Chapter 6: The Hunt Begins

POV: Kaelion Duskbane

The wind shifted.

Kaelion stood at the edge of the divine gate, the stone arch pulsing with residual energy from his blood. The forest beyond was cloaked in mist, but the ley lines had already whispered her location. She was moving. Not fast. Not far. But enough to stir the balance.

He turned to Fenris. “Send the scouts. No contact. No interference. I want eyes only.”

Fenris nodded, his massive form already fading into shadow. The wolf could move faster than any creature in the realm, his senses attuned to the divine. If Aria’s presence was causing a ripple, Fenris would feel it first.

Kaelion stepped through the gate.

The forest greeted him like an old friend—familiar, but changed. The trees leaned inward, their branches whispering in languages older than memory. The mist curled around his boots, thick and silver, alive with magic.

He inhaled deeply.

Her scent wasn’t present. Not yet. But the energy was. It clung to the air like static, humming with potential. She had touched the Root. That alone had awakened forces long dormant.

He moved silently through the woods, his cloak trailing behind him like smoke. Every step was deliberate. Every breath measured. He wasn’t hunting her.

He was guarding her path.

The prophecy was clear: she would awaken the divine. But it hadn’t warned what else might awaken with her.

—

Hours passed.

Kaelion paused at a ridge overlooking a glade. The moon hung low, casting pale light across the stones below. He saw no movement, but the energy was stronger here.

He knelt, pressing his palm to the earth.

The ground pulsed.

A vision flickered—Aria, standing in this very glade, her daughter beside her. The mark on her wrist glowing. The trees bending toward her like worshippers.

Then the vision fractured.

A shadow loomed behind her. Not him. Not Fenris.

Something else.

Kaelion’s eyes snapped open.

He stood quickly, scanning the treeline. The threat wasn’t here yet, but it was coming. He could feel it in the ley lines. A disturbance. A hunger.

He turned and vanished into the trees.

—

Back at Duskbane Keep, Lucien paced the war room, his usual smirk replaced by a rare frown.

“She’s not just triggering prophecy,” he said to the gathered advisors. “She’s triggering everything.”

The advisors murmured. Some were old enough to remember the last time a mortal stirred the divine. That had ended in blood and ruin.

“She’s untrained,” one said. “She doesn’t know what she’s doing.”

“She doesn’t need to,” Lucien replied. “The magic knows her.”

Another advisor leaned forward. “And Kaelion?”

“He’s tracking her. Quietly. But if the Council finds out—”

“They’ll send the Reapers.”

Silence fell.

The Reapers were not diplomats. They were executioners. Sent to eliminate threats before they could bloom.

Lucien slammed his goblet down. “Then we make sure they don’t find her.”

—

Kaelion reached the edge of a river, its waters dark and fast. He crouched low, scanning the opposite bank. A faint shimmer caught his eye—residual magic. She had passed through here.

He touched the water.

It rippled unnaturally, parting for his fingers.

She was changing.

Not just spiritually. Physically. The mark on her wrist was a conduit. It would begin to alter her senses, her strength, her connection to the divine. But without guidance, it could overwhelm her.

He had seen it before.

A soul awakened too quickly. A body unable to contain the power. Madness. Collapse. Death.

He wouldn’t let that happen.

He stood and crossed the river, the water parting beneath his boots. The forest on the other side was older, darker. The trees here remembered war. Their bark bore scars from battles long buried.

He moved faster now.

—

In a clearing not far ahead, Aria sat with Luna, her back against a tree. Her breath was steady, but her eyes were distant. She felt the change. She didn’t understand it, but she felt it.

Luna played quietly with a stick, drawing symbols in the dirt—symbols she shouldn’t know.

Aria watched her daughter, unease growing.

The mark on her wrist pulsed again.

She looked down. The symbols Luna had drawn matched the ones on her skin.

She reached out. “Luna, where did you learn that?”

Luna shrugged. “I saw it in my dream.”

Aria’s heart pounded. “What dream?”

“The man with the crown. He said we were connected. That the forest was watching us.”

Aria swallowed hard.

She didn’t know what was happening. But she knew they weren’t alone.

—

Kaelion reached the edge of the clearing.

He didn’t step in.

He watched.

She was radiant. Not in the way mortals described beauty. In the way the divine recognized power. Her aura shimmered faintly, her heartbeat syncing with the ley lines.

Luna laughed softly, and the trees responded—leaves rustling in rhythm.

Kaelion felt something stir in his chest.

Not possession.

Recognition.

He stepped back into the shadows.

It wasn’t time yet.

She needed space. She needed to choose.

But the hunt had begun.

And he wasn’t the only one tracking her.