Violet Essence's Arc

Chapter 2 of 2

Basil carried the roses in both arms. Violet drifted beside him, a shape of pale purple light. She thought the roses would let her travel safe. She was wrong. Behind them the grass browned in a wide, dead line. Every fern she passed curled and died. The trail marked her path like ink on paper. Anyone hunting the forest could follow it straight to her. "Look back," Violet said. Basil looked. The dead ground stretched far behind them. "They'll see that," he said. Flat. "From a long way." "I can't stop making it. I kill everything I pass." Her light flickered. "If someone's hunting, I'm leading them right to us." Basil said nothing. He walked. The dead line grew longer. They came to a shrine set among stones. Bright gems circled its arch. Flowers grew thick across the carved face, red and orange and purple. They did not wilt as Violet neared. She stopped and stared. "Those live," she said. "Near me." "Roses do that," Basil said. "These aren't roses." But the shrine flowers held. Violet drifted close. The blooms stayed open. She looked at the ground beneath them. No dead line spread there. The shrine soil stayed green. "It's the ground," Basil said. He knelt and pressed his green hand to the dirt. "This is her shrine. She keeps things alive." Violet understood. The shrine belonged to the one who watched over growing things. Her power ran through the soil here. It fed the plants faster than Violet could drain them. "Then I need her soil," Violet said. "On the ground I walk." Basil dug at the shrine's base with both hands. He scooped dark earth into the fold of his shirt. He worked without complaint. When his shirt was full, he stood. "Walk ahead," he said. "I'll spread it where you drift." They moved on together. Violet floated low. Basil trailed her and dropped the blessed soil in her path. Where the dark earth fell, the grass held. No dead line formed behind her. For the first time, she left no trail. They passed a still pond. Figures with long tails watched from the water. They did not flee her light. Violet almost smiled. She was no longer a mark on the map. Then Basil's shirt ran empty. He stopped. "That's all of it," he said. Violet turned. The soil had lasted them a short stretch. Beyond it, the forest spread wide and green. Her old poison waited in every step of it. "How much ground is left to search?" she asked. Basil looked at the dark line that ended at his feet. "More than one shirt," he said. Violet's light steadied. She had bought silence for a little while. But the person she sought was still out there, past the blessed dirt, across miles of living plants she would kill the moment she crossed them. She had hidden her trail. She had not solved the reason it existed.