Gilded Ashes: When Shadows Reign

Raizen sat behind the cloaked woman, hands locked around a ridge of black scales. Wind whooshed past his ears tugging at his clothes and hair

Ukai was already gone.

When he glanced back, the great tree city was just a shape on the horizon - a dark crown rising over the canopy, ringed with faint lantern light.

The dragon's four wings beat in a low, steady rhythm. Not loud - more of a hum that he could feel through the scales under his palms.

They started to descend.

The air grew heavier, more humid. The smell of wet leaves and stone pushed away the high, cold wind.

Far ahead, a cliff face rose out of the forest.

Bright grey stone, streaked with mineral lines. Water poured from a break near the top in one huge waterfall - a solid white curtain that covered the entire gap.

The dragon flew straight at it.

Raizen's fingers tightened on the ridge.

For a beat, instinct screamed.

Jump. Roll. Do something.

There was nowhere to go.

The woman in front of him didn't even brace. One hand rested loose on the dragon's neck. The other lay on her thigh, relaxed. She sat like this was routine.

The roar of the waterfall swallowed every other sound. The white wall rushed toward them, filling his vision.

He shut his eyes.

The impact with never came.

Water hammered against him from every side in a single breath - heavy, icy, slapping against his skin, dragging at his clothes. For a moment there was only pressure and noise.

Then they were through.

The sound changed. Still loud, but rounded now, echoing off stone instead of sky. The air cooled again, laced with the scent of damp rock and earth.

Raizen coughed once, wiped water from his eyes, and his vision unblurred.

They were inside a cave.

The waterfall they had just crossed fell in two parts now - half outside, still hiding the entrance, half inside, crashing into a wide pool that fed a river cutting straight through the middle of the cavern.

Light came from everywhere.

Glowing lichen clung to the walls, painting them in soft yellow and red. Plants grew out of cracks - broad leaves with a dim inner shine, long threads of vine with tiny white flowers that looked like points of starlight.

Fireflies drifted near the ceiling. But not thee kind of Fireflies you'd expect

Some pulsed a soft blue. Others deep crimson. Some burned orange for a heartbeat and then faded, like tiny lanterns winking in and out.

The river split the cave in two.

Mist rose where the inner waterfall hit, drifting in low clouds. Short arcs of color formed and vanished inside it - little half rainbows made of only two or three shades.

Stone discs jutted from the walls in layers.

Dozens of them - some barely big enough for a single beast to curl on, others wide enough to hold an entire house. Narrow ledges and carved steps connected a few, while others hung alone.

Most of these platforms were occupied.

On one, a huge bird with too many tail feathers slept with its head tucked under a wing. On another, a fox-deer... Thing curled around three of its children. Down by the water, a moss-furred boar lay half submerged beside a long-necked herbivore whose faintly glowing horns reflected in the river.

Shapes that looked like predators and shapes that looked like prey moved together.

None of them were hunting.

They simply… Lived together. Crossing paths, drinking, sleeping, cleaning themselves, like this strange balance had been here for a long time.

The dragon angled toward one of the higher discs.

This one was big.

A broad stone platform jutted out like a balcony, high above the river. Vines trailed down from the rock above, some braided into thick ropes. Lanterns - simple, metal and glass, like Ukai's - hung from hooks and vine knots, spilling warm yellow light that mingled with the lichen's softer glow.

The dragon flared all four wings and dropped.

Wind blasted down, flattening his wet hair. Claws hit stone with a deep scrape, then settled. The tail fins dipped for balance.

The beast folded its wings, motion slow and heavy.

Raizen stayed where he was.

His hands were still wrapped into the ridge between plates. His eyes kept moving, trying to track all the pieces at once. His mind kept thinking, trying to process everything.

On the left side of the platform, a cooking area was carved straight into the rock. A low stone stove sat under a narrow chimney. Hooks held pans and metal tools above it. A knife block had clearly seen years of use.

Next to it, a low table made from a single slice of trunk sat near the edge, a couple of mismatched cups and a kettle resting there like they'd been abandoned mid conversation.

Mismatched cups. Again.

On the right, shelves had been cut into the wall. Boxes and crates sat stacked on them, some open to show folded cloth, coils of rope, bundles of dried plants. Tools hung on pegs - different lengths of hammers, a short saw, a few weird metal instruments Raizen couldn't immediately name.

Above, hammocks.

Three at least, maybe four, strung between thick vines and drilled hooks. One woven like a net from plant fibers, wide enough for three people. Another piled with blankets and what looked suspiciously like a half finished crocheted sweater or scarf.

Potted plants clung to one side, held in baskets woven from the same vine material. One plant had crescent shaped leaves that glowed faintly at the tips.

No walls.

No doors.

Just stone, air, light, and things that looked like they had been built slowly, piece by piece, until the place stopped being a hideout and became... Home.

Raizen realized his mouth was slightly open.

The woman in front of him slid off the dragon's neck in one smooth move, dropping to a light crouch before standing. Her boots left small wet prints on the stone.

Up close, her hair was not just red.

It was dark red, almost black while still wet, drying into that deep wine shade at the ends. But her clothes were now wet, and Raizen didn't want to stare.

She rested a hand along the dragon's neck, fingers tracing a line between scales. The beast huffed, a low sound rolling through its chest, then let its head lower to its claws.

Only then did she turn to look at Raizen.

Her eyes were strange - a warm amber edged with something darker, a red ring near the iris, clear and steady.

They ran over him once, taking in his soaked hair, clothes sticking to his skin, the way his hands still clung to the dragon even though it had already landed.

He let go and slid down.

His boots hit stone heavier than he meant. He almost slipped on the wet surface, caught himself, straightened like nothing had happened.

He drew in a breath.

She spoke first.

"You know" she said, voice low but amused, "there are easier ways to meet someone than jumping out of a window after them."

Her tone wasn't accusing. Just pointing out a fact.

Heat climbed his neck.

"I tried to call you, or to tell you to stop. I'm not a creep."

"Mm." She tilted her head. "You chased a stranger through an academy you don't know, ignored every protocol, then hurled yourself into open air when they disappeared through a window. That is so hilarious!"

The corner of her mouth twitched into half a laugh.

"I wanted answers" Raizen said. "You cut that beast. I didn't."

"There it is!" she exclaimed.

She walked toward the edge of the platform, hands going to her hips as she looked out over the cavern.

From here, Raizen could see the whole place again, framed by her outline - river, discs, moving shapes, falling water. The dragon curled behind them, eyes half closed.

"You are reckless, you know that?" she went on. "From the village. You went so far as passing out carrying that girl. The Maw. You nearly killed yourself out keeping her alive. The Academy exam - pushing for a dash when you knew you weren't ready. The four on one in the Arena? Cute. The avalanche… Less cute."

Raizen's chest tightened. He stared back at her.

"How do you know about any of that?" he asked.

"Because I was listening when you ran from a dying village" she said. "Because I was at the Lotus. Because reports from Neoshima travel towards me faster than most people think... Stuff like that"

She raised her hand and ran it through her wet hair.

Raizen exhaled.

"Okay" he said. "So you apparently know my worst moments. That still doesn't tell me who you are."

He took a step closer.

"At least... Give me a name."

She turned back toward him.

Up close, Raizen could see much more. First of all, she was very beautiful. Second and third, he noticed small scars along her knuckles. A faint line near her temple. Nothing dramatic, really. Just marks from someone who had actually done things for a long time.

For a heartbeat, she simply looked at him, as if weighing something unspoken.

Then she nodded once.

"Right" she said. "Introductions, hah! I'm so impolite!"

She planted her feet a little more squarely, shoulders relaxed, like she was about to say something she always found funny.

"I am Elin."

The name didn't ring any bells for Raizen.

Elin...

"Some people called me other things" she went on. "Elin, Rust Witch. Elin, lunatic. Elin, terrible influence. None of those were very flattering."

A small smile sharpened.

"Then, they settled on something nicer."

She lifted her hand slightly.

Below, by the river, one of the strange deer-foxes looked up. A bird shifted its wings. The dragon's eyes opened fully for a second, pupils narrowing, then relaxing again.

"Sky" she said, sounding like an unfinished thought.

Then she finished it.

"Sovereign."

Raizen remembered now. The half destroyed plaque in the Sky Domain flashed across his mind. Do not attempt to reconstruct the pattern.

Atman's voice from earlier surfaced too, annoyingly clear.

Elin. The third founder. Another mad mind behind the Rust Room.

She saw the recognition in his face and did not look surprised.

Her gaze stayed on his.

"I am Elin" she repeated, voice steady. "Also known as..."

"The Sky Sovereign."