Chapter 4: The voice that sees

I left Lunaris Hold without thinking and found myself heading straight towards Elena’s place rather than going back to my lonely cottage.

I shoved Elena’s door open harder than I intended, my chest still ached from his words.

Elena’s cottage smelled of herbs and warmth, but that comfort only made my chest ache more.

Her cottage was small but alive, it felt like stepping into the heart of an old oak tree. The walls were lined with shelves that were packed with clay jars and filled with herbs, each one labeled with her neat handwriting. Bundles of sage, lavender, and wild thyme hung drying from the rafters, their soft green leaves brushed against my hair as I stepped inside.

She looked up from the fire. “Lila?”

“I didn’t mean to, but I broke a vase.” I slumped down to sit.

“It was unintentional but he threw me out still,’ I said, my voice dull. “As if I was nothing but wasted air in his space.”

Elena came and sat beside me, her hand on my shoulder.

“I don’t know why it hurts so much,” I admitted. “I know I should be used to being unwanted. But today the way he looked at me, the things he said… it made me feel like I was less than nothing.”

“Don’t let those words weigh you down child.” She said as she pulled me into a hug “You are not useless, and you have never been. Don’t let a boy’s tongue, no matter how powerful he may become, tell you otherwise.” 

She pulled away, her sharp eyes scanning my face.

“How are you doing?” She asked softly

“I don’t know honestly but I have had the weirdest day.” I let out a shaky laugh, shaking my head.

The dream nudged at the back of my throat, but I swallowed it down.

I told her everything that happened: my run-in with Raven, how my hand burned inside but showed no scar when she grabbed me, told her about the voice I heard, and the secret Raven said she knew about me, one she wasn’t going to keep. 

Elena didn’t interrupt once. She only sat back, hands folded in her lap, her head tilting now and then as though she was listening to something deeper than what I was saying. 

When I finally finished my story, her sigh was long and heavy, she rose and moved to the single candle burning on the shelf. She watched the flame like it would give her some answers to questions I didn’t know I asked.

When she finally spoke, her voice was low and slow  

“The voice you heard, do you know what exactly triggered it?” She turned facing me again

I tried to remember “Well, I heard it exactly when she held me, it said something about Raven being fire or flame…. I also saw something, like fire, destruction” I said still thinking 

“Hmmm” she came towards me again stretching her arm out “Here try….. touch me and see if you’ll hear the voice again 

I laid my hand on her arm. Her skin was warm, lined with age, but full of strength. I waited a while but heard nothing, I felt nothing, no voice, no vision, no hum. 

I shook my head, embarrassed. “It’s not working. Maybe I imagined everything that happened earlier.”

Elena gave me a firm look, her brow knitting. “Hmmm I don’t think you imagined that but, it’s alright.”

We sat quiet for a while, both of us lost in thoughts. 

“Elena,” I said suddenly, my throat tight, “I almost forgot to tell you. There’s… something else.”

The way her gaze caught mine made me hesitate a bit. Even so, I still pushed the words out: “I, um… I got a new mark. On my stomach..”

“What mark?”

“I think it's a crescent, but it does not look like one though.” 

She moved closer, her tone softening. “Let me see it, child.”

I got up and with reluctant fingers, I lifted the hem of my gown. The glow seemed even brighter in the dimness of her cottage, silver light humming softly like it carried a pulse of its own.

Elena knelt, close enough that her hair brushed my arm, and her lips pressed into a thin line. She studied it in silence, tracing the air above it but never letting her finger touch my stomach .

“Elena?” My voice cracked. “What does it mean? Because when it appeared, I swear I felt… something. A presence. Like I wasn’t alone.” I decided not to mention that I felt it was the moon goddess.

“This feels different, nothing I’ve seen before … This isn’t ordinary. It hums with energy, even without me touching you. It almost feels like…” She cut herself off.

“Like what?” I pressed, unease choking me. 

“Like it’s watching me back,” she muttered. “Can I?” She asked to touch it and I nodded.

“It’s alive, I feel it pulsing, like a heart beating.” She pulled back and got up from her knees to stand facing me.

“What does all of these mean?” I was even more confused. 

“Lila, I cannot give you an answer. And that terrifies me more than if I had one. But listen to me well,  if anyone else sees this, they will not ask questions, they will draw their own conclusions and it’d be dangerous ones.”

I tried to move towards the table, my legs fell weaker than I realized. I immediately held the table to steady myself, even the wood creaked under my palm. I thought I’d steadied myself but as I was about to move I felt my ankle roll and I stumbled forward. 

But before I could crash into the floor, “Careful!” Elena caught me, her hands closing over my wrists.

The moment her skin met mine, it happened.

I heard the voice, colder and sharper than before but clear:

The healer. Her hands heal. She carries their wounds as her own. She takes the ache, the burn, the break. The herbs obey her, the roots whisper her name. But she has only tasted the surface of her power.

My breath caught, my fingers clutching her sleeve. My vision blurred as the images spiraled in my mind, herbs burning until only ash was left, Elena bent down cradling a wolf’s broken leg until her own arm bruised, her palms shining faintly as she pressed them over wounds.

Heat spread up my arm, not as painful when Raven had grabbed me but this was heavy, like I was carrying something that wasn’t mine. A flicker of pain darted through my ribs and vanished, as though I’d borrowed it for her. 

I gasped and stumbled back, staring at her. That was when I noticed she was staring at me back with wide eyes like she had seen a ghost. 

“Elena,” I whispered, still trembling from shock, “I heard it again. And this time… it wasn’t about Raven. It was about you.”

Her mouth opened, but no sound came.