Bleak darkness.
Endless.
Small noise from the far corners of it.
Familiar.
The warmth of it reaching him first.
Then light followed.
Then pain.
Here again.
It didn't feel like a stranger.
It felt like an old friend not seen in a long time.
Both of them embracing each other.
The light slowly entered.
Giving shape to everything around him.
Small.
Brilliant.
Everything blurry at the edges.
Red surrounding him.
Then slowly clearing.
Chi-Long.
She was dragging Eun Byol.
Then finally touching her.
Her hand meeting the wound.
Brilliant red crimson flame erupting from her palms.
The same flame surrounding him now.
His clothes not burning.
His wounds closing slowly.
Not completely.
Some left marks.
The one that left the most mark he hadn't noticed until now.
Beneath his eyes.
Above his nose.
A slash.
He hadn't noticed it at the time.
Hadn't felt it.
But the flames made him notice.
Made him feel it.
His body unable to move.
He tried to speak.
Before he could—
Chi-Long spoke.
"Do not worry. She will be all right. She is a warrior. Like you."
A pause.
Her voice carrying something it rarely carried.
Something almost warm.
"You both passed the test."
---
Eun Byol started coughing.
The wound slowly closing.
Leaving a mark behind.
Pink and red.
Permanent.
Her eyes opened.
Moving.
Scanning.
Then settling.
Finding Ha Joon.
Their eyes locked onto one another.
And they cried.
Tears pouring out.
Eyes turning red.
The moment slowing.
Quiet for both of them.
Everything else fading away.
The ridge.
The creature.
The soldiers.
The blood.
All of it fading.
Until there was only this.
Two people looking at each other.
Both of them slowly smiling.
A single shared moment before everything else returned.
Then from the distance.
Noise.
Joining them.
Growing closer.