Chapter 5: The Girl Who Dreams
Night fell fast in the wilds beyond Ember City.
Rayn had vanished again—he said he would return in three days. No more, no less.
The boy camped near a broken wall, under the ribs of some long-dead beast. The fire he summoned burned low, soft and blue. It made no smoke.
He sat with Valteris beside him, blade buried halfway into the dirt.
The wind whispered, soft and strange.
He didn't sleep.
But he dreamed.
---
It wasn't a dream of fire, or ruin, or blood.
It was green.
A field, wide and golden. Trees full of leaves. A sky untouched by cracks. A girl stood in the sun, laughing.
Her dress shimmered like morning mist.
Her eyes were closed, but she saw everything.
Then her eyes opened.
They were silver.
> "You're not supposed to be here," she said gently.
The boy stared. "Where is this?"
> "It's a memory," she said. "Not yours. Mine."
He stepped closer. "Who are you?"
But the field cracked. The trees burned. The sky shattered like glass.
The girl reached for him as the world vanished.
> "Find me," she whispered. "Before the dreams become real."
---
The boy woke fast.
The fire was out.
The air was too still.
He heard something.
Footsteps.
He grabbed Valteris.
Then he saw her.
Not in a dream. Real.
She stood at the edge of the ruins, a torch in one hand, a short blade in the other.
She looked just like the girl in the dream—except she wore a traveler's cloak, leather boots, and a strange metal pendant around her neck.
Her silver eyes glowed faintly in the dark.
They stared at each other.
She didn't move. Didn't speak.
The boy stood, sword still in hand.
She tilted her head slightly.
> "You found it," she said.
The boy narrowed his eyes. "You… know this blade?"
She walked forward, slowly, watching the sword—not him.
"I've seen it in dreams. I've drawn it in sand, on stone, even in sleep. For years."
She stopped just out of reach.
"You carry the Ruin Blade."
He didn't answer.
She looked up at him.
"I'm not here to take it. I don't even want it. But I need to know… why you're the one holding it."
The boy stayed quiet.
She lowered her torch and sat on a rock, calm, like they weren't standing in a cursed ruin surrounded by the bones of a dead world.
He slowly sat back down across from her.
She smiled, a little.
"Name?"
He shook his head. "Don't have one."
She raised an eyebrow. "No name, no past, sword that whispers death... Great."
She offered a hand.
"I'm Elaria."
He didn't take it.
She didn't mind.
"Where did you come from?" he asked.
Elaria looked at the sky. "South. A place called Mirror Hollow. What's left of it."
She paused.
"I'm looking for answers. And something is pulling me north. Always north. Like a thread in my head. It tugs harder every time I dream."
She glanced at him.
"And now I find you."
The boy watched her closely. "What are you?"
She laughed softly. "That's a better question than who. I don't know. Not really."
She touched the pendant at her chest.
"It lets me remember things that never happened. Cities that don't exist anymore. Faces that don't belong to me."
Her tone grew quieter.
"Sometimes I wake up crying for people I've never met."
The boy looked at Valteris.
> "She is marked," the sword whispered. "Not by ruin. By memory. By something older."
He said nothing.
Elaria stood again.
She looked at the blade.
"Do you hear it speak?"
The boy nodded.
She shivered. "I thought so. I hear... echoes. Whispers. But only when you're close."
She turned, looking toward the dark hills beyond the ruin.
"There's a place not far from here. A shattered temple. I saw it in last night's dream. There's something waiting inside."
She looked back at him.
"I think it's for you."
The boy stood, slow and stiff.
He didn't trust her.
But something inside said to follow.
Not the sword.
Something else.
He nodded.
"I'll go."
Elaria smiled again.
"Good."
---
They traveled under moonlight.
Elaria walked ahead, sure of every step, as if she'd been here before.
The land grew stranger. Trees twisted like bones. The air smelled of burnt flowers and rust. Strange lights danced in the distance—blue, red, green.
After hours, they reached it.
A temple, sunken into the earth, overgrown with vines. Statues of broken gods lined the path.
The doors stood open.
Inside, the air felt heavy.
The boy stepped in first.
The walls were covered in carvings—gods in war, blades rising from stars, people kneeling before fire.
One carving showed a sword, black as night, stabbing through the heart of a winged figure.
Elaria stared at it.
"I've seen that before. In my dreams."
The boy's head throbbed.
Something was below.
They found the stairs. Worn. Cracked.
They went down.
The chamber at the bottom was round, empty—except for a pool of still water in the center.
Elaria knelt beside it.
Her reflection rippled—then shifted.
It wasn't her.
It was someone else.
A girl made of light. And a man made of ash.
She gasped.
The boy looked into the pool.
He saw himself.
Then he saw fire.
Wings of black flame.
Eyes like gods.
He stepped back.
> "You saw it too?" Elaria asked, breathless.
He nodded once.
She stood, shaking.
"That thing inside you... It's not just a blade. It's a key."
He looked at her.
"You said something's pulling you north. Why?"
She touched the pendant again.
"Because I think something's waking up. And I think... I was part of it once."
Her eyes met his.
"And I think you were, too."
---
Above them, the sky cracked louder.
And far away, something howled.
The Ruin Blade pulsed.
And the dreamers had begun to wake.
---