Chapter 53: Bracing the Storm

The nurse gave us quick directions, sketching a rough map on a piece of scrap parchment. The supplier’s cabin was about two miles up the eastern ridge, sitting right on the edge of the old logging trail.

I pushed the clinic doors open, and we stepped back out into the freezing downpour.

The weather had only gotten worse as the dirt roads of the village had completely washed out, turning into deep, ankle-catching mud.

We kept our heads down and walked in silence until we reached the edge of town. The incline of the eastern ridge started almost immediately.

The path was entirely slick. Thick brown muddy water rushed down the slope, carrying loose rocks and dead branches with it.

I took the lead, kicking my boots hard into the mud to create temporary footholds. After a few steep yards, I turned back and held out my hand. Elise didn’t hesitate. She grabbed my hand, her grip surprisingly strong, and I hauled her up over a washed-out root system.

"You good?" I asked, raising my voice over the sound of the rain. "This isn’t exactly what you described enjoying earlier," I teased, flashing a wide grin while being pelted with massive raindrops.

She nodded, wiping a streak of wet mud from her cheek. She was shivering, her thin coat soaked all the way through, but she didn’t complain. Instead, she closed her eyes for a brief second.

The faint turquoise light flared to life beneath her collar. A wave of dry, comfortable heat radiated outward, washing over the two of us and completely cutting through the biting chill of the autumn storm.

"That is a handy trick," I noted, feeling the feeling return to my frozen fingers.

"It burns through mana faster than standard healing, but it keeps the frostbite away," she said, her teeth finally stopping their chattering. "I used to do it in the ruins just to fall asleep on the stone floors."

We kept climbing. The higher we got, the worse the trail became. Entire sections of the path had slid down into the tree line. I ended up having to wrap my arm around her waist a few times to physically lift her across the larger gaps while she kept the thermal net of magic active around us. It was a solid rhythm.

About halfway up the ridge, the heavy rain shifted into a blinding sheet. I spotted a massive, jutting rock formation off to the side of the trail and pulled her under the overhang to wait out the worst of the squall.

The space was cramped, but it was dry. I leaned against the cold stone and let out a long breath, watching the water pour down in front of us like a gray curtain.

"You really didn’t have to come out here," I said, looking over at her. "I could have hauled a cart of roots back by myself. You already did enough back at the clinic."

Elise stood near the edge of the overhang, staring out into the storm. "I wanted to. I needed to."

She turned to face me. The turquoise light cast a soft glow across her features.

"Before the ruins... before any of this, I wasn’t an adventurer," she said quietly. "I was an archivist in the capital. I spent every single day sitting in a dusty room, reading old texts about precursor technology and medical theory. I was safe, but I was entirely alone."

She wrapped her arms around herself. "That rogue researcher didn’t just grab a random girl. He specifically targeted me because I was the only one who could actually read the manuals for his twisted machine. I spent my whole life reading about the world instead of living in it, and it almost got me killed."

I didn’t interrupt. I just listened.

"When you pulled me out of that basement, I was terrified," she continued, her voice gaining a little more strength. "But watching you... watching Damara and Katrina, and now Sarah. You all just take the world head-on. You don’t hide. I don’t want to hide anymore, Sam. I want to actually live."

I offered her a gentle smile. "You did a pretty good job of that today. Half that waiting room owes you."

Elise smiled back. "I’m just getting started."

The heavy sheet of rain finally broke, returning to a manageable downpour. I pushed off the stone wall and stepped out from the overhang.

"Let’s go get those roots," I said.

It took us another twenty minutes of fighting the mud to reach the top of the ridge. The trees thinned out, revealing a wide, flat clearing. The supplier’s cabin sat near the back, built right into the side of the mountain.

"There it is," Elise said, pointing through the rain.

But as we got closer, my stomach dropped. The nurse was right about the mudslides. A massive wave of earth and uprooted trees had washed down from the peak, completely crushing the left half of the wooden cabin.

That wasn’t what made me stop walking.

I threw my arm out, catching Elise across the chest to stop her in her tracks.

I didn’t answer right away. I stared at the front of the cabin. The heavy wooden door hadn’t been smashed inward by the mud, but deep, jagged claw marks were carved across the splintered wood. It looked like something massive had tried to force its way inside and failed.

Noticing a trail of heavy, unnatural footprints circled the porch before disappearing around the crushed side of the building, I stepped slightly in front of Elise, shielding her from the tree line.

The moment I did, my blood ran hot. The familiar, heavy surge of power coiled into my arms, tightening my hands into rock-solid fists. I didn’t need a weapon. My muscles grew physically denser as the protective instinct flooded my veins, pushing my heart rate into a steady, thrumming war drum in my ears.

Whatever left those marks was still close by, and with Elise standing right behind me, there was absolutely no way I was letting it touch her.