,no floor,no body. Just light that pressed me flat on the floor and hollowed me out.
Then the sound returned,a crack of stone,the sound of boots and Vesper cursingI furiously and Rhea’s voice barking out orders.My lungs making me gasp for air.
I blinked and the world came back into shape again and the ritual circle was rube. The chamber was a storm of dust and broken shelves. The charm was still against my chest, cold and alive and heavy like a second heart.
Alma was gone,not like gone in the literal sense..she was hibernating. Folded into the steal like she had been packed up and locked away in a suitcase. Her light was like a whisper at the edges of my mind, dim and struggling.
[Kernel Scabbard: ACTIVE]
[Alma — HIBERNATE (19% integrity, unstable)]
[Anchor Load: 87% — WARNING]
My hands shook. I touched the steel like maybe I could wake her up but all it felt was the cold.
The Horned figure was gone, no not gone because it’s energy still lingered there in the space if had stood. Rhea stood between me and the empty space with her blade wet with someone else’s blood, her jaw clenched.
"Move," she snapped, her hand on my arm, yanking me upright.
More Guards poured through the broken door with their blades sharp and their voices angry. Lucien was with them again, his pretty face twisted into a sneer that faded almost immediately he saw the wreckage.
Vesper didn’t even flinch,she slashed her rings through the air and muttered something sharp and the first three men dropped their weapons to claw at invisible insects. "We don’t have time," she said. "Let’s get out now!"
Rhea pulled me towards the hallway and my legs followed her in shock without thinking first. We crashed through the smoke and falling plaster, the road of the white fire dragon echoing above us.
The palace was coming apart. Pillars were cracking, arrows wheezing past us,men shouting behind us and every corner burned with Charlotte and her father’s fury.
Vesper led the way, Rhea guarded from behind and I was running between them, clutching the charm. The only sound my sulk heard was Alma’s faint breath,weaker than anything I’d ever heard from her.
We burst into a side corridor that stank of oil and mildew. A barred window at the end where moonlight shone. Vesper flung her hand and her rings sparked making the bars groan and snap like reeds. "Go, go..Now!"
We climbed through into the night air and the steel roof slid toward the river canal below. My stomach lurched with fear at the sight of it.
"Down," Rhea ordered, shoving me first.
I skidded down, tiles smashing under my boots,my arms pinwheeling. The canal rushed closer where the roof ended and I fell into the water with a crash.
The cold water slammed against my ribs dragging me under and I came up thrashing. The charm on my chest dragged me like an anchor.
Hands hooked my collar and Rhea hauled me to the skiff that waited in shadow. Vesper was already inside, shoving us away with a pole.
"Row," she hissed.
I grabbed the oar and pulled, clumsy but desperate. Rhea matched me stroke for stroke and the boat scraped along the canal wall, then shot into deeper water. Shouts followed us and arrows hissed and clattered.
The horned figure didn’t appear. That was worse than if it had... Its absence was scary.
The city fell behind in a smear of fire and noise. We pushed into the black river that cut through the outskirts. Houses leaned away from the water like they feared it. No one stopped us, No one wanted to.
When the palace fires were only sparks on the horizon, Vesper finally dropped into the bow and spat into the water. "Ugly business.it could’ve been uglier."
I slumped against the side,my chest burned and my arms ached. Alma’s silence was the loudest thing I’d ever heard.
Rhea leaned close. "Status."
I swallowed. "She’s... she’s not answering. Maybe she’s Hibernating. Integrity’s falling."
Her eyes narrowed. "Can she recover?"
I didn’t know, I wanted to lie but my throat couldn’t.
Vesper flicked her rings and let them chime. "If the anchor holds, she can climb back. But every hour she sleeps, something else will smell her trail."
I closed my eyes...Alma’s last words whispered again in the static of my skull: Eiji, don’t let it wear me.
I gripped the charm like I could promise her through bone and steel. "I won’t."
The boat drifted into the forested banks beyond the city. Pines bent over the river, thick and dark. Rhea guided us into a hollow beneath the trees, where the current slowed and shadows swallowed the skiff.
We dragged it onto mud and ferns. My legs shook when I stood. The air smelled of sap and smoke.
Rhea checked the treeline, blade always in her hand. Vesper crouched by the boat, carving signs into the hull that bled faint light. "That’ll make it forgettable," she said.
I dropped onto a fallen log and let my lungs catch up. For the first time since the whiteout, there was quiet,not peace, but quiet.
The charm pulsed faintly against my chest. Alma’s integrity climbed by a fraction.
[20% ... 21% ...]
It wasn’t much but it was everything.
"Rest," Rhea said. She sat near me, eyes never leaving the dark between the trees. "We move at dawn."
Vesper laughed low. "If we see dawn."
I leaned back, the bark hard against my spine, the charm cold against my heart. I didn’t sleep,not really. Just drifted with Alma’s faint light flickering at the edge of my mind, a reminder she was still fighting.
And that was when I heard it.
A howl, not human,not a wolf. Something deep and broken, carrying across the trees. The sound crawled under my skin.
Rhea’s head snapped up,Vesper stopped carving and the fire dimmed.
The howl came again, closer and it felt like the forest had suddenly gone very quiet.