Zephyr Lumina's Arc

Chapter 2 of 2

By dawn the rumor had done its work. Zephyr had not left the outpost. They crouched in the trees near the gate and watched a crowd swell in the torchlight. Farmers, traders, a blacksmith with a hammer. They shouted at the guards. They wanted the purple one found and driven out before it brought worse to their doors. Zephyr's hands shook. One person could not calm a mob this size. If they stepped out now, the fear would turn to fists. Zephyr needed someone the crowd would believe. Not a stranger with purple skin. A human. Their own. So Zephyr crept along the wall to the low window of the healers' room, where Finn Hawkridge lay with his bad leg splinted. The boy was awake. When he saw Zephyr's face at the window, he did not flinch this time. That change alone gave Zephyr hope. "They'll drag someone out and hang him if this keeps up," Zephyr whispered. "They think I'm a threat. You know what I am." Finn gripped the sill and pulled himself up. His face went pale from the pain, but he set his jaw. "You carried me half the night," he said. "I'm not going to lie in bed while they scream for your blood." He took something from his ranger's pack. A sharp crystal, cut like a spire, meant to signal the settlement in danger. Rangers used it to call for aid. Finn had a better idea. "They'll listen to light," he said. "Get me to the gate." Zephyr lifted the boy and carried him again, this time toward the crowd instead of away. The guards raised their bows. The mob roared. Then Finn struck the crystal against the stone step. Light burst from it, bright as a small sun, and the shouting fell to silence. "Look at me," Finn called. He clung to Zephyr's shoulder for all to see. "This one didn't hurt me. A snare did. This one carried me here so I wouldn't die." He raised the burning crystal higher. "You want to drive out the person who saved a ranger's boy? Then drive me out with them." The blacksmith lowered his hammer. A trader looked at his boots. The crowd did not cheer. But the anger broke. One by one, they turned and drifted back through the gate, muttering, unsure. A guard stepped forward. He looked at Zephyr for a long moment. "You'll come inside," he said. "The captain wants to speak with you. Under guard. But you'll speak." Zephyr set Finn down gently. The mob was gone. The door they had kicked down in the dark was open now, just a crack. But an open door meant walking into a room full of humans who still did not trust them, alone, and answering for everything they were.