Direction

It had been three days since Kaien had left the town he killed Gesh in.

He didn't feel like a killer. Not exactly. His hands didn't shake, and he hadn't cried. Not yet, anyway. But something felt off, like there was a rock stuck under his skin—just deep enough that he couldn't get it out.

The road was quiet.

No one asked him questions. No one even looked at him funny. They saw a boy walking and thought he was just that. A boy.

Not someone who had ended a life.

Not someone who had used a glass shard like he'd done it before.

But he hadn't.

He hadn't ever done anything like that.

He remembered the sound it made when it went in. A sort of wet crunch, like stepping on a frozen fruit. And the way Gesh looked at him—really looked at him—like Kaien was something to be understood, even as the life slipped out of him.

Kaien had watched him die.

Not because he wanted to, or because he thought it would teach him something. He watched because it was necessary.

There was no other way. No escape.

Gesh could've possibly wanted to sell him. Or worse. Kaien didn't know, and that was part of the problem. He'd been forced to act before he got the answers. Before he got anything at all, really.

All he got was silence.

The third night, he found shelter beneath the roots of a crooked old tree.

Its trunk twisted upward like it had been trying to flee the earth. The roots had tangled just enough to form a low hollow, dark and dry, half-covered in moss and time. If you weren't looking, you'd miss it. Kaien almost had.

He slipped inside with a soft exhale, tucking his knees up to his chest. It was warmer than he expected. Close. The kind of place small animals might call home, or someone long ago might have sat still and waited to disappear.

Kaien settled in with a kind of tiredness that didn't feel like sleepiness. It felt more like weight—not just from walking, but from thinking.

From remembering.

He pulled his coat tighter and watched the shapes of branches above sway in the breeze. A single leaf, curled and dry, spun slowly down through a gap in the bark and landed on his boot. He didn't move it.

He didn't know if he felt guilty. He wasn't sure if he was supposed to.

But he did feel different. Not stronger. Not colder. Just… changed. Like something inside him had rearranged, and he couldn't quite tell what the new shape was.

His body stilled before his mind did.

Eventually, his eyes drifted shut.

That night, he dreamed.

It didn't feel like a dream.

It felt like being pulled—gently, but firmly—into something older than sleep. Something deeper.

There was no ground beneath him. Just sky. Sky so wide it felt like it had swallowed the world. Gold and violet stretched across the horizon like brushstrokes. Clouds floated like islands in slow motion. Somewhere far off, a bell rang once, the sound so faint it felt imagined.

Kaien stood on nothing.

Breathing.

Waiting.

Then, ahead of him, a shape began to form. Faint at first. Like dust stirred by thought. A man, maybe. Seated in lotus position.

He was surrounded by nature.

Birds rested on his shoulders and arms, tucked into the folds of his robes without fear. Small ones. Sparrows. A dove. One perched on his head. Vines curled lazily around the rock he sat on, blooming even without sun. The wind barely touched him.

He didn't move.

Not because he was still.

But because the world moved around him.

Kaien took a step forward.

And then the air shifted.

A hush passed through the dreamspace, like the sky itself had held its breath.

And then—words. But not from a mouth. Not from the figure.

From somewhere else, deeper.

"Find the one who sat atop the mountain."

The words didn't echo. They didn't fade. They settled into his chest like a coin dropped into water—disappearing but never vanishing.

Kaien didn't understand what he was seeing. But he felt it.Felt it the way instinct feels heat before fire.

He looked at the man again—but his face was hidden. Not by shadow. By something gentler.

Stillness.

The birds never stirred.

Then the sky trembled—and the world cracked.

Light fractured across the clouds, and the dream shattered like a pane of glass hit by silence.

Kaien woke with a jolt.

Not from fear.

From understanding.

His breath misted in the air, though it wasn't cold.

"Find the one who sat atop the mountain."

He whispered it without meaning to, like the words had pressed against the back of his teeth all night.

He didn't know what it meant. Not yet.

But it stuck in his mind like a splinter—refusing to be ignored.

Not a name.

Not a place.

But a direction.

And for now, that was enough.

He didn't sleep again.

He sat with his knees to his chest and stared out through the roots, waiting for the sky to shift. For the night to loosen its grip. The stars above had started to pale, the edges of the world turning soft and blue.

He thought about the dream.

About the birds.

About the man who didn't move, because he didn't need to.

And Kaien felt the same thing he had when Gesh died—not pain. Not guilt.

Change.

Something was happening to him. Something slow and quiet and permanent.

He didn't know who the man in the dream was.

But something told him—this man had answers. Not the kind you asked for, but the kind you earned.

The sky began to stir.

Ash-pink clouds curled like smoke above the trees. The wind touched the grass, and dew clung to Kaien's clothes, glimmering.

He rose slowly.

The ache in his legs reminded him he was still small. Still growing. Still not enough.

But that was okay.

He would get there.

He stepped away from the roots, silent, his aura trailing behind him like fog. Not wild. Not flaring. Just… present. Calm.

Not because he had mastered it.

But because something inside had settled.

He didn't know where he was going.

But he knew what the feeling in his gut meant.

It meant go.

Not toward a town.

Not toward a person.

But toward the question.

There would be more people like Gesh out there. He knew that now. Worse ones. Smarter ones. People who wouldn't hesitate.

And if he waited too long—if he stayed small and scared—one of them might kill him.

Or worse.

So he would walk.

He would learn.

He would find the one who sat atop the mountain.

Kaien adjusted the strap on his pack, gave the old tree one final glance, and turned away.

Each step felt heavier than the last.

But he didn't stop.

The wind picked up behind him, gentle and constant. Like a hand on his back.

He didn't look back.

Not this time.