Pantha girl's Arc

Chapter 2 of 7

Marina had taken Asha's hand. Now she had nowhere to put it. The soldiers were still out there, sweeping the treeline with lights, and she stood in open ruins with no walls, no plan, no place to hide. The temple loomed above her, its dark stone crowned with carved moons. She needed shelter before the men pushed past the trees. She ran for the great stairs. Bagh Raat moved beside her, silent, his body made of shadow and faint moonlight. The silver runes on his shoulders burned brighter as they climbed. At the top, the stone doors hung open. Inside, carved symbols lined the walls. Marina pressed her back to cold stone and tried to breathe. "They'll search the temple," she said. "This isn't safe either." The panther stopped. He turned his glowing eyes on her, then on the symbols. Under his gaze the carved moons began to glow. Wind rose inside the sealed room, swirling grit off the floor. Marina grabbed for the wall. "What is this? What's happening?" A spectral shape pulled free from the panther's back. It rose like smoke given a body, a second panther, ghostlike, with eyes of pure burning gold. The true Bagh Raat and his shining double faced her together. The deep voice came, echoing like far thunder. "The jungle marks its own. You asked for safety, cryptographer. Safety is not a wall. It is this." Moonlit energy lifted Marina off the floor. Her boots left the stone. She hung in the air, arms stretched, the wind roaring past her ears. The spectral panther circled her once, trailing pale fire. "I don't want this," she gasped. But the light held her fast. A burning point touched her shoulder. The pain tore through her like a brand. The mark spread, a shape of four curved claws, searing itself into her skin. "Aaaah!" Marina screamed. The sound filled the temple. Then the wind died. The light let her go. She dropped to her knees on the stone, shaking, her shoulder raw and smoking. The spectral panther folded back into Bagh Raat. The carved moons dimmed. Silence returned to the room. Marina pressed her hand to the mark. It still burned, but under it she felt something new. The jungle moved around her like a held breath. She could feel the walls, the roots below, the soldiers at the treeline, all of it pressing against her mind at once. The men stopped at the edge of the trees. They would not come in. She knew it the way she knew her own heartbeat. "This temple is yours now," Bagh Raat said. "No soldier can take it from you." Marina stood. Her legs held. She looked at the open doors, the stairs, the dark stone that would shelter her. She had a base now, burned into her flesh and bound to the jungle. But the mark throbbed with something older than any soldier, and deeper in the stone, she felt a cold space where a stolen relic had once rested.