Emeralis Veilborne's Arc

Chapter 1 of 4

Emeralis Veilborne ran because stopping meant dying. Behind her, the men in black cloaks who had killed her parents crashed through the trees. She was sixteen. Her parents had trained her to fight, but not to face five swords at once. The smell of her burning home still clung to her, sharp and hot, even here among the glowing trees. Her boots slipped on wet roots. Green and purple leather scraped bark as she ducked under a low branch. She pressed her palm to a thick trunk and pushed her plant magic into it. Vines burst from the ground behind her. They snapped around a man's legs and dragged him down. He screamed. She did not look back. Another cloaked figure lunged from the side. Emeralis spat acid from her fingertips. It hissed across his blade and ate through the steel. The sword broke. He stumbled, and she ran harder. The glowing mushrooms and hanging vines blurred past. Her lungs burned. Then the trees opened into a clearing, and the shouting behind her faded. She had lost them. She bent over, hands on her knees, and let herself breathe. That was when the growl started. A wolf stepped from the ferns. Its fur burned red, and its eyes glowed like coals. Heat rolled off its body in waves. Emeralis raised her hands, but she was shaking, and her magic sputtered. The wolf crouched. Then it sprang. Water slammed into the wolf from the side. It hit hard and threw the beast into a tree. The wolf yelped, shook itself, and bolted into the dark. Emeralis spun. A girl stood at the clearing's edge, one hand still open from the throw. Black and blue braids hung past her shoulders. Her leather armor matched, dark with blue lines that seemed to ripple like a river. She looked calm, like saving strangers was a normal Tuesday. "You're welcome," the girl said. "Name's Koral. From the Deep." Emeralis kept her hands half-raised. "How do I know you're not with them?" Koral snorted. "The cloak boys? They tried to gut me last week." She nodded toward the trees where the wolf had fled. "That thing would've cooked you. Your acid can't stop fire." Emeralis lowered her hands slowly. Her heart still pounded. "Those men killed my parents. Burned my home." The words came out flat and hard. "I'm going to find them. I'm going to end this war so I can stop running." Koral studied her for a long moment. Something in her face shifted, softer now. "Then you shouldn't hunt them alone." She held out a wet hand. "Water beats fire. You'll want that." Emeralis looked at the hand. She had trusted no one since the fire. But the cloaked men were still out there, and she had almost died twice in one night. She took Koral's hand. "Emeralis," she said. "We move before they regroup."