𝕬𝖗𝖘𝖔𝖓𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖘 𝕷𝖚𝖑𝖑𝖆𝖇𝖞 - [𝗞𝗮𝘇 𝗕𝗿𝗲𝗸𝗸𝗲𝗿]

𝐥𝐢𝐢𝐢. 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘦𝘦 𝘱𝘺𝘳𝘦𝘴

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐅𝐈𝐅𝐓𝐘-𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐄 — three pyres

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 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐍𝐄𝐗𝐓 𝐌𝐎𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆 began the moment the sun started to break. The sky was flooded with the sweet colour of ripe peaches, little bursts of gold tearing through as though Alina herself was the one rousing them from their slumber.

 Kaz was the first of them to wake, hardly having slept at all.

 Aleksa followed shortly after, waking as the night was still drawn like curtains over a window. She had trouble sleeping on the best of nights, but when the cold crept in it seemed to have gotten worse. Images of the very last day she'd spent in Fjerda, just days after the conversation she'd had with Baghra.

 Aleksa, with the past still heavily resting upon her fatigued mind, had looked past Kaz. She'd glanced into the shadows with eyes narrowing as she spied movement. The thrush had moved, and bushes laced with berries not yet stolen by the cold jostled and wavered...

 Kaz tossed a spare look behind him... nothing had managed to creep up on him yet, not even the Wraith with her silent steps as she slipped through the cracks in the walls... So what had Aleksa seen? He peered in the same manner as she, staring through misty air, through bright bushels of berries, ignoring the little chitter of a squirrel... nothing. Nothing was there.

 But there was. For Aleksa, all she could spy was the looming figure of a man. He was draped in obsidian; his kefta billowing like a cloak in the wind. He stood tall and broad, his head held so very high... his skin glinted beneath the golden sunlight but he was pale, sickly pale... his face was littered with scars, though none of them shone like pearls. No these scars were black, as though someone had flicked ink over his sharp features.

 The Black Heretic. He just couldn't leave her alone.

 All he did was stand there. He didn't blink, he didn't move... he didn't even appear to be breathing. It was like a corpse had come to life, resting there as it taunted her.

 "Aleksa?" Kaz called, his voice edged with something close to concern.

 He disappeared. Aleksander vanished by the time her eyes had shifted to Kaz and back. Nothing but untouched snow rested where his boots had been, and Aleska slumped onto a log.

 Kaz frowned at the silence he received. Any other time he'd tried to reach out amidst her fears she'd toss grins his way, she'd flick her hair in the hopes it would almost smack him right around the cheeks. She took pride in banishing her fear and letting nobody but herself see it.

 "What did you see?" He called again, and this time, he rose to his feet. His steps were almost silent as his boots pushed through the blanket of snow beneath them; a thick layer had gathered in the night, smothering their footsteps. He drew closer and closer until he planted himself beside her.