I woke up to the—
The forest was quiet. The sun had barely passed dawn, and yet the moment felt as though it were holding its breath.
"Victoria, wake up," I urged, shaking her as I stepped outside the tent.
"Is she still asleep?" I asked, scanning the clearing.
"What's the issue?" Victoria asked as she stepped out beside me.
"It's too quiet," I said.
She blinked, sleep still clinging to her face.
"Isn't that normal?"
"The birds aren't singing."
She paused at that.
"Miss Li Hua—let's ask her," Victoria said, already heading toward the other tent.
We called out. No answer.
Victoria hesitated, then pulled the flap aside.
The tent was empty.
"She's gone," she whispered, her voice tightening.
"Let's go back to the carriage," I said, already turning to grab my sword.
Then I froze.
"The crate—the flowers—"
"They're gone too," Victoria said, already preparing to run.
"Can you make it?" I asked.
"Just go!" she replied, already sprinting ahead.
The forest blurred as I ran. Branches whipped past my face. I leapt, caught a branch, then another, climbing higher until I broke through the canopy.
From above, I could cover far more ground.
But when I looked back, I saw no sign of Victoria.
Then the forest ended.
The green gave way to ash.
Blackened trees stood like skeletons. The air smelled burnt, bitter and old.
When I reached the clearing where we had left the carriage, I saw her.
Miss Li Hua was sitting calmly on an unburnt log. Still in her nightwear, her hair a little burnt at the edges.
Beside her was the crate of origanum.
Around her—
Silence.
"Where is—" I began.
"They're dead," Miss Li Hua said.
I followed her gaze.
The carriage stood nearby, damaged but intact. Around it lay bodies. Charred. Twisted.
Victoria arrived moments later and nearly ran into a tree.
"What… what happened?" she gasped.
"Cultists, I suppose," Miss Li Hua replied, lazily pointing at a corpse.
"Cultists?" the word echoed as I finally took in the whole scene.
Burn marks radiated outward in a circle. The earth itself had been scorched to the point it was cracked like broken glass. Whatever had happened here hadn't been a fight at all.
It had been an execution.
"Oh my—" Victoria staggered back, then vomited.
"What did they want?" she asked weakly.
Miss Li Hua didn't answer.
Victoria lay against a tree, her eyes dragging helplessly across the scene.
The rim of the forest looked as though someone had set reality on fire and then calmly snuffed it out.
Too late.
Everything already done.