Chapter Text
Hye breathed in the cold air, gliding over the snow beneath her feet, tread as soft as a feather. Her left hand lay quenched in blood — not her own — and in her thin, slender fingers rested a bright blue eye. She would have to find a new jeweller, she knew. The last time she had this eye set in a ring was some four decades ago, and the man had been old even then. Perhaps she would have it made into a necklace this time, a more tasteful piece.
She slipped through the entrance between two trees, walking through a winter that was quickly disappearing beneath her. Ice thawed, and the snow grew thinner than it had been only moments before. Her pointed ears turned, once again listening to the contours of creation. The pathway was closer now; it wouldn’t take long to reach it.
A flutter reached across the weave — a discordant note that wound itself into her head. The Ranger frowned. For all the beauty of Arcadia, she had no liking for the weather, and would not care to spend any longer here than needed. If the boundaries of Arcadia were breaking any further, then passing through to Creation might be too risky an endeavour. She had no wish to fall into the void.
She stopped and listened, then turned towards the disturbance and strode off once more. An investigation was in order. There was no need to take chances, and it did not seem far.
The note rang louder as she approached, the screeching of dimensional tears growing harsher with every footfall. This may be worse than she thought. She flicked her tongue against her upper lip.
Inconvenient.
Eventually, she reached the tear itself — a wound in the boundaries that contained Arcadia, a slight slice imperceptible to most mortal eyes. She studied it for a moment, watching it shrink, hearing the discord in the fabric weaken. She was not Wekesa; her Name gave her no authority over sorcery, nor had she the gift itself, even in the shallowest form. But she was an old hand. She had visited many a realm in her two centuries, and ill-talented with arcana as she was, Hye had experience enough with this particular brand of anomaly.
Temporary, she knew. I proceed.
By the time she returned to the initial gateway, this damage would have diminished. There was no reason to delay any further. The Ranger turned, prepared to retrace her steps — and then noticed something out of the corner of her eye.
A girl — young, though Hye knew little of how mortals aged, and the creature before her was certainly that — lay still upon a thin layer of pure white snow. Were it simply that, she would have left; for the lives of others had little meaning to her, save for a few exceptions, and this one was by no means among them. But for the feeling that came from the girl.
Hye knew it instantly.
Named, she thought.
She searched deeper. She could read the weave of creation well enough for something so oblique as this. The Name itself was practically screaming itself free from the child. The word came to the tip of her tongue, her lips forming it in avid fascination.
Harbinger.
How… interesting