Hollow Flame Temple (4)

Kaida's hand rested lazily on her hilt, but I saw the way her thumb flexed.

She was one twitch away from opening this man like a sake gourd.

I hadn't moved yet, didn't really had a reason to, because whatever this man was? He wasn't afraid of me.

That made him dangerous.

Kiyomi finally spoke, calm and controlled.

"Who are you?"

He bowed again.

"I go by Haku, just a man with a taste for paths others avoid."

Kaida snorted. "You're bleeding 'spy' from your pores."

"Possibly," he said. "But if I were here to report you, I'd already be gone."

He looked at me.

His eyes didn't shine, they studied us.

"You've felt it, haven't you? That heat beneath your ribs. The way your fingers twitch before your mind does."

Toki's smile was tight. Small. "You know a lot about strangers."

"I know a lot about monsters."

Kiyomi flinched, just slightly.

Haku didn't look at her, but his words landed anyway.

"I've followed the residue left by that thing you fought at the temple. Watched how it twisted itself around your shadow. How it's still there, waiting for a moment when you're just tired enough to let it steer."

I stepped forward.

"You don't know what the hell you're talking about."

His smile widened.

"Don't I?"

Kaida clicked her tongue. "Why are you here, tea-boy?"

"To offer information. A name. A direction."

He looked at each of us.

"One of you is going to ask me for it. Not now. Not today. But soon."

He began to walk past us.

"Until then…"

He paused beside Kiyomi.

And without turning, said:

"Your blood sings too loud to stay hidden much longer."

Then he was gone.

Kaida just muttered, "I liked him less with every word."

And Kiyomi?, she said nothing, but her hand curled tighter around her sleeve.

We reached three roads, just before dusk.

One leading east, towards a village smothered in smoke.

One winding up into the mountains—too steep for carts. 

And one the last one shouldn't exist.

Kiyomi walked straight toward the third path.

Kaida raised a brow. "Uh. That one's not on the map."

"It's not on any map," Kiyomi said.

"Because it's not real?"

"No," she whispered.

"Because it's not meant to be found."

She didn't explain how she saw it.

I watched the trees shift around her, just slightly. As if welcoming her back.

And on a nearby stone? A smear of ink, a symbol I didn't recognize, but by the looks of it Kiyomi did.

"Someone from the Order," she said.

Her hand brushed the stone like she would a friend.

Kaida looked at me. "So. Magic detour?"

"Apparently."

"Love those."

Kiyomi turned back to us.

Eyes unreadable with a strange focus tightening in her jaw.

"We follow this path… we'll find something tied to me, to the temple or maybe to him."

Kaida flexed her fingers. "And what if it's a trap?"

"Then I'm walking into it."

Kiyomi stepped forward.

And gods help me—I followed.

Her pace never slowed down, her eyes never strayed away..

Kaida muttered behind me, "This feels like walking into a graveyard."

"It is," I said. "We just have to make sure we won't get buried."

We walked for an hour before we saw it.

A stone arch, half-collapsed and covered in writing.

Kiyomi reached out—Fingers brushing the weathered text.

"I've seen this script before," she said. "In my mother's study. Locked scrolls I wasn't allowed to touch."

Kaida peered over her shoulder. "That a good thing?"

"It means someone knew this place existed."

She looked at me.

"And didn't want me to."

We passed beneath the arch and into the courtyard.

Wide. Open. Stone tiles cracked but intact.

At its center: a pool, still and black and surrounded by eight stone pedestals. Each one carved with a symbol.

Seven were worn with time, the eighth was fresh.

Kaida: "That new carving—look familiar?"

I stepped closer.

And froze.

It was the mark from the temple, from the altar. The one the demon left behind after it whispered my name.

And then the pool rippled, from its depths rose a voice.

"You returned."

The pool shimmered and then—

"The beast walks upright now. But not for long."

Kaida took a step back, hand to blade.

Kiyomi stood beside me, her shoulders stiff.

She didn't touch me, didn't look at me, but she didn't run, either.

The voice coiled tighter.

"You come to a place made for monsters, and bring a child?"

I growled, low.

"She's not part of this."

"No. She will watch."

"As the beast inside you wakes."

The water stilled.

And from deep within— a reflection.

My face.

Smiling but it wasn't really mine.

I turned to Kiyomi, her eyes hadn't left the pool.

She whispered: "What is this place?"

I didn't answer, because I didn't really know myself, but I knew this much: Whatever lived here, whatever whispered with my voice—

It didn't care about fate.

It didn't care about her blood.

It just wanted me.

Then a new voice pushed through the water.

A pressure. A weight. A feeling that settled behind your ribs and told your heart to stop asking questions.

"You came, girl."

Kiyomi froze mid-step.

The glow from her charm pulsed like a heartbeat—answering the voice.

Kaida shifted, uneasy. "That thing's talking to her?"

I nodded.

Didn't like it.Didn't stop it.

"You are the child of twin bloods, foxfire in the veins."

"You do not belong to the Order."

"You do not belong to the Crown."

"You belong to us."

Kiyomi's voice was a whisper.It still cut through the air.

"I belong to no one."

The voice didn't laugh, it didn't need to.

"You carry what we seek.And you are not ready."

The pool flashed.

A new symbol carved itself into the stone—one Kiyomi had never seen.

She gasped and stepped back.

The glow seared across her arm, matching the pattern.

She covered it with her sleeve, quickly.

But it was too late, we saw it.

Kaida whispered, "What the hell are you?"

Kaida was the first to speak once the shrine was behind us.

"Someone want to tell me what just happened?"

No one answered.

So she looked at me. "Ronin?"

I shook my head.

Then at Kiyomi.

Her voice sharper now. "You gonna explain that symbol burned into your skin?"

Kiyomi kept walking.

She didn't look at her arm.

Didn't look at either of us.

Just said:

"No."

"That thing called you foxfire. Said you're not with the Crown or the Order. That's a lot of nots for someone who's been dragging us through spirit-infested death traps."

Still, Kiyomi didn't flinch.

But her hand crept to her sleeve. Rested over the mark.

As if it pulsed.Or whispered.

"She's not the problem," I said.

Kaida narrowed her eyes. "You sure?"

"Don't care," I admitted. "But something wants her."

I looked at Kiyomi.

And this time?

She looked back.

We walked on, no more words.

But every step away from that shrine only tightened the feeling in my gut.