Lucien trudged through the skeletal remnants of what once was a forest. The color of the sky was a dirty ash-gray, the air thick with char and despair. Shallow, spasmodic breathing. His body ached, every muscle screaming for relief, but he did not dare pause.
Darkness within him churned living, starving. A living darkness wrapped around his bones, a pant under his skin. Kaela's voice whispered at the edge of his mind.
DEVOUR ME LUCIEN
RUN
SURVIVE
He curled his fists, fighting the wave of sorrow and rage. Her image burst before him, gaunt and wasted on the scorched ground, eyes imploring him to keep fighting, his heart ripped in half.
He was alone now.
Lucien had barely realized what had happened in the Vault battle how the attackers rolled over them, how Kaela was killed, and how he had been driven to commit the unthinkable: consume the only being who had ever been nice to him, trusted him, and believed in him.
As Kaela's presence blended with his, a searing fire incinerated his veins. His senses sharpened; agony faded; strength washed through him. So did something darker a gnawing hunger ripping at his throat, eating just below the surface.
He collapsed beneath the twisted branches of a dying tree, his flesh wet with sweat against the chill. His fingers trembled as he explored the new pulse within.
A faint, purple light burned beneath his skin not a scar, but a spark.But the strength was uncontrolled and volatile and frightening.This power everytime it pulsed damaged him inside making him more worried.
He addressed the void, his voice barely audible: "What am I now?"
A wind swept through the cinders, shaping dust into a woman's shape Kaela's shape. She appeared otherworldly, shaken, her eyes melancholy and full of power.
"You are more than they convinced you that you are," her voice distant and near. "But that power will kill you if you let it."
Lucien's mouth had whispered for a drop of water, his fear perilously close to surfacing. The shadows pulsed, begged to be free, to be fed.
"I don't want to lose myself."
Kaela's spirit quivered, as if it struggled against a lead."Then you have to learn control. Not just of the power. but of your mind."
In the night, as the cold crept into his bones, Lucien was tormented by visions.
He once more saw Kaela her face twisted in pain, screams echoing in his ears. Shadow clawed at him all around, their whispers pounding, beseeching, warning.
"Devour me. eat. be free…"
His fists blazed with blood as he clenched them, sobs streaming down his face.The line between his own mind and Kaela's fading voice was erased. Was she a ghost? A memory? Something else?
He didn't sleep, wracked by the echoes of the Vault and the faces of the dead.
The wind tore through the burned pines like an animal wild, sharp, and
unforgiving. Snowflakes fell like droplets of water, gentle but relentless. Every one of them seemed to leech the heat from Lucien's frame.
His cloak that has been covering him for the harsh snow was frayed, soggy, and glued to his bones. He had already lost feeling in his fingers hours before.
His knees gave way under him.
Lucien tumbled into the hollow between two fallen trees, teeth rattling, arms wrapped tightly around himself. He tried to whisper Kaela's name but even his voice deserted him.The sky above was an expanse of endless nothingness.
He was going to die.
Between thought and blackout, he heard something: boots crunching on leaves of Lucien opens his eyes but they are still blurry from he tiredness he sees a small light coming closer and closer he wants to defend but the cold snow made his body not be able to move much of his body only his legs are able to move so he just stands up ready to atleast defend himself
A lantern's soft light unfolded across the blackness, and a soft voice asked"Is someone there?"Lucien is still worry so he
didn't answer.Alot of questions came into his mind what should he do
The light faltered. Then approached. A hooded woman crouched beside him.
"Gods," the woman said. "You're just a child…"Lucien regonised a women's voice so he fell again and his eyes closed because he is tired and hungry it's been days since his last meal.
Lucien rolled weakly, eyes refusing to open.A twisted face leaned in sharp eyes, leathery skin, and black hair streaked with silver. She was the type of person who would belong out in the wild someone who didn't flinch from wolves or storms.
"Can you move?" she asked.Lucien shook his head.She didn't hesitate. She dropped her lantern, settled him onto her back with a strength he wouldn't have expected, and descended the mountain trail.
Lucien awoke to the crackle of burning firewood.The pungent aromas of pine, smoke, and boiled roots filled his lungs. His clothes had been stripped off him, replaced by a rough yet warm tunic. A heavy woolen blanket was draped over him.
He sat up with a shock his body objected in pain. "Easy there," the woman's voice called from the kitchen.She was cooking something in a blackened pot over the fire. Her back to him.
"You were half-frost when I found you. Thought I'd have to bury you in the snow."Lucien pulled the blanket tighter about him. "Where am I?".
"My cabin it's small but still I can call it's home." she ladled some stew into a chipped bowl and brought it to him.
"Eat. You'll need strength before anything else."
He eyed her warily, but the heat in the bowl called to him.Lucien ate in silence. Every swallow burned but it was the best thing he'd tasted in months.
The woman watched him, one leg crossed over the other, sipping from a wooden mug. "Name's Maelis. And you?"Lucien hesitated."…Lucien."She nodded. "Just Lucien, then."
She didn't ask for a family name. Or where he came from. "How old are you?" "Fourteen."Maelis leaned back in her chair, eyeing him quietly. "Your fourteen, and wandering these woods in winter?"
Lucien looked down.But he didn't want to share his entire information about himself so it's best to keep quiet especially to a stranger.Maelis sighed, standing up.
"You don't have to explain. People run from things. Hunger, war, their own pasts. Doesn't matter. You're here now."
Lucien's hands closed tightly around the bowl.She'd thought he was just a runaway bum.She didn't see the black mark pulsating feebly under his collarbone, hidden by the tunic.
She didn't feel the voices in his visions. She didn't realize what he'd done or what he'd become.But somehow… she warmed him.
That night, Lucien lay awake.
The bed was soft too soft. The fire was warm, and the walls didn't shift like the Vault did.No Kaela. No Veyr.No harsh training.Only Maelis, softly snoring in the chair beside the hearth.
He scowled at the ceiling.
He didn't belong.
But he couldn't go.
Not yet.
Maelis rose with the sun.She handed Lucien a bucket and gestured toward the well.
"Morning you little Lucien, if you're staying, you help. Water first, then wood."
Lucien blinked. "You're letting me stay?"
"Until you're strong enough to walk away. Yes."With a smile Maelis gives a happy feeling. Lucien feels something but doesn't get it.Maelis nodded. He turned his face away. "…Why?"
Maelis shrugged. "Seemed like the right thing."Lucien brought the water in silence.Later, he chopped firewood while Maelis dried herbs and smoked meat for winter. She was silent but not cold the sort of silence that made space for others to breathe.
Lucien was taking his first breaths in weeks.That evening, sitting in silence, Maelis lit a lantern using an ordinary flint but Lucien, distractedly, brought his hand up toward the dark candle on the bedside table.
There was a flash of flame from his fingers. The candle blazed into light.
Maelis spun toward him.
Lucien tensed.
"That… was a good trick," she said warily.
Lucien looked down. "Nothing. Just a parlour trick. I saw a traveller do it once."
Maelis did not press. But later on, she caught him looking at her.
Something in her eyes had shifted — curiosity, not fear.
Days passed.
Lucien wouldn't say much, but Maelis never pressed him.
She did for him what she would have done for any other random animal in the forest was quiet, observant, but welcoming. She even let him read from her ancient volumes when she caught him glancing at them in the evenings.
Sometimes she told stories: of wars of old, kings who were untruthful, gods who departed.Lucien listened, silent but gaping.He wished he could tell her everything.But words clung to his throat every time.
A blizzard howled outside one evening.
Lucien leaned against the window, watching snow blanket the trees.
Maelis approached him, pushing a steaming mug of pine tea into his palms.
"You look as though you've seen ghosts."Maelis says with a happy expression.
"What does that mean?", Lucien said softly. Maelis didn't flinch.
"Everyone has."Lucien lifted his eyes to hers."I don't understand."Lucien says with curiosity filling his mind.She tilted her head to one side."You're a boy who came close to dying in the snow."
Lucien just stares as he is completely lost. Maelis sees this and gives a smirk then stared at him for a long, hard moment
"Every person feels something in their life from beautiful memories to life cherishing days who knows what the future will take you. Maelis says this with a happy expression as she continues to explain Lucien listens and remembers Kaela and Veyr he remembers the good and bad memories with them which brings him a smile.
Maelis sees Lucien smiling and hugs him with affection."There's a smile that a baby boy like you should have that another beautiful memory that had been born"
Lucien feels the hug at first he doesn't want to resist but remembers that his foster mother Mary used to do the same thing and Lucien hugs her back.
Finally even for a moment a feeling came to him
HOPE