Instructor Kaela (Side story 1)

The frost had thickened overnight. It clung to branches in jagged lace and turned the dirt trail into something halfway between gravel and glass. Beneath the wide, pale sky, the air was brittle—silent, except for the crunch of boots.

Sky walked half a pace behind Kaela, shoulders hunched into her coat, breath fogging with every exhale. Her scarf was pulled up to her nose, but the cold still crept into the seam of her collar, tugging at her bones.

They had been walking for fifteen minutes without a word.

No map. No mission briefing. Just Kaela, moving like the forest owed her something.

Sky glanced around warily. The Citadel's west gate was long out of sight. The trees out here were taller—older, too, with bark that twisted in unnatural ways. Far above, heavy branches curled like knotted fingers, dark against the low, iron sky.

She cleared her throat.

"Didn't we get ordered to stay inside the perimeter?"

Kaela didn't slow. "We did."

Sky frowned. "So we're ignoring that."

Kaela's voice was calm, even cheerful. "We're interpreting it creatively."

Sky narrowed her eyes.

"That's not what they told us during scout orientation."

Kaela finally turned her head, smiling slightly. "Rule number one of surviving outside the walls—know when not to follow orders."

Sky stared at her. "Pretty sure that's how people get killed."

Kaela shrugged, still walking.

"Also how people survive. Protocol only works if the world cooperates. It rarely does."

They passed a frozen stream, the surface opaque with crusted ice. Kaela hopped over it without looking. Sky followed less gracefully, slipping a little as she landed.

She looked up again. Kaela didn't pause. Not even for that.

Sky adjusted her pack and jogged to catch up.

"So… this is a training exercise?"

Kaela tilted her head. "And an expedition."

Sky hesitated. "An expedition to what?"

Kaela just smiled again, maddeningly vague.

Sky groaned and let out a breath into the cold.

They made camp beneath a sheer ridge before sunset. The forest here thinned into a half-burned glade, the stone blackened by long-cold fires. Kaela found a break in the rock and cleared space for a fire.

Sky worked in silence. No complaints. Her arms were sore from their climb earlier. Her legs ached. She was tired, cold, and annoyed—but not entirely unhappy.

There was something… honest about being exhausted in the wild.

She finally broke the silence as they sat down on opposite sides of the fire.

"I have a question."

Kaela didn't look up. "Ask it."

"What's your sigil?"

Kaela paused.

She set down the knife she was sharpening and looked across the flame.

"Why?"

Sky shrugged. "If I'm following you off the grid, I figure I should know what kind of backup I've got."

Kaela studied her for a long beat. Then she nodded.

"My sigil summons a chain."

Sky raised her brows. "A chain?"

"Not metal. It connects my heart to someone else's. Spiritually."

Sky blinked. "And what does that do?"

Kaela spoke quietly. "If they leave a certain radius, the chain tears free. And they die."

Sky went very still.

"Even if they're stronger?"

Kaela nodded. "Doesn't matter. Crest, rank… won't help. Once the bond's formed, stepping too far pulls the chain. Instant death."

Sky swallowed. "That's…"

She didn't finish. There wasn't a word that fit. Not really.

Kaela just picked up her knife again. "I don't use it lightly."

The fire crackled.

After a moment, Sky shifted closer and rubbed her gloves together. She stared at the orange light, then said:

"I guess I should share too."

Kaela didn't look up, but the slight pause in her movements said she was listening.

Sky smiled faintly.

"My sigil's called sensory tuning."

Kaela finally met her eyes.

"What does it do?"

"I can isolate and amplify a single sense. Sight, hearing, touch… even smell. I dial one up and shut the rest out."

Kaela raised an eyebrow.

"Useful."

"Yeah, but weird. And dangerous."

Kaela gestured for her to continue.

Sky obliged.

"Once I amplified my hearing so much, I passed out. Heard a thunderclap from thirty klicks away. Couldn't feel my arms. Couldn't see. Everything was… sound."

Kaela frowned slightly.

"That's disorienting."

"That's horrifying," Sky corrected.

She smirked, a bit proud of herself.

Kaela gave a rare nod. "That's a rare sigil. Specialist type."

"Lucky me," Sky said dryly.

The next morning was worse.

Kaela made her climb a ridge slope with no trail—just ice, crumbling rock, and Kaela's absurdly steady footsteps. She moved like someone with a compass in her skull. Not once did she second-guess her path.

Sky, meanwhile, slipped twice and nearly screamed when her leg punched through a snowdrift into a pocket of mud.

By the time they reached the top, Sky collapsed onto a rock and peeled her gloves off with shaking fingers. Her lungs burned.

Kaela stood near the edge, eyes scanning the horizon like it was routine.

Sky stared at her and groaned.

"You know you're kind of the worst, right?"

Kaela glanced back with a faint smile. "I get that a lot."

That night, they camped in the ruins of what looked like an old outpost — long since gutted by flame. Charred stone. Half-melted timbers. The bones of something ancient and failed.

Kaela moved through the space slowly, respectfully, checking the perimeter and testing old beams. She didn't speak for over an hour.

When she finally sat across from Sky by the fire, her expression was unreadable.

"This place used to be a holding post," Kaela said softly.

Sky looked up.

Kaela's eyes stayed on the flames.

"My first mission outside the wall started here. Five of us. Just supposed to survey a pass."

Sky said nothing.

Kaela's tone didn't change. No drama. No theatrics. Just… truth.

"We found a half-eaten beast carcass. No crest. Something had killed it and… taken the soul."

Sky's blood went cold.

"A rookie panicked. Used a flare sigil. It pulled every creature in a two-mile radius."

Kaela didn't finish the story.

She didn't have to.

Sky looked down at her hands.

"That's why you brought us here?"

Kaela was quiet for a beat.

"I brought us here because you need to see where protocol ends. And instinct begins."

Sky studied her for a moment. Kaela's eyes looked far away, even now. Still stuck in some memory that reeked of blood and flame.

"You learn by watching," Kaela said softly. "That's good. But don't copy me."

Sky blinked. "What?"

Kaela didn't raise her voice. She didn't have to.

"Don't make my instincts your own. You weren't shaped by what shaped me."

Sky frowned.

"So what do I do?"

Kaela looked across the fire at her — not cold, not dismissive. But honest.

"Make your own mistakes. Just survive them."

They left at first light.

The wind had returned. It carried snow with it this time — slow and deliberate, like a warning. They walked with hoods drawn tight and eyes narrowed against the cold.

Sky's legs still ached, but she didn't complain.

Her thoughts were louder than her voice.

Make your own mistakes.

It echoed in her mind as she followed Kaela's steady footsteps into the wild.

And for the first time since the expedition started…

She felt like she had learned something.