Gilded Ashes: When Shadows Reign

"Elin!" he screamed, and this time his throat actually burned from it.

Then the thread yanked.

Not a smooth pull, or a gentle reel.

A sudden snap.

It felt like being punched upward by a giant hand.

Raizen's spine compressed.

Air tore out of his lungs in one violent burst.

The world suddenly turned upside down.

He shot up so fast the wind screamed past his ears like a blade.

The red thread vibrated like a cord under tension, and Raizen's whole body became the weight at the end of it.

He flew past the dragon.

Not close to it, or on it. Wayy past it.

His boots missed the beast's back by several meters.

For one stupid, weightless moment, he was above the dragon, above Elin, above everything, like some kind of tragic acrobat.

Then the pull stopped.

The thread went slack.

Raizen dropped again.

"OH COME ON!" he yelled, voice cracking.

This fall was shorter.

Still enough to make his stomach flip.

Elin moved a small bit.

Raizen didn't see any threads or Eon. Or any kind of dramatic save, just his body getting caught.

Elin held him, one arm under his knees, the other behind his shoulders.

For half a second, Raizen was fully, unmistakably being carried.

Princess style.

Raizen's brain went blank.

Elin stared down at him.

And then she burst out laughing.

Not a small laugh, or a polite one.

A full-body, stupid, bright laugh like she had been waiting eight years to see something this ridiculous.

Raizen's face went hot in a single second.

"Put me down" he said through his teeth.

Elin laughed harder.

"You - you -" she tried, failing to speak. "You jumped like you were about to sacrifice yourself for him!"

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN!? You pushed me!!"

"That's what you wanted, right?"

"I thought he was done for!"

"He fell on a platform!" Elin wheezed. "He is literally fine!"

Raizen shoved lightly at her shoulder. "PUT. ME. DOWN."

Elin finally set him back on the dragon's back, still shaking with laughter.

"This is the - the SECOND time I save you from falling. Haa!"

Raizen scrambled to his usual spot behind her like his life depended on it.

Which, emotionally, it did.

Below, Alan sat up on the platform and looked up at them.

He raised one hand.

Very slowly.

Not very clearly, though, as the dark cloud still mostly covered him.

Even from this distance, it was obvious what gesture it was. Thumbs up.

Raizen groaned. "Oh, great."

Elin leaned forward, peering down. "He has spirit."

"He hates us."

"He should" Elin said cheerfully. "I mean... If I were him, I probably would!"

Raizen rubbed his face with both hands, trying to wipe the embarrassment off like water. It didn't work.

Elin looked back over her shoulder, grin still wide.

"You don't need to help everyone" she said, playful but sharp now. "You know that, right?"

Raizen glared at her. "He fell."

"And you threw yourself after him." Elin's eyes sparkled. "Again. Like a habit."

"It's called reacting."

"No, it's called dying early."

Raizen's jaw tightened.

Elin's smile softened a fraction. "I've buried people way stronger than you" she said, and her tone was still light, but there was something dark underneath it. Something honest. "Men who said the same things. Men who thought being the first one to bleed made them useful."

Raizen stilled.

The wind kept roaring. The dragon kept hovering above the cloud that kept sitting there like a held breath.

Elin's eyes stayed on him.

"You know what your problem is?" she asked.

Raizen didn't answer.

Elin leaned in just enough that he could hear her over the wind.

"You think pain is cheap" she said. "You think throwing yourself into it is nothing. You think you can spend your body like coin and still come out alive like in some magical fairy tale."

Raizen swallowed.

Elin's grin returned, but it didn't reach her eyes now.

"And when you finally run out of coins" she said, "you think everyone will clap for your effort."

Raizen's hands clenched against the dragon's scales.

He felt the old anger rise. The familiar heat behind his ribs.

Not righteous.

Not noble.

Just raw.

Because he knew exactly what she meant.

And because some part of him still didn't care.

He leaned forward slightly, close enough that his voice wouldn't get ripped away.

"I don't do it because it's right" he said.

Elin's expression didn't change. "It's right to be a useless hero?"

Raizen met her eyes anyway. The words came out quiet. Just plain truth.

His throat tightened.

"I do it because I know what it's like when no one can. And I don't want anyone else to learn how it feels to fall alone."

For a second, Elin didn't move.

The laughter in her face faded completely, like someone had turned off a light inside her mind.

Her eyes went darker.

Not angry or annoyed. Something else.

Recognition.

The kind that didn't feel like praise, more like the kind that has seen lives end like this.

She looked at him first.

Not from discomfort.

From experience.

But then she quickly looked away. She just couldn't look Raizen in the eyes.

"That" she said softly, almost to herself, "is exactly what kills them."

Raizen didn't answer.

He didn't need to.

Elin finally shifted her focus back to the problem in front of them.

The cloud.

Ukai.

Time running out.

She placed one hand on the dragon's neck.

The beast rumbled low, uneasy.

Elin's voice went flat again.

"Alright" she said. "Enough drama."

She glanced back at Raizen once.

"Hold on" she added. "And don't make me catch you like that again."

Raizen's face went hot all over again. "I didn't ask you to -"

Elin clicked her tongue.

The dragon angled down toward the platform Alan was on.

The dark ring waited beyond, thick and still, hiding the city like a deliberate lie.

Raizen tightened his grip, eyes fixed on the edge of that black.

Somewhere inside it, something was being hidden.

And now, whether he liked it or not, he was going in.

Below, Alan looked up at them, jaw tight, and shouted one last thing.

This time, Raizen caught it.

"NO MORE HEROICS!"

Elin started laughing again.

"Don't make any promises!" she screamed back.