Mysteria Atherial's Arc

Chapter 1 of 2

Mysteria stepped through the damp forest, counting her breaths and the soft chime of the four rings at her hip. She had come here for answers about what she was. Instead, she had picked up a shadow. A small cyan flame drifted behind her, weaving between the trunks, matching her pace no matter how she changed it. She stopped to test it. The wisp stopped too. A small glass lantern bloomed in the air where it hovered, hung itself on a low branch, and kept burning after the creature moved on. Three lanterns already marked her trail. Anything could follow that line straight to her. Mysteria flexed her right hand inside the gauntlet. The metal warmed, eager. She pushed the feeling down and tried to think instead of strike. The wisp was not chasing her. It was leading something. Behind her, far back through the trees, she could see a faint green glow rising above the canopy — tall windows, a peaked roof, a manor that had not been there an hour ago. She followed the wisp instead of fleeing it. It drew her to a hollow where willow branches hung in a thick green dome, the leaves twitching though no wind moved them. The wisp slid inside the canopy and curled there, waiting. The air went quiet. The lanterns behind her winked out one by one. Mysteria stepped under the leaves. The glow of the distant manor dimmed, hidden from view. The wisp blinked at her, calm now, claimed. She had not lost it. She had been chosen by it — and whatever it had been guiding toward her still knew the shape of the path, even if the lights were gone.