Chapter 128: Relative

Chapter 128: Relative The forest breathed around Rose like a living thing. Ancient oaks twisted their gnarled branches into cathedral arches overhead, their bark scarred by centuries of storms and secrets. Moss carpeted the ground in emerald velvet, muffling her horse’s hooves as they navigated between towering trunks that seemed to lean inward, as if listening to her passage. Shafts of moonlight pierced the canopy in silver spears, illuminating patches of wildflowers that glowed like scattered stars—night-blooming jasmine and phantom orchids that only opened their petals to darkness. The deeper they rode, the more primal the forest became. Vines thick as a woman’s torso draped from branch to branch, creating natural curtains that parted at their approach. The air grew heavy with the scent of earth and decay, of life perpetually dying and being reborn. Somewhere in the distance, an owl’s call echoed through the trees, answered by another from the opposite direction—a conversation in a language older than any spoken by mortals. Rose’s chestnut mare picked her way carefully along a deer path that wound between massive root systems. The horse’s breathing had grown labored, and Rose could feel the animal’s thirst in the way she kept turning her head toward the sound of trickling water that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at once. When they reached a small grove where moonlight pooled like mercury on the forest floor, Rose finally stopped. The mare’s flanks were damp with sweat, her nostrils flaring as she scented the air for water. "Easy, girl," Rose murmured, dismounting and running her hand along the horse’s neck. The animal turned liquid brown eyes toward her, a silent plea clear in their depths. Rose extended her palm, fingers relaxed. The air above her hand shimmered, and water began to condense from nothing—first as tiny droplets that caught the moonlight like diamonds, then flowing together into a steady stream. The liquid was crystal clear, pure as mountain springs, and it pooled in her cupped palm before overflowing in a gentle cascade. The mare drank eagerly, her velvet muzzle soft against Rose’s skin. The water kept flowing, an endless wellspring summoned from the very molecules of air around them. Steam rose faintly from where the cool liquid met the horse’s warm breath. As the mare drank, Rose’s pointed ears—carefully hidden beneath her dark hair—twitched at every sound. The forest was never truly silent. Leaves rustled with the passage of small creatures. Branches creaked as they swayed in unfelt breezes. Somewhere, a twig snapped under an unseen foot. The sound came from directly above. Rose’s entire body went rigid. Her hand never moved from its position, water still flowing for the drinking horse, but every muscle coiled like a spring. Her free hand drifted toward the blade concealed beneath her cloak. "Steady," she whispered, though whether to the horse or herself was unclear. Her voice carried the controlled tension of a predator suddenly aware it might be prey. The rustling grew louder. Leaves rained down as something large shifted in the canopy overhead. Rose’s eyes snapped upward, scanning the intricate maze of branches above. A serpent the length of a grown woman plummeted from the darkness, its scaled body gleaming wet in the moonlight. It hit the ground with a meaty thud not three feet from where Rose stood, writhing momentarily before going still. Rose exhaled slowly, her shoulders dropping a fraction. "Just a tree snake. Probably fell asleep on a weak branch." The words had barely left her lips when the first arrow screamed past her ear. Rose twisted sideways, the arrowhead carving a line through the air where her throat had been a heartbeat before. Her hand came up instinctively, and the projectile simply... stopped. Mid-flight, as if it had struck an invisible wall. The arrow hung suspended for a moment before crumbling to ash. "Vethara nethys," she spoke, the ancient words rolling off her tongue like music turned weapon. *Shadow take you.* Four figures materialized from the forest as if the darkness itself had given them birth. They moved with inhuman grace, their faces hidden beneath deep hoods, weapons gleaming in their hands. Shadow-touched, Rose realized with growing unease. Their movements were too fluid, their presence too cold, and something about them felt... wrong. They spread out in a perfect diamond formation, cutting off every escape route with practiced efficiency. No words. No demands. Just the silent promise of death. Rose’s own sword slid from its sheath like liquid death. The moment steel cleared leather, fire erupted along the blade’s edge—not the warm orange of hearthfires, but something deeper and more primal. Blue flames that burned cold as winter and twice as deadly. Water began to spiral around her free hand, forming into razor-sharp tendrils that caught the moonlight like living glass. They attacked as one. The first attacker came high, her fire-wreathed blade carving down toward Rose’s skull. Rose brought her sword up in a brutal parry, steel screaming against steel as blue flame met red. The impact sent shockwaves up both their arms, but the attacker pressed forward, trying to drive Rose to her knees through sheer force. Rose twisted at the last second, letting the blade slide past her guard, and drove her elbow into the woman’s ribs. Bone cracked audibly. Before the first attacker could recover, Rose spun inside her guard, her water whip lashing out to coil around the woman’s wrist. The liquid hardened to ice on contact, crushing flesh and bone. The attacker’s scream was cut short as Rose’s blade punched through her throat, blood spraying across the moonlit clearing. The second attacker was already moving, her curved sword seeking Rose’s kidneys. Rose threw herself sideways, feeling the blade part the leather of her vest, drawing a line of fire across her ribs. She hit the ground rolling, came up with her blade extended, and immediately had to duck as the third attacker’s overhead strike whistled through the air where her head had been. Fire bloomed around Rose in a protective circle, but these weren’t ordinary opponents. They came through the flames like demons, their skin blistering and peeling but their resolve unshaken. Rose danced between their strikes, her blade work a deadly ballet of thrust and parry, riposte and counter. Each clash of steel sent sparks flying, each near-miss drew blood. The fourth attacker conjured a spear of pure flame and hurled it at Rose’s back. Rose sensed it coming and twisted aside, letting it pass so close the heat singed her hair. She gestured sharply, and her water tendrils shot out like striking vipers, wrapping around two of her attackers’ ankles. A sharp pull sent them crashing to the ground, their heads striking exposed roots with sickening cracks. One rolled to her feet immediately, blood streaming from a gash across her scalp, her blade coming up in a desperate block as Rose’s fire-wreathed sword descended. The impact drove her to her knees, Rose’s superior strength overwhelming her guard. Rose’s follow-up thrust punched through the woman’s chest, the blade emerging from her back in a fountain of blood and steam. The remaining two pressed their attack with renewed fury. Fire bloomed from their weapons in sheets of crimson death, forcing Rose back toward the edge of the clearing. Her blue flames met theirs in the air, the conflicting elements creating explosions of steam that turned the forest into a hellish sauna. The heat was unbearable, the air thick enough to choke on. Rose’s breathing came hard now. A cut on her cheek leaked blood down her jaw, and her left sleeve was torn where a blade had found its mark. Her ribs burned where the earlier strike had opened her flesh. But her eyes burned with something beyond mere fire—a fury that had been building for longer than any of them knew. "Well," she snarled. Power erupted from her like a breaking dam. Water rose from the ground in spiraling columns, drawing moisture from the very air and earth around them. Fire exploded from her blade in a nova of blue light that turned night to day. The two elements should have canceled each other out, should have destroyed her in their opposing forces. Instead, they danced. Water and fire intertwined around her like living things, creating a whirlwind of steam and flame that made her appear as some primordial goddess of the elements. Her remaining attackers tried to press forward but were driven back by walls of superheated steam that would have cooked them alive. Rose stepped through her own inferno unharmed, her blade trailing ribbons of fire and ice. She moved like death itself, each strike flowing into the next with terrible grace. The first attacker’s head parted from her shoulders in a spray of blood that turned to steam before it hit the ground. The body crumpled, twitching as nerves died. The last attacker tried to retreat, stumbling backward as Rose advanced. Rose’s water tendril caught her around the throat, yanking her forward. But instead of delivering the killing blow, Rose pressed her blade to the woman’s heart, just hard enough to draw blood. "Who sent you?" Rose demanded, her voice hoarse from the steam and smoke. "What are you?" The woman’s eyes were wide with pain and terror, but before she could speak, her body began to... change. She crumbled like ancient parchment, skin and bone and steel dissolving into fine ash that caught the moonlight like powdered starlight. "No, wait—" Rose began, but it was too late. A wind that hadn’t been there moments before swept through the clearing, gathering the remains of all four attackers and scattering them into the darkness. Within heartbeats, no trace remained except scorched earth and the lingering scent of ozone. Rose stared at the empty space where her captive had been, her mind racing. "What in the hells—" Fire erupted around her suddenly—not to burn, but to cage. The flames formed bars of crystallized light that hummed with power, a prison of pure energy. Rose spun toward the source, her blade raised defensively, but bands of metal shot from the shadows like striking serpents. The first band clamped around her right wrist with crushing force, the metal searing hot against her skin. She tried to summon water to cool it, but the metal seemed to drink in her power, growing hotter. A second band snapped around her left wrist before she could react, and suddenly her arms were wrenched apart, held fast by chains of fire and steel. Two figures stepped from behind the massive oak at the clearing’s edge, emerging from shadows too deep to be natural. Their faces were hidden beneath deep hoods, but Rose could see the flames dancing in their eyes. One approached with leisurely confidence, her boots silent on the moss-covered ground. When she spoke, her voice carried the weight of centuries and something that might have been affection. "Hello, sister."