The Flame that Lies

We continued our journey north — just as the Compass pointed.

That was when we met the man.

Or what was left of one.

He stood alone at a crossroads where the trees had been scorched to their roots. Charcoal branches stretched skyward like pleading arms. The earth beneath our feet was cracked with heat. Not fresh, but recent enough for us to feel the heat with our feet and for the smell of soot to linger.

He wore the tattered robes of a priest or a rebel commander — hard to tell which. Symbols of faith burned away, replaced by sigils etched in ash. His skin was pale, marked with veins that glowed faintly red. His eyes were worse: twin cinders burning cold, like someone placed a burning piece of coal inside his sockets.

Sakura stopped first. Her hand clutched the Temporal Vow, her finger running along its cracked edges.

"He's been touched," she said. "But not consumed."

"Touched by what?" I asked cautiously. No answer came.

Kazuha drew Stillveil slowly, the sash wrapping around her protectively.

The Compass, well.. I don't expect anything much from it anymore to be honest, combat-wise.

I stepped forward before either of them could strike. "Who are you?"

The man perked up, head tilting like a curious bird. His voice was hoarse, like his throat dried up, or hot ash was shoved down his throat.

"We are the Broken Enlightened. Branded by her flame. Freed by it."

"Her?" I asked in confusion.

"No," Kazuha murmured softly. "Impossible."

"Yunjin," Sakura breathed.

He smiled.

"She burned away the veil. Showed us truth: Peace is cowardice. Forgiveness is hypocrisy. Mercy is betrayal. Passion is unnecessary. Emotions are sacrilege — the highest form of impurity." He took a step closer. I held my ground, my hands wrapped around my daggers.

"This is not Yunjin's philosophy," Kazuha observed with a look of disgust.

"She speaks still, through us. The Seraph of Scorched Truth," the old man wailed.

I glanced at Kazuha. Her jaw was clenched, her eyes locked on the man with something too deep for rage.

"Yunjin wasn't like this," she said.

"No," Sakura murmured. "She was fire with purpose. Now..."

"Now she sees clearly," the man whispered. "She remembers who left her. Who turned away. Who said 'enough' when justice needed fury." He looked at the two Fallen beside me, as if emphasizing them. "There is no greater betrayal than those committed by her sisters." He growled.

"We didn't..." Sakura began.

"We fell.. together.." Kazuha stuttered

"Did you? And yet, she burned.. she burned alone... even now..." The man said with a gentleness unbecoming of his words, like he pities Yunjin.

He turned his eyes to me.

"And you. The Compass-bearer. The tether of balance. It will burn in her presence."

"Blightflame." The Compass buzzed at my side. Quietly, then louder. Like it couldn’t decide whether to scream or run. I ran a hand over it, hoping it recognizes the gesture of comfort.

"You're wrong," I said. "Truth isn't rage. It doesn't need fire to be heard."

His eyes narrowed.

"And yet you carry weapons. You kill to survive. How many Wraiths did you kill in your journey? Do you even know why you're killing?"

"They would've killed me!"

"Just like how they killed your family." He bit back, and memories flood my mind once again — bloodied claws, a sword steaming with mud, or is it brown blood. I pressed a palm on my temples as I fell on one knee, reeling from the memories I chose to suppress.

The Fallen looked at me in confusion, curiosity, and realization. Sakura in particular looked at me with sheer compassion.

"You kill for revenge," the man continued. "Revenge is Her Domain, for what is vengeance if not passion unleashed! You woke her up the moment you killed your first Wraith in rage." His revelation hit like a truck, more to the Fallen rather than to mine.

The first Wraith I killed was the day I woke up on the banks of Lake Aldaria. It ambushed me in the forest as I walked east — the direction the Compass told me to go. My body went on auto pilot and before I knew it, it dissolved in a puddle of steaming brown blood upon my feet, my daggers stained with the same substance.

"She was already awake?" Sakura murmured.

"Then why was I the first—?" Kazuha muttered.

The man was not done.

"And yet, for all the Wraiths you killed, you know one can take you out eventually. So you hide behind her" — he nodded at Kazuha — "because you trust her strength. But not her heart."

That pierced something.

Stillveil recoiled.

Kazuha flinched.

"Enough," she said sharply.

But the man started walking forward. Sakura moved beside me, her hand glowing gold with temporal shimmer. I drew my blades.

"I see betrayal forming already," he said, laughing softly. "The Flame does not lie. It shows what we refuse to admit."

Then, he struck.

Ash erupted from his fingertips. Not fire — Blightfire. Cold. Gray. It didn’t burn flesh.

It burned trust.

The world tilted. Sakura gasped, stumbling, her eyes shifted from golden sand to ash red. The Temporal Vow pulsed brightly as if to protect and heal her.

I saw flashes:

Kazuha walking away from me. Sakura’s eyes turning cold. The Compass shattering.

And Kazuha — her obsidian wings ablaze and melting, whispering: "You were always going to leave me, weren’t you?"

Sakura was beside her — but it was not the Sakura I know. Her eyes were dark, like black sand as her mouth moved almost mechanically, "You said you're going to piece me back together, instead you let me crumble into sand," she said with mixed rage and melancholly.

"Snap out of it, Seren!" The Compass's voice echoed in my head. "He's only showing you a possible future. The future is not set in stone, you can ask Sakura that."

"But it could happen...", I replied, my will slowly being sapped away from me.

"That is why I am here, Seren," he replied comfortingly, "to guide you as long as you would have me."

My resolve was strengthened with his. words as shook the illusion off. "This isn't truth. It's poison." I growled.

"Truth is poison." the man spat. "And She is the antidote."

Sakura whispered a phrase, and the Temporal Vow pulsed. Her eyes returning to its golden hue as gold light flared and gold sand whirled around the Fallen. "Lies." She growled.

"Is it, Angel of Memory?" The man mocks. "You see through timelines, tell me if the vision I saw is not impossible." He challenged.

Kazuha stepped forward, Stillveil glowing. But her hand trembled.

Not from fear.

From something deeper.

I moved to stand at her side.

She flinched.

"Don’t," she whispered. "Not now."

I looked at her, confused. Hurt.

"What do you mean?"

Her voice cracked. "Not when you might leave. Not when I want to trust you."

The Blightfire had touched her too.

She was seeing betrayal in me.

"Kazuha," I said. "I’m here. I’m not leaving."

Stillveil vibrated in her hand. The thread reached for mine. A pulse.

And then, Kazuha closed her eyes.

"Lie or not," she said, "I choose action. I choose..." Kazuha growled, like moving was difficult, heavy. "I... choose.. to... move!"

And she moved — no, she danced.

Faster than the corrupted man could react, Stillveil coiled and struck, warping space around the man. A figure made of ash was sucked out from the man to the ripples in space Stillveil conjured as Kazuha spun elegantly around him. It peeled from its skin in patches, then was ripped from his body, like he was covered by it. It was faceless, except for a hollow mouth which burned bright red. And it writhed, fighting Kazuha's power, trying to claw its way back to the man.

Sakura cast a wave of suspended time which swirled around the ashen figure, freezing it in temporal stasis, and I rushed in, daggers flashing, delivering the finishing blow to the figure as it explodes in red hot ash. The man collapses, hollow and empty.

We didn’t kill him. Not quite. But we severed the Blightfire’s grip. The ash-markings faded. His empty black eyes raised towards the sky, whispering her name like a prayer until his voice faded in the wind and his throat croaked nothing but ashes — "Yunjin."

Afterward, we sat in silence.

Sakura offered me a canteen. I drank. Kazuha didn’t speak.

And the Broken Enlightened crumbled to ash.

--------------

Kazuha sat beside me when the stars were out and the world was quiet with only the light of our campfire between us while Sakura sat quietly close by.

We were not touching — but we were close enough.

"You don't have to.." I began sensing an awkward conversation about to start.

"That flame... it shows you the betrayal you most fear," she interjected. "I feared it would be from you."

I looked at her.

"What did you see?"

"Your blades.." she began. "You wielding them over me and Sakura. Stillveil torn and the Temporal Vow shattered on your feet."

"I will never.." I began again only to be interrupted.

"It doesn't matter. I'll just kill you the moment you do." She said, a hint of the Kazuha I first met resurfacing, cold, always in motion.

"Consider me warned. But I promise I won't.." I was not able to finish my sentence as her lips crashed gently on mine. She was soft.. and sweet. The sensation seemed like gravity pulling me down a cliff — and I wanted to keep falling — to keep falling down the abyss named Kazuha. She moved her lips like she never wanted to stop... I know I never wanted to stop.

She pulled away before the ringing in my ears could deafen me entirely. Her eyes met mine, hauntingly unmoving, hauntingly beautiful. Stillveil fluttered at her side, pulsing silver as if saying "finally".

My eyes searched hers, asking silent questions.

She didn’t answer.

But her hand brushed mine.

And didn’t pull away as she laid down, tucked her wings, Stillveil wrapped around her like a blanket, and drifted off to sleep.

Across the fire, Sakura watched with a faint smile on her lips. She held the Temporal Vow in her chest and felt it pulsed to the rhythm of her heart. Unusually fast it was, we both seemed to realize.

Was she excited at what she witnessed? She closed her eyes, willing the Temporal Vow to show her alternate timelines... timelines where it was her lips who crashed on Seren. She'll give this night to Kazuha, afterall, she has all the time in the world.

"You lucky bastard." The Compass whispers in my head, breaking me from my bliss.

I watched the flames lick off the firewood and was immediately reminded of the Broken Enlightened — and then — Yunjin.