The Quiet Infiltration(5)
The night was still, but Maelra didn't sleep.
She sat at her small desk, candlelight flickering as her fingers traced the etching beneath the wood her whisper rune. It pulsed faintly, the message from the Arcane still fresh in her mind.
"Soon. Do not lose focus. The first test will leave remains."
That line repeated over and over in her thoughts, louder than the silence around her.
What kind of rune leaves remains?
Not the ones she'd been trained to handle. Not the ones she was taught to carve. Those vanished, burned away clean by the moment of activation. But this?
This sounded older.
And far more dangerous.
---
Morning arrived without color.
Maelra moved through the village as usual , quiet steps, blank face, watching everything. But she wasn't gathering intelligence anymore. Not really.
She was waiting.
A crow flew overhead. Not hers.
It circled the eastern treeline and vanished.
She followed.
---
The Test.
By the time she reached the edge of the woods, the scent of smoke already clung to the air.
She didn't have to look long.
Three deer, scattered and collapsed in a loose circle of scorched earth. Their skin was blackened and cracked, but not by fire qby something more intricate. Carved lines ran across their bodies in perfect spirals, glowing faintly with purple residue.
The runes hadn't faded.
Her breath hitched.
"This wasn't a test of activation," she whispered. "It was a test of endurance."
She dropped to one knee and placed a hand near the runes not touching, but feeling the warmth that radiated off them still.
This was raw. Dangerous. Ancient.
A whisper rune carved into the back of her leather glove shimmered faintly. She activated it with a pulse of mana and whispered:
"I found the remains. You never said it was living targets. You never said it would last this long."
A pause. Then, faintly through the rune:
"Observe. Report. Do not question the method."
The rune dimmed. The link severed.
Maelra stood, colder than before.
---
She returns to the Village.
By midday, news had already spread that "something strange" happened in the woods.
A few hunters had seen the remains before Maelra arrived, and the whispers grew fast: runes, cursed earth, dark magic.
Kaelen was at the well when she returned. He didn't speak just looked at her a moment longer than usual.
Then:
"Strange morning."
"Aren't they all?" she replied flatly.
He didn't press.
But she could feel it. Something had shifted in him, too.
---
That Night.
Maelra sat by her window again, dagger in hand. Her whisper rune was silent this time.
The Arcane hadn't responded further.
But the message was clear:
"This village is the proving ground. And I'm not just here to observe anymore."
Her eyes drifted toward the trees, where the glow of those runes still flickered faintly even from here.
Something old had been reawakened.
And the Arcane intended to wield it no matter the cost.