PART 6- THE STRANGER WITHOUT A SOUL
1302 Words
No one moved.
The hooded figure continued walking through the sea of midnight roses at an unhurried pace, as though they had all the time in the world.
Each step left death behind.
Flowers blackened.
Petals crumbled into ash.
Silver thorns cracked and splintered, their brittle fragments dissolving into the wind.
The Garden whimpered.
Not with a voice.
With its roots.
Soraya felt it beneath her feet.
Pain.
Raw.
Ancient.
She placed a hand against her chest, her breath catching.
"It's hurting."
Elowen looked at her with quiet understanding.
"You can feel the Garden."
"I can feel..." Soraya closed her eyes. "Everything."
The dying roses.
The frightened birds.
The trembling branches of the White Thorn Tree.
It was all connected.
And somehow...
So was she.
Elias reached for her elbow, steadying her before she stumbled.
"Lean on me."
She wanted to refuse.
She always refused.
Instead...
She nodded once.
Just once.
The figure finally stopped.
They stood no more than fifty yards away.
The hood concealed every feature except a pale mouth curved into the faintest smile.
"You've grown."
The voice echoed strangely.
Neither masculine nor feminine.
Young and old all at once.
Soraya felt a shiver crawl down her spine.
"Do I know you?"
The figure tilted their head.
"You did."
Silence settled over the Garden.
"You used to laugh whenever you saw me."
Soraya frowned.
"I don't remember."
"I know."
There was no anger in the voice.
Only satisfaction.
"I made certain of that."
Elias instinctively stepped in front of Soraya.
"You erased her memories."
The figure laughed.
A quiet, beautiful laugh.
One that didn't belong in a place filled with death.
"I merely opened a door."
Elowen's voice cut through the air like a blade.
"You murdered children."
The laughter stopped.
The hood slowly turned toward Elowen.
"They would have become Guardians."
"They were innocent."
"They were obstacles."
The temperature dropped instantly.
Soraya stared.
Children?
"There were others?"
Elowen's jaw tightened.
"There were twelve."
Soraya looked at her in disbelief.
"Twelve Guardians?"
"There were twelve heirs."
A pause.
"You were the only one who survived."
The words hit like lightning.
Soraya's legs nearly gave way.
Eleven children.
Gone.
Before they'd even had a chance to live.
The hooded figure spread their arms slightly.
"And look what became of the last one."
Their voice dripped with mock sympathy.
"A frightened girl who believes she's cursed."
Soraya felt anger flare beneath her skin.
Not the wild, uncontrollable fury she'd known for years.
This was different.
Focused.
Sharp.
"You lied to me."
"Yes."
"You stole my life."
"Yes."
"You killed innocent people."
Another smile.
"Yes."
The honesty was almost more horrifying than denial.
Soraya stepped around Elias.
He caught her wrist gently.
"Don't."
She looked back.
"I have to."
"You don't know what they can do."
"No."
Her crimson eyes locked onto the hooded stranger.
"But neither do they."
For the first time...
The figure fell silent.
As Soraya walked forward, every dead rose she passed slowly began to bloom again.
One by one.
Petals unfolded.
Silver thorns straightened.
Life returned to the Garden.
The White Thorn Tree glowed brighter.
The hooded figure took their first step backward.
Interesting.
Soraya noticed.
"So."
She stopped several feet away.
"You can kill flowers."
The corners of her mouth lifted into the faintest smile.
"But I..."
A midnight rose bloomed in the palm of her hand.
"...can bring them back."
The smile vanished from beneath the hood.
For the first time...
The stranger sounded uncertain.
"Impossible."
Soraya looked down at the rose, resting in her fingers.
"No."
Her voice was calm.
Quiet.
Certain.
"I think..."
She met the stranger's hidden gaze.
"...I'm finally becoming who you were afraid I'd be."
Across the Garden...
Every rose bloomed at once.
The White Thorn Tree erupted with silver light.
And somewhere beneath its ancient roots...
A heartbeat answered.
The heartbeat beneath the White Thorn Tree echoed through the Garden.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
With every pulse, silver light spread beneath the earth, weaving through roots that stretched farther than Soraya could see. The dying flowers around the hooded stranger struggled against the darkness clinging to them.
Some survived.
Some did not.
The stranger lowered their head.
"So..."
Their voice carried a strange note of amusement.
"The Tree has accepted you."
Soraya stood her ground, the midnight rose still resting in her palm.
"I don't know what that means."
"No."
"You've spent years making sure I didn't."
The hood tilted slightly, almost thoughtfully.
"And yet..."
A soft laugh escaped them.
"...here you are."
Behind Soraya, Elowen's voice remained steady.
"Do not answer their questions."
Soraya didn't look away from the stranger.
"Why?"
"Because they feed on certainty."
Elias frowned.
"What does that mean?"
The stranger answered before Elowen could.
"It means the moment she tells me what she believes..."
A breeze swept through the Garden.
"...I can use it against her."
Soraya's eyes narrowed.
"You twist truth."
"I improve it."
"No."
Her voice sharpened.
"You poison it."
The smile beneath the hood widened.
"Words are fascinating, aren't they?"
Without warning, the stranger raised a single hand.
The Garden changed.
The sky darkened.
The warm sunlight vanished.
Snow began to fall.
Not white snow.
Black.
Each snowflake looked like a tiny burned rose petal.
One landed on Soraya's wrist.
The moment it touched her skin...
She gasped.
A memory.
She was ten years old.
Running.
Crying.
Someone was chasing her through the Garden.
Not one person.
Many.
She heard Elowen shouting her name.
Then—
Darkness.
The memory disappeared.
Soraya staggered backward.
"What did you do?"
The stranger lowered their hand.
"I reminded you."
"You showed me something."
"I showed you the edge."
"The edge of what?"
"Your greatest mistake."
Silence.
Elowen's face had gone pale.
"You promised never to use Memory Ash again."
The stranger laughed softly.
"I've broken greater promises than that."
Elias stepped beside Soraya.
"Enough."
The silver markings across his ribs flared with brilliant light, spreading beneath his skin like rivers of molten moonlight.
The air trembled.
For the first time...
The hooded figure turned their full attention toward him.
"So."
A pause.
"The Bloodbound."
"I have a name."
"So did I."
The words lingered.
Elias frowned.
"What?"
The stranger took one slow step forward.
"Before I became what I am..."
Another step.
"...I had a family."
Another.
"...I had someone I loved."
Another.
"...I had a brother."
Elias froze.
"No..."
The stranger tilted their head.
"You recognize the story."
Soraya looked between them.
"Elias..."
His breathing had changed.
Slow.
Uneven.
Impossible.
"It can't be."
The stranger's smile disappeared.
"It can."
The hood slowly lifted—not enough to reveal a face, only a pale jaw and lips marked with black veins.
"You sought the forbidden ritual to save your brother."
Elias whispered,
"How do you know that?"
The answer came like a knife.
"Because..."
The stranger's voice softened with something that almost sounded like pity.
"...I wrote it."
The Garden fell silent.
Every bird.
Every rose.
Every whisper.
Gone.
Elias stared as though the ground had vanished beneath him.
"You..."
His voice cracked.
"...you're the one who left the ritual."
The stranger inclined their head.
"I never expected anyone to survive it."
A terrible realization washed over Soraya.
This wasn't just the person who had stolen her memories.
This was also the architect of Elias's curse.
Everything that had broken them...
Had begun with the same hands.
The hooded figure spread their arms.
"Two broken souls."
Their voice echoed through the Garden.
"Exactly as I intended."
The White Thorn Tree shook violently.
Its branches groaned.
Silver light burst through the trunk.
A voice—older than the Garden itself—rolled across the fields like distant thunder.
"Enough."
The stranger's smile finally vanished.
For the first time since arriving...
They looked afraid.
Very, very afraid.
- Writer
