It wasn’t a clearing.

  Not a natural one, at least.

  Something had carved this place out.

  Ripped it open.

  The ground was gouged out, trees knocked over, stones gone as if erased.

  No heat. No smoke.

  Just the smell of something burned without fire.

  Not a wound.

  A mark.

  Not flame.

  Absence.

  —Like a piece of the world had been torn out.

  And in the center—

  someone.

  A girl.

  She wasn’t lying on the ground—

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  she was floating. Barely.

  As if the leftover traces of magic were holding her up instead of gravity.

  Her hair was long, tangled.

  Her clothes… were almost gone.

  Sleeves torn apart, the sides ripped, black scorch marks running up her legs.

  Too much skin exposed.

  My eyes dropped for a split second—

  and shot back up like someone had slapped me.

  「Tch…」

  Not the time.

  Not sure why I reacted like that.

  But the girl… was alive.

  She was breathing, faintly.

  Particles of magic drifted in the air around her, dissolving slowly,

  like the world hadn’t realized she had collapsed.

  I couldn’t move.

  Not out of fear.

  Because stepping into that place felt like it would break something.

  Or start something.

  I just stared at her.

  Didn’t know who she was.

  Didn’t know what had happened.

  But one thing hit me clearly.

  —Some part of me,

  something I didn’t even know I was missing,

  had been missing until this moment.

  And now I finally noticed it.