Ash Between Allies
467 Words
The fire had died down to coals.
Caelen sat alone in the quiet, slowly rotating the medallion in his hands. The one he’d found in the alley. The metal had cooled, but still held that faint, comforting warmth, like it remembered what it had been.
He stared at the symbol carved into it. The split flame. The mark that had followed him from Ashvale to here.
The ember knows your name, Elowen had said.
He wasn’t sure if that comforted him or terrified him.
Brynn returned from her morning sweep, mud on her boots and a scowl in her eyes.
“Tracks near the stream,” she said, tossing down her pack. “Too clean. Too fast. Someone’s watching this place.”
Elowen didn’t look surprised. “They’ve been watching for a while.”
“You could’ve said something.”
“If I had, would you have stayed?” the older woman asked.
Brynn looked away.
Caelen stood, brushing off his coat. “Should we move?”
Elowen shook her head. “They won’t strike here. Not yet. But the Queen doesn’t like waiting long.”
Caelen hesitated. “Why is she so afraid of people like me?”
Elowen stared into the firepit. “Because fire remembers.”
He waited for her to say more. She didn’t.
Later, as the wind picked up and clouds darkened overhead, Caelen found Brynn sitting alone on a boulder outside the ruin. She was tossing a small blade between her fingers, catching it expertly every time.
“You don’t talk about your past much,” he said.
She snorted. “Neither do you.”
He sat beside her, careful to leave space. “What was it like? Before… all this?”
Brynn shrugged. “Loud. Angry. A lot of running. Not much difference, really.”
“You knew Elowen?”
“She found me when I was ten. I’d stolen food from a rebel outpost. Thought they’d kill me.” She flicked the knife again. “She gave me bread and told me I needed a better knife.”
Caelen smiled faintly. “She’s… strange.”
“She’s old,” Brynn said. “That’s not the same thing.”
A gust of wind pushed ash through the trees.
After a while, Brynn added, “I don’t trust magic. I’ve seen what it does to people.”
He nodded slowly. “You still helped me.”
“I didn’t say I trust you, either.”
But her voice lacked its usual edge.
That night, the fire burned lower than usual. Elowen placed stones around it in a pattern Caelen didn’t recognizeone that shimmered faintly when the light hit it just right.
“Protection?” he asked.
“No,” she replied. “Remembrance.”
“For what?”
She didn’t answer.
- Writer
