Daughter of the Hollow
---
The silence stretched, thick and alive. It wasn't peace.
It was waiting.
Hazel stood still, her breath fogging in the cold air. The Second Beast had vanished into the trees, leaving a trail of scorched bark and pulsing earth.
But its message still clung to her skin.
She wasn't cursed.
She was created.
---
Silas stepped closer, voice low. "You don't have to listen to it. You're still you."
Hazel turned to him, her eyes glowing faint blue. "Am I?"
Evelyn clutched the talisman tightly. "You're not the forest's weapon. You're our friend. You saved us."
Ronan didn't speak. He just stared at the mark on Hazel's arm — one she hadn't seen until now. A faint spiral, glowing faintly beneath her skin.
The same sigil carved on the Warden's altar. The sigil of the First Flame.
---
The forest rustled — not with danger, but invitation.
A clearing opened ahead. At its center, a tree burned with blue fire. It did not crack or scream. It welcomed the flame.
Hazel stepped toward it.
"What are you doing?" Evelyn called.
Hazel looked back once. "It wants me to choose. Not to destroy it. Not to run from it."
She placed her hand on the burning bark.
And the forest shuddered.
---
Visions slammed into her mind.
Children sacrificed.
Women marked and married to the Hollow.
Men turned into beasts to guard secrets they never chose.
And above them all — the flame that watched, judged, and devoured.
But buried within was another vision.
Choice.
A woman who once refused the Hollow's price. Who fled. Who gave birth in exile.
Her mother.
Hazel's breath caught.
Her mother wasn't sacrificed.
She ran.
And the forest punished her by reclaiming what was hers — Hazel.
---
The fire leapt from the tree into Hazel's chest.
She didn't scream.
She breathed it in.
And when she opened her eyes again, the blue glow was gone. Replaced by something deeper, darker—
Gold.
Not the flame's fire.
The Hollow's heart.
---
She turned to the others.
"I'm no longer just their daughter," she said, voice low. "I'm their reckoning."