Elaris Ashwyn's Arc

Chapter 9 of 12

Elaris woke at first light. Ren still slept by the dead fire, one hand curled where the mark used to burn. She watched him breathe easy for the first time in days. Then she took out a scrap of paper and wrote: Rest. I'll be back before dark. She left it under his blade where he'd find it. The raven dropped from a branch and flew ahead, leading her. She had freed him. That was the trouble. All night she'd turned it over. Ren stayed at her side now. He looked at her softly. But she couldn't tell if he wanted her, or only owed her. Gratitude and love wore the same face. She needed someone who could see the difference. So she followed the raven up the ridge to the oracles' cabin. The cabin leaned under moss and hanging charms. She climbed the porch and knocked. The door swung open on its own. Two fae women waited inside. The taller one had gray hair snarled with twigs and leaves, her clothes worn to rags. She looked Elaris over with hard purple eyes and did not smile. "Mirael Thornwhisper," she said, like a warning. The other sat by the hearth, thin, scarred, wrapped in a torn red scarf. "Celestria Moonshadow," she said quietly. "You've walked a long way to ask about a man." Elaris didn't flinch. "I broke a contract that bound him. Now he stays with me. I need to know if his heart is his own, or just a debt he's paying." Celestria closed her eyes. When she opened them, sorrow filled her face. "We can't read another's heart. Not his. That answer he must give you himself, with his own mouth." "Then I've come for nothing." "No." Mirael stepped close and gripped Elaris's chin, turning her toward the light. "You ask the wrong question. You fear his gratitude because you don't believe you're worth true love. That is your wound, not his." She tapped Elaris's chest, over the ring on its chain. "You hid your name eleven years. You still think the girl behind it is worthless." Elaris pulled back. Her throat tightened. "That's not—" "It is," Celestria said gently. "Stop weighing his feelings. Weigh your own worth. Only then can you believe anyone chooses you freely." Mirael pressed something into her palm. A dried bloom, blood-red. "You carry a name older than you know. Ashwyn was not always hunted. Ask why your house fell. Ask who wanted the last princess forgotten. The answers wait east, past the water." Elaris looked at the flower, then the two ragged oracles. "You won't tell me if he loves me." "We told you what matters more," Mirael said. "Go home. Ask him plainly. And believe the answer." Elaris walked back down the ridge as the sun sank. She had no proof of Ren's heart. But she carried a harder truth now, and new questions with teeth. Tonight she would ask him. And she would let herself believe.