Celestria Gemheart's Arc

Chapter 5 of 6

At dawn Celestria returned to the bench alone. The mossy stones of the path were wet, and her steps left dark prints in the green. She had told herself she would not hope. She had told herself the seventh might never come. Still, her hand tightened on her cloak as the bench came into view. The cloth was gone. The stone that had weighed it lay tipped on its side. No brooch. No note. She stood very still and listened to the wood breathe around her. Then she saw the tree. A pale shape cut into the dark bark, fresh enough that the wood beneath still wept sap. A single letter. K. Not a name she knew. Not a name in her circle. Her breath caught once, then steadied. Someone had taken the brooch. Someone who wanted her to know they had. She followed the prints off the path. They led her through ferns to a small stone shrine half-eaten by vines, its door cracked open. A man stepped from the shadow of the pillars, broad-shouldered, wings folded close. Vaelor Brightwing. The brooch was pinned at his collar, plain as daylight. "You left a question on a bench," he said. "I came to answer it in person." Celestria did not bow. She did not perform. She only looked at him, and at the carved letter behind her that was not his initial, and understood that her seventh ally had found her — and that someone else had been watching the bench too.