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He felt them before he saw them.
A shiver across the breeze, a pressure in the air—like the world itself had gone hollow. The quiet ache of something lost.
“Don’t take another step.”
The voice came from the shadows near the edge of the cliff. Low. Cracked. Strained. And so, so familiar.
Fire Spirit Cookie stopped.
From the gloom stepped a figure cloaked in darkness and feathers. Their wings were torn, hanging like broken banners. Their bow, twisted and sharp, trembled in their grip.
Night Raven.
“I said stay back.” Their tone wavered between warning and pleading. “You don’t belong here.”
Fire Spirit Cookie met their gaze. The glow in Night Raven’s eyes was unnatural, corrupted. But behind it—buried—was a glimmer of green. A memory. A soul.
“I had to come,” he said quietly.
“You should have left me.” Their voice rose sharply, but there was pain in it, not fury. “You all did, before. What makes now different?”
He took a single step forward. “Because I didn’t come as a elemental. I came as me.”
The bow shifted in their hands, pointing at his chest. Dark magic sparked at the edges.
“You think I won’t do it?”
“If that’s what you really wanted,” Fire Spirit Cookie said softly, “you would’ve done it already.”
The wind howled louder between them.
Night Raven’s arm shook.
They whispered softly: “I was Wind Archer. I was supposed to protect, to stand tall, to guide. And now? Now I’m just... this. A mistake that kept breathing.”
“That’s not true.”
“Yes, it is!” Their voice cracked into something broken, raw. “He trusted you. He trusted you to be there. And you turned away.”
Fire Spirit Cookie looked down. Guilt flared behind his eyes.
“I know,” he murmured. “And I hate myself for it every day. I thought I was protecting you by giving you space. But I was wrong. I should’ve stood beside you. I should’ve seen how much it hurt.”
Night Raven flinched. Their grip faltered. Their shoulders sagged under an invisible weight.
“You were the only one who could’ve stopped it,” they said, barely audible now. “The only one who could’ve held me while I still had a name.”
He stepped forward again. Close enough that the wind no longer screamed between them.
“I’m here now,” he said. “Not because I want to save the Wind Archer I remember. But because I want to stand with the one who's here. Even if they’re hurting. Even if they’re angry. Even if they’ve lost their way.”
The bow trembled… and then fell. It struck the ground with a hollow sound and vanished into shadow.
Night Raven stood frozen, their breathing ragged. “I don’t know how to come back.”
“You don’t have to,” he said. “Just breathe. Let yourself feel. You don’t have to be perfect. You don’t even have to be whole.”
Something broke in them at those words. Their knees gave out, and they crumpled forward—caught just in time by Fire Spirit Cookie, who wrapped his arms around them without hesitation.
“Why didn’t you come sooner?” they sobbed, burying their face against him. “Why didn’t you stop me?”
“Because I was scared,” he admitted, voice thick. “Scared of what I’d see. Scared of how much I hurt you. But I’m not leaving again. I swear it.”
They clung to him like a lifeline, feathers slipping from their wings like falling memories. Dark magic still lingered in their form, pulsing faintly, but it no longer lashed out.
They cried until the stars blinked into the night sky, and still, Fire Spirit Cookie held them, quiet and steady, his own flame warming the cold that had taken root in their chest.
“You’re not alone,” he whispered. “Not anymore.”
And in that moment, with all the silence and sorrow between them, Night Raven dared to believe him.
Please don’t let me go. She who has ruby red eyes and hair hunts me, and rips me apart. And You’ll be taken too.