ELEVEN: CONTROL IS AN ILLUSION
865 Words
The mountain changed after the attack.
Not just the broken stone paths or the scorched trees clinging to the cliffs of Ember fall Peak, but the air itself. It felt heavier now, as if it remembered the violence. Or maybe, it was them.
Bright no longer let Ember out of his sight. He did not, even for a second. If she moved, his gaze followed like a shadow stretching at dusk. If she trained, he stood nearby, silent, arms crossed, eyes sharp. If she slept, he did not sleep. He stayed awake beneath the dim glow of the mountain fires, watching her as if the night itself might take her.
“You’re doing it again,” Ember said, with her voices that had an edge with irritation, though her back was still turned as she adjusted her stance on the cold stone.
A dry wind curled around them, carrying ash.
“Doing what?” Bright replied, though he didn’t blink.
“Staring like I’m going to disappear.”
A moment pause.The kind that felt like a storm holding its breath.
“You might.”
She turned sharply this time, boots scraping against gravel. The faint glow in her eyes flickered like embers stirred by wind.
“I survived your training. I survived an assassin. I survived the destruction of my home.”
Her voice steadied, but her heart beat was faster now. “I’m not disappearing.”
Bright stepped closer. Close enough that she could see the tension in his jaw, and the exhaustion he refused to admit. Adding to this moment, many fireflies flew around, capturing the moment with peace and the night was theirs alone.
“That’s not what I meant.”
Her breath slowed, but the space between them tightened, charged.
“Then say what you meant.”
The wind stopped, even the mountain seemed to listen.
“You don’t understand what you are yet,” he said quietly, almost carefully. “And until you do…”
His gaze darkened, not with anger, but something deeper. Something guarded.
“…you’re a risk.”
“To who?”
As if there's a drum beat.
Alpha Bright voice dropped, softer now, but heavier.
“To me.”
That should have sounded like a threat, yet it didn’t. Instead, it conveyed something entirely different, something far more insidious. An unsettling tension hung in the air between them, lingering long after the words had dissipated.
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ON THE FOURTH DAY OF TRAINING;
Training became harsher after the attack of unknown creatures.
Relentless.
The sun rose and fell over to Princess Ember, she never stop, nor give up on this kind of mortal trainings. Not the way she would dare not to obey Alpha Bright rules. Because she has to.
No pauses.
No other excuses and no mercy
“Again,” Bright ordered, his voice cutting through the thin mountain air.
Ember’s hands trembled, muscles burning, but she didn’t stop.
She struck, faster and sharper now.
The sound of impact echoed against the cliffs like distant thunder.
Alpha Bright blocked, but this time, her movements shifted mid-strike.
She anticipated and adjusted herself for this sudden change of techniques practices. Her foot swept low, but Bright caught it.
The moment fractured until they froze for a split second. Her leg caught in his grip. Her balance tipped on the edge. And their bodies are too close.
Again.
Always too close.
“You’re adapting,” he said, quieter now, his breath uneven for the first time.
“And you’re underestimating me,” she shot back, her voice low, steady despite the heat rising between them.
Alpha Bright's grip tightened slightly, not enough to hurt. But just enough to hold.
“Not anymore.”
Something passed between them. An electric and unspoken kind of words, that can help them to navigate what he wants or what she wants.
The kind of tension that wasn’t just about power or danger, but something neither of them was ready to name.
The wind returned, rushing past them like a warning.
But still, none of them stepped back.
But in the cold place of the immortal world.
Farther from the cave than before, beyond the jagged ridges of the immortal peak, where even the wind sounded unfamiliar. That far... Princess Ember can feel it.
“I need to learn beyond your shadow,” she said, her breath fogging in the brittle air, arms crossed as if bracing herself against more than just the cold. “Out here, it’s different. Unpredictable. That’s what I need.”
Alpha Bright watched her for a long moment, eyes narrowed, not in anger, but calculation. “Or that’s what gets you killed.”
“I won’t always have you watching every step I take.”
“That’s exactly the problem,” he replied flatly.
She stepped closer, chin lifting slightly. “Then teach me to survive without you hovering over me like I’m fragile.”
Something dark flickered in Bright expression.
“You are fragile out here,” he said quietly.
Her jaw tightened. “Then I’ll stop being.”
The wind shifted, biting harder now. Bright exhaled slowly, tension settling into his shoulders. He didn’t like the idea.
- Writer
