Chapter 132
Chapter 132
*Jiselle
Waking up felt like being dragged out of the deepest part of a lake–slow, weighted, unfamiliar.
Not painful. Not like before.
Just different.
The first thing I noticed was the quiet. Not silence. Something deeper. It wasn’t the absence of sound, but the presence of stillness. The kind that sinks into your bones, the kind that makes you hyper–aware of your breath, your heartbeat, the way your fingers twitch slightly as if they’re listening for something.
My eyes blinked open.
1
The world didn’t rush in. It returned piece by piece. The blurred ceiling of the infirmary tent. The scent of burnt pine and earth. The soft clinking of metal nearby. Someone breathing steadily beside me.
And then–warmth.
But not the crackling, wild flame I once carried. This heat pulsed low and steady, deeper in my chest, like a second heartbeat beneath my own. I blinked again and lifted my hand.
It glowed.
Not gold. Not white.
Violet.
Not brilliant or blinding, but soft. Measured. The color of twilight where flame met dusk.
”
A flicker of movement caught my eye. Ethan sat on a stool near the bed, shoulders slumped in exhausted relief, eyes closed but alert even in rest. His hand was wrapped in fresh gauze, the edge of the dressing stained where the burn hadn’t quite healed. I wanted to say his name, but my throat wouldn’t work yet.
Next to him, Eva stood, half in the shadows, half in the soft light of morning filtering through the tent flap. She looked older. Not in her face–but in her stance. She’d been waiting for me. And she’d been afraid.
She stepped forward when she saw my eyes move, and her voice trembled just a little when she whispered, “Hey… welcome back.”
It took a few tries, but I managed a rasp of breath. “I never left.”
Her mouth trembled, and then she laughed quietly. “Could’ve fooled us.”
Footsteps outside the tent grew louder. Max’s voice rumbled low with Nate’s, too quiet to make out, but familiar enough that something in me eased. Not because they were perfect. But because they were constant.
Eva reached for my hand and paused, her fingers hovering just above mine. “Is it safe to touch you now?”
I gave her a faint smile. “I think so.”
She pressed her palm gently to mine.
No flame. No recoil.
Just warmth. Real. Human.
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13:24 Fri, 23 May Go
Chapter 132
The flap rustled, and Nate entered.
For a moment, the tent held its breath.
He didn’t speak. Didn’t move. Just stared at me like he was making sure I was really here.
Then he exhaled–slow, reverent–and knelt beside the bed.
His hand slid under mine without hesitation.
The bond sparked softly. Not the roaring connection we once had. But something deeper. Grounded.
I turned toward him. “Something’s changed.”
“We know,” he said. “So have you.”
I sat up slowly, with Ethan’s help. My body ached in odd places–not injured, but stretched. Like I’d grown into something new, and the pieces hadn’t finished settling yet.
It wasn’t just the magic.
It was me.
Nate offered me water, and as I sipped it, I noticed the faint shimmering glow that still lingered across my skin. Not visible to the eye–but to the bond, to the aura. My magic wasn’t just flame anymore. It was threaded with something older. Something layered and endless.
When I finally stood, the sensation was instant–like stepping into a different body that was somehow still mine. Every nerve lit with awareness. Every breath pressed against something ancient I hadn’t known I was carrying.
The air shifted around me. Not just stirred, but responded. It pulled in, as if the wind had paused to listen.
Magic moved.
But not the way it used to.
Not outward. Not like fire ready to lash and roar.
It turned inward–folding into me, coiling beneath my skin, seeping into bone. It wasn’t seeking release. It was seeking resonance.
And beneath my feet, the ground answered.
A low hum vibrated up through my soles, not painful, not sharp–but undeniable. Like the leyline beneath the valley had awoken and recognized m pulse of it traveled up my legs, settled in my chest, and for a breathless moment, I felt the impossible-
The land breathed with me.
4e
Inhale.
Exhale.
Magic drawn and returned.
I took a step, tentative at first, expecting the tremor to vanish with movement.
But where my foot touched the earth, something happened.
The ground warmed. Not scorched. Imprinted..
And then—something pulsed.
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13:24 Fri, 23 May GOG
Chapter 132
A flicker of light, barely visible at first, shimmered beneath the topsoil like a rune buried just beneath the surface. Violet, edged in silver. Not just flame Not just leyline.
Something new.
Something living.
The sigil faded within seconds, but the echo of it–of its presence–remained etched behind my ribs like a secret waiting to be spoken.
A faint symbol, drawn not with ink or fire–but with energy. It shimmered beneath the dirt, then faded like a dream upon waking,
I frowned. “Did anyone else see that?”
Ethan looked startled. “See what?”
I stepped again.
Another symbol. Different this time. A slow spiral inside a crescent moon.
Eva gasped. “Jiselle…”
I turned. “What is it?”
“You’re… drawing them.”
Nate moved closer. “Leyline sigils.”
The third step left behind something longer–almost like a sentence written in a language I didn’t know I knew.
“I’m not doing it on purpose,” I said. “I swear.”
“You don’t have to,” Eva murmured. “It’s doing it through you.”
I stopped moving. The air stilled again.
Max entered quietly, arms folded, expression unreadable. His eyes scanned the trail I’d left, then dropped to the ground, to the final sigil, the one that hadn’t fully faded.
He knelt beside it.
And froze.
Nate moved beside him. “What is it?”
Max’s voice was low. Strained.
“I’ve seen this before.”
He reached into the satchel at his side and pulled out a worn piece of parchment, folded into quarters and kept flat with a rune–stamped weight. He unfolded it, smoothing the creases carefully.
On the parchment was a sketch–a rubbing taken from old stone.
A carved rune. Jagged, elegant, ancient.
Exactly the same as the one beneath my feet.
“This was taken from the wall inside the original Sovereign’s tomb,” Max said, barely above a whisper. “The one we thought had collapsed centuries ago. But the inner chamber survived. Bastain had this copied.”
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13:24 Fri, 23 May GOG
Chapter 132
I swallowed. “What does it mean?”
Max looked up at me, and for once, there was no rivalry in his eyes.
Only awe.
And something close to fear.
“It means you’re not just drawing power from the leyline.”
He stood slowly, holding the parchment out like it might burn him.
“You’re rewriting it.”
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