Aethel Skyweaver's Arc

Chapter 7 of 8

The outcast crumpled onto the mushroom mat and did not rise. Their wings shook. Their breath came in short, sharp gasps. Aethel knelt close but did not touch. A stranger in pieces needed space first, hands second. The drakehound at the base watched, quiet. Above them all, the crooked sign still smoked faintly. Aethel scanned the body for wounds and found none they could name. The outcast's shelter had folded around them as they fell — a battered hut shape of cracked spore-shell, wedged half-open on the boards, with a small broken craft jammed into its side. It looked less like a home and more like a wreck dragged from the sky. Whatever this stranger had ridden in on, it had not arrived whole. Aethel reached for their kit and pulled it open across their knees. Wrenches, coils, a small patching tool shaped like a stubby mushroom. Their hands moved before their mind caught up. Fix something. Anything. But there was no machine to mend, only a person, and the person had not yet spoken. Then Aethel saw the pack. It lay beside the outcast, split open down the middle, leaking a slow trail of glowing dust onto the boards. Shattered vials inside. Burn marks along the seams. Aethel's chest went tight. Someone had shot at this person. Someone had hunted them as they flew. A small voice spoke behind Aethel. "That's a chase wound. I've seen them." Aethel turned. A spiked purple figure stood at the platform's edge, half-perched, half-crouched, a grey cat with a red mushroom cap balanced on its head pressed against their leg. Thornfang Razorclaw lifted their chin. "Don't ask if I should be here. I climbed. You built a sign that says safe haven. I can read." Aethel set down the tool. The outcast's breath was slowing. The torn pack told the story words could not. Aethel did not need the stranger to speak yet — they needed to make this platform a place no one could chase anyone onto. "Then help me," Aethel said. "We seal the edges tonight." Thornfang grinned, all teeth. The cat sat. The work had a second pair of hands now, and the sanctuary had its second guest.