Elias opened his eyes.
Light slanted through the cave mouth, pale and diffuse, catching on the edges of his vision. His irises caught it too—crimson with emerald flakes, but wrong. A vertical slit had bisected each pupil, narrow as a blade's edge, gleaming like polished gemstones.
Like a beast's.
Like a fox's.
Drip.
He blinked.
The slits vanished. His eyes were his own again.
Drip.
He lay still, listening. The sound came from above—water striking stone, slow and rhythmic. He frowned slightly and shifted, his body protesting immediately. Every muscle felt heavy, sore in a way that ran deeper than simple exhaustion. He rolled onto his side, then onto his back again, staring upward.
The cave was not natural. The walls were warped , their surfaces rippled and folded in a way that made it look less like carved rock and more like something that had melted and hardened again. The surface glistened faintly, metallic in sheen, with veins of dull impurities streaking through it—dark, jagged lines that broke the otherwise smooth texture. From the ceiling, formations of Flowstone hung like frozen waterfalls. Stalactites, but wrong. They were not made of mineral. They were made of energy crystallized, their surfaces gleaming with a faint internal light. Stalagmites rose from the floor to meet them, some almost touching, others separated by inches of empty air. These crystals caught the light and threw it back in scattered rainbows. The humidity in the cave was thick enough to taste. Flow vapor condensed on the stone, beading into droplets that gathered at the tips of the stalactites and fell.
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
Elias pushed himself up onto his elbows.
"A cave ?"
His voice was hoarse.
He turned his head slightly and his eyes settled on something pinned against the wall.
A lizard.
Or what used to be one.
Its body was large—too large for a normal creature—its scales dull and warped, patches of corruption spreading across its hide like rot frozen in place. Its limbs were twisted unnaturally, claws digging into nothing as it hung there, impaled clean through the torso with a spear.
The spear looked familiar...
"Right." He exhaled slowly and turned his head toward the cave entrance.
Light poured in from outside, cutting through the faint mist that lingered at the threshold. It illuminated the ground in a soft gradient, revealing more of the cave's interior—flowstone deposits embedded into the walls, faintly glowing in response to the ambient energy.
The sun had risen.
He had been out the entire night.
"Damn."
His muscles ached again as he shifted again, pushing himself upright into a seated position. His body felt like it had been dragged through a warzone and left there overnight.
But—
He was alive.
He closed his eyes briefly and reached inward.
Flow answered.
Slowly, but steadily.
His reserves were no longer empty. They weren't full either, but they were recovering. The sluggish, fractured state from before was gone. The energy within him was stabilizing, pooling back into something usable.
"Good." He muttered flexing his fingers slightly.
"It still sucks though. All that Flow and I'm still bottlenecked by this body."
His gaze drifted back to the cave ceiling, watching the faint glow of Flowstone reacting subtly to his presence.If his body could handle even a fraction more—
Snap.
A twig broke outside.
Elias froze. His hand moved instinctively behind his waist.
Empty.
His daggers were gone. His expression darkened slightly as he raised his hand instead. Flow gathered at his fingertip, compressing into a small sphere. The air around it distorted faintly as pressure built—wind condensed into a dense, invisible projectile that would tear through flesh if he released it.
He aimed toward the cave entrance. A shadow moved within the mist beyond. Just as he was about to release the air bullet, the vapor parted and Jamie walked through.
She was carrying a bundle of wood in one arm, a cluster of herbs in the other, and over her shoulder—dangling by its tail—hung a dead bat. Its wings were folded, its body still, a single shard of ice protruding from a wound in its chest.
She paused at the cave entrance noticing him standing in an offensive stance. She turned to look behind her to see what his target was. Seeing nothing, she turned back to face him and raised an eyerow.
"What's got you so tense?" she asked. "See a ghost while I was gone?"The wind bullet dissipated instantly.
"Jamie..."
His voice came out slower than intended.
"…You're… you're talking."
"Duh." She walked into the cave, dropping the wood. Her clothes were a bit tattered and there was a long tear along the side of her skirt that exposed dark shorts underneath.
"Did I ever give the impression that I was mute?"
"No, but—"
"Then stop gaping. It's weird. What happened to you, anyway?" She glanced at him over her shoulder. "You look like you got mauled by something. Twice."
Elias opened his mouth to answer.
His stomach growled.
Loudly.
There was a brief pause.
Jamie grinned.
"Wow."
She pointed at him.
"Perfect timing."
"You're lucky I brought breakfast."
She moved past him like nothing had happened, already setting up a small fire near the center of the cave. The wood caught quickly, flames flickering to life and casting dancing shadows across the metallic walls.
The Flowstone embedded in the cave responded faintly, glowing a little brighter as the heat and their internal energy interacted with it.
Jamie crouched near the fire and began working. She pulled out one of Elias's daggers slid the other to him.
"Hey." He frowned, bending down to pick up the Jade Dagger.
"My daggers—"
"I borrowed 'em," she said casually, already cutting into the bat with practiced ease.
"You're welcome, by the way."
She sliced through the flesh cleanly, separating pieces before sprinkling crushed herbs over them. The scent rose almost immediately—sharp, earthy, with a faint metallic tang. He stay ay Beths shop as well as her being a little hunter made it easy for her to distinguish poison from edible greens, or metallic in this case. Elias watched silently. His stomach growled again.
"You used my daggers to hunt that?"
"Yep." She skewered a piece and held it over the fire.
"Pretty tough little things. They are a stage above us in terms of power. But they shouldn't have been that big of a problem for you of all people."
After a while, he was offered some of the cooked meat. It was hot, greasy, and slightly charred around the edges. He stared at it.
"It's weird," he said, "eating something that tried to kill me."
"Well such is life, sometimes you either eat or be eaten. That's the circle of life Ellie." she replied, taking a bite out of her own piece.
He took the offered piece slowly, still watching her. He didn't look away as he took a bite.
Jamie noticed.
"Why are you staring at me like that?"
He swallowed, hesitating.
"I was worried," he said, "that you were going to kill yourself."
Jamie stopped moving.
The air around her changed. Not visibly—but Elias felt it. The warmth of the fire seemed to dim. The shadows in the cave seemed to deepen.
"…Why would you think that?"
Elias hesitated. He opened his mouth to answer.
Her fist connected with his left shoulder.
Pain exploded through his arm—the phantom echo of Ortis's blast, the nerve endings that screamed at the sudden impact. He gasped falling on his side.
She hit him again.
"Ow—Jamie—"
Another punch.
And another.
"Hey—wait—!"Jamie had crawled over, kneeling beside him as she continued hitting him.
"What the hell, Ellie?! Why would you think something like that?!"
"Stop—!"
He raised his hands defensively.
"I surrender! Okay—stop!"
She paused.
Then huffed and dropped her fists, sitting back down beside him,her shoulder brushing against his..
"Idiot."
There was a brief silence.
"Don't," she said quietly, "ever think like that again."
Pause.
"Why would you follow me to such a dangerous place?" she asked. "You were running on empty. You were basically a Hollow by the time I found you."
"I wouldn't have come to this dangerous place if you didn't come to this dangerous place in the first place."
She poked his arm.
"Thats not an excuse. I could have found my way out. But what about you? If I hadn't given you some of my energy, you would have turned into an energy-draining zombie. You know that, right?"
Elias rubbed his shoulder.
"I know."
She crossed her arms.
"I'm not happy that in a weak state you came looking for me. You should learn to love yourself more."
The words hit Elias like a physical blow, not because they were harsh. Because they were familiar.
...Freedom is an expression of self-love...
...How can you love your neighbor if you don't love yourself?...
He stopped eating and looked at the fire.
Jamie leaned back slightly, watching the Flowstone crystals catch the firelight and scatter it into rainbows. The droplets of condensed vapour fell in slow, irregular intervals.
Drip.
Drip.
"Hey, Ellie."
"Remember that time you asked me some weird, deep question and I just said something random to make you feel better?"
Elias exhaled slowly.
"Yeah."
He had stabbed himself with the Jade Dagger, hoping its function would kill him. She nodded slightly.
"I think I get a little bit of what you said back then. Not exactly the same but…it's confusing."
Elias's jaw tightened.
"Is it because of what Martha said?"
Jamie frowned.
"Who's Martha?"
She squeezed her face, trying to remember. Then suddenly squeezed her own cheeks.
"Oh—wait, the cook?"
Elias nodded slightly. She waved a hand.
"Nah I don't care about that."
She shrugged.
"I only care about two people's opinions. One of them's dead."
She glanced at him.
"The other came looking for me. So no, I can't say I'm bothered."
She lay down on her back, the light from the crystals reflecting in her blue eyes.
"It still sucks though."
Her voice softened slightly.
"That my papa's gone. But he's with mama now."
She smiled faintly.
"I think they loved me. And they still do, even if they're not here."
She looked at Elias.
" And that knowledge means I should live in the moment. For them."
She turned back to the ceiling.
"After all—only stupid people choose to be sad and kill themselves because of sadness."
Elias choked on his food.
Jamie blinked.
"Are you ok?" She made as if to rise.
He waved a hand dismisively.
"I'm fine. Carry on."
Jamie settled back down, eyeing him for a moment before continuing.
"They would want me to have fun and be awesome." She spread her arms wide.
"So I am."
Elias stared at her.
Those were the exact words she had said to him that time, the same stubborn, unshakeable, Infuriating optimism. She was another side of the three faced prism. He was nihility. She, was absurdity.
'Jamie is always Jamie.' Elias thought with a smile.
'I hope you never change.'
Jamie had sat back up and was taking another piece of meat and biting down as grease dripped down her chin.
He thought again about how mature they were for a couple of kids. They even looked older than their actual ages—not dramatically, but enough to notice. Enough to make strangers do a double-take.
'Ascension,' he thought.
"That explains the wierdness," he muttered under his breath.
Jamie snorted.
"You're weird. I'm awesome."
"What are you doing in a dangerous place like the Iron Forest anyway?" he asked.
Jamie jerked her thumb toward the lizard pinned to the wall.
"I was hunting that creepy thing. It had the same infection as the people in town. So I killed it."
Elias nodded slowly.
"Figures."
He looked at her again.
"You're still the same so why weren't you talking before?"
She scratched her cheek.
"I was sad but I got over it a little."
She said it simply.
"The thing is, people started trying to talk to me more. I didn't really like all the sadness energy so I figured if I stayed quiet, they'd leave me alone."
She shrugged.
"That's why I skipped dinner too."
Elias frowned.
"What about the food I brought you? What about the night of the dinner?"
Jamie grinned.
"I was fasting. For my papa."
She poked the fire.
"As for that night..." She trailed off. "I actually planned on coming to dinner. I did want to talk to you."
She leaned closer slightly.
"But then you started acting all…"
She mimicked him poorly.
"'Jamie, you should eat, Jamie, are you okay—'"
She grinned.
"I liked how much you were fussing so I stayed quiet."
"Why you—!"
Elias grabbed her cheeks pulling them sideways. She yelped and tried to push him away, her hands batting at his arms, her protests muffled by his grip.
"Leh go—Ellie—leh GO—"
"Say you're sorry."
"For wha—"
"Say it."
"NEH—!"
He pulled harder. She kicked at his shins. He released her, laughing, and she rubbed her cheeks with both hands, glaring at him.
"You're mean."
"You're impossible."
"I'm awesome."
She stuck out her tongue and he rolled his eyes.
They sat in silence for a moment, the fire crackling between them.
"We should probably get back home," Elias said. "Father and Mother will be worried."
Jamie shook her head.
"There are probably more infected things out there."
Elias paused then shrugged slightly.
"I have to do my Rite of Passage anyway. And my eighth birthday is in a month so why not?"
Jamie's expression shifted and she looked up thoughtfully.
"Now that you mention it...today is my birthday."
Elias blinked.
"Eh?"
"I'm nine now."
His eye twitched she laughed at his surprised expression.
"Don't worry, Ellie."
She stood up, stretching slightly.
"We're going to have fun today."
She pointed at him.
"That's my present."