Holly

  Holly stood there, fingers still hovering in the space where Ariel’s face was, her mind snagged on the sight of black ichor sliding down from Ariel’s nostril. Her heart hadn’t caught up yet. Her lungs hadn’t, either. Everything in her body seemed to be waiting for someone to say just kidding and rewind the last three seconds.

  Instead, the sound came again.

  Thum.

  It wasn’t loud at first. Just a low beat that seemed to rise up through the ground rather than fall from the sky. It vibrated in her soles, in her knees, in the hollow behind her ribs. Lanterns shivered on their hooks, their gentle light wobbling.

  Holly’s breath hitched. “Ariel…?”

  Ariel staggered back a step, one hand pressed to her face where the ichor had begun to drip. Her pupils had swallowed her irises completely now; her eyes twin wells of black, reflecting the lanternlight in slick, warped glints.

  “Holly..!” she rasped, and even that single syllable sounded wrong. Like someone had taken her voice and stretched it too thin.

  The drumbeat landed again.

  THUM.

  It punched the air out of Holly’s chest. She heard startled cries from the Sylari at the edge of the village, felt bodies turning, heads snapping toward the sound. But her focus burned down to one point: Ariel, breathing hard, shoulders rising and falling as each inhale scraped.

  The air changed around her.

  The smells hit first: smoke, metal, something sharp and bitter like acrid rain. The hair on Holly’s arms rose, reacting to a static in the air. The edges of the world wavered, like heat above asphalt on a summer road... but it wasn’t hot. It was thin. Like reality had been rubbed raw.

  Voices rippled through the village, confused, afraid, but the words blurred in Holly’s ears. Her hearing tunneled, sharpening only around the ragged sound of Ariel’s breathing.

  “Ariel,” Holly whispered again, taking a step forward.

  Lanternlight spilled over Ariel’s face. The trails of black from her nose had thickened into twin lines, crawling down toward her lips. More gathered at the corners of her eyes, welling up where tears should have been. It was too dark, too glossy; ink drawn up from the bottom of a well.

  Ariel’s jaw clenched. She squeezed her eyes shut, as if that could hold it all in.

  “Hol—” she tried again.

  The drumbeat answered, closer now, nested inside her name.

  THUM.

  The sound wasn’t just in Holly’s ears anymore. It was in her bones. In her teeth. It slid up her spine like cold hands.

  She staggered, catching herself on the edge of the table. Bowls rattled. A spoon clattered to the ground. Somewhere behind her, Shika let out a low, fearful chirr and pressed herself against Holly’s calf.

  “Ariel, what’s—”

  She didn’t finish. The question died as heat rolled off Ariel in a sudden wave, hot and dry and twisted. The earth beneath Ariel’s boots went from dewy grass to scorched in an instant, blades curling into blackened curls. The lantern nearest her flared, then dimmed, its flame guttering sideways as if shoved by a silent wind.

  Holly’s hand flew up to shield her eyes.

  There was a sound, a crack, like glass under pressure, and then light burst around Ariel, wild and uneven. For a heartbeat, Holly saw her silhouette framed in flame: wings beginning to unfurl from her back, feathers of fire trying to take shape.

  But they didn’t form cleanly.

  The light sputtered and jerked, fire stuttering into patches of darkness that weren’t shadow. Thick strands of black threaded through the emerging wings, writhing like oil in water. Flame flared bright, then vanished in jagged sections as though something were biting chunks out of it.

  Holly dropped her hand, blinking against the afterimage burned into her vision.

  Ariel was changing.

  But this time, no controlled eruption... no awe-struck coronation of flame. This was messy and visceral, a body trying to hold two opposite things at once and failing. Fire crawled across Ariel’s arms, licking along the lines of her skin, then broke apart in sputtering embers where veins of darkness pushed through.

  Her wings unfurled fully, then twitched, one side flaring strong while the other faltered, heavy with dripping black that hissed where it met the fire.

  Holly’s heart slammed against her ribs. She took another step forward without meaning to.

  “Ariel,” she breathed. “Wh... What’s happening?!”

  The music swelled.

  It wasn’t just drums anymore.

  Voices rose with the beat: low at first, men murmuring from far away. Then more. And more. A whole chorus of voices chanting in a language Holly didn’t know but felt. The syllables were hard and old, full of jagged consonants and long, rolling vowels that sounded like storms over fjords.

  Ancient.

  Foul.

  The chant threaded through the village like smoke. It vibrated in the wooden beams of the houses, in the leaves overhead, in the blood humming through Holly’s veins.

  Her knees wanted to buckle. Her mind wanted to shut down. Only the sight of Ariel, struggling, burning, drowning in something she couldn’t touch, kept her upright.

  “Look at me!” She shouted over the rising chant, voice breaking.

  Ariel’s head jerked up.

  For an instant, her eyes were hers again. Green and terrified.

  They flickered.

  Black bled back across them in a rush, swallowing the green whole. Her pupils dilated until nothing remained but two bottomless voids, glossy and deep, as if something behind them was pressing forward.

  Her mouth opened.

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  “H-Holly…”

  The second word broke in half.

  “…run/ STAY / please.”

  Holly’s blood turned to ice.

  That wasn’t Ariel’s voice.

  Not entirely.

  It was layered, two tones sliding over each other, one ragged and terrified, the other deep and resonant and wrong, dripping like tar from broken stone.

  Ariel staggered back, wings jerking violently. Fire blasted outward in a sudden gout, arcing across the ground and leaving a trail of warped, blackened grass. The other wing sagged, ichor dripping from its warped feathers in thick, tarry ropes.

  Holly choked on a breath. “Ariel, stop! You’re hurting yourself..!”

  The chant boomed.

  THUM. THUM. THUM.

  The voices rose, harsh and triumphant, echoing off the wooden beams and carved posts of the Sylari homes. The whole village seemed to pulse with the rhythm, lanterns flickering wildly.

  Ariel clutched her head with both hands, sinking to one knee.

  “Ghhh—!”

  The sound ripped out of her throat like she was being strangled by something inside her. Her wings spasmed; one flared in brilliant flame, the other convulsed, deforming under the weight of the black ichor spreading across it.

  “Ariel!” Holly screamed, voice shredding. She tried to take another step toward her.

  The air itself shoved her back.

  A shockwave burst from Ariel’s body, sending Holly stumbling. She caught herself on the table edge, breath knocked out of her.

  Ariel forced out words between ragged gasps, some hers, some not.

  “Hol—ly—r-run/ STAY/ ESCAPE /KEEPER—”

  The glitching in her voice was worse now, each corrupted word like a serrated edge against Holly’s ears.

  “No,” Holly whispered, voice cracking. “No, no, no! Ariel, fight it. Please...”

  Ariel lifted her head.

  Her face was streaked with black, running from her eyes, nose, mouth... dripping down her chin, her throat, soaking into the collar of her cloak. Her freckles were obscured, her skin pallid beneath the stain. Fire sputtered on her shoulders, failing to stay lit.

  Her wings folded inward, shuddering violently.

  “I-I c-can’t...” Ariel gasped. Then, in a deeper tone that made Holly’s stomach turn over—

  “—BECOME—”

  “Ariel!”

  The chant hit a peak, the voices stretching into a long, guttural roar that made Holly’s ears ring.

  And Ariel screamed.

  A deep, tearing sound that felt like it ripped through the world.

  Her body arched backward as black ichor burst across her skin, spiderwebbing in violent patterns. The fire on her wings flared once, bright as a star, then guttered, flickering against the darkness consuming it.

  Holly’s heart broke open.

  She stumbled forward despite the pressure pushing her back, despite the instinct screaming at her to run.

  “Let her go! Let Ariel go!!”

  Ariel clawed at her own chest, her breathing erratic and shallow.

  More ichor erupted along her arms. Her legs. Her throat.

  Her phoenix form warred with the corruption in violent flashes of light and shadow, fire blazing, smothered; wings flaring, collapsing; her outline trembling, splitting along fault-lines of obsidian.

  And Holly, shaking so hard she could barely stand, could only watch.

  She had thought she’d known fear. Thirteen years of nightmares and grief. Thirteen years of missing someone she thought she’d never see again.

  But watching Ariel come apart in front of her… this was worse than any death.

  This was losing her again, in slow motion.

  Holly didn’t realize she’d dropped to her knees until the grass was cold against them.

  Ariel was still screaming.

  In bursts.

  Like something inside kept tearing its way out, then sinking its claws back in. Each cry bent the air around her, warping the lanternlight, making the shadows on the houses twist like they were trying to crawl away.

  The chanting pounded through the village, through the ground, through Holly’s ribs. It wasn’t just sound now. It was structure. It had rhythm, cadence, ancient bones. Voices layered in rounds, in counter-beats, in low throat-sung harmonics that vibrated in Holly’s teeth.

  Her ears rang. Her head spun. Her heart felt like it was being wrung out by something unseen.

  “Ariel!” she sobbed, voice shredding. “Please, look at me! Stay with me!”

  But Ariel wasn’t looking at anything.

  Her eyes were pure black, reflecting the world in warped, convex swirls. The ichor crawled over her skin faster now, up her neck, across her jaw, spreading over her cheeks in branching lines like cracked obsidian.

  Fire geysered along her arms, then sputtered, strangling under the black that pushed it back.

  Her wings… God. Holly swallowed a scream.

  One wing still burned, though the flame jittered dangerously, flaring too bright before collapsing inward. The other wing… sagged. Feathers melted together under dripping black sludge that hissed and steamed as it devoured the light.

  Ariel doubled over, clutching her chest, fingers digging into her own skin as if trying to claw something out.

  “N-no—” she gasped. Then, distorted beneath her voice:

  “—RETURN/ EMBER/ CONSUME—”

  Ariel jerked as if struck. Her head snapped up.

  Her body convulsed. Black ichor erupted across her torso, soaking the torn fabric, sliding down her stomach, dripping from her fingertips. Her outline flickered between fire-bright and pitch-black, as though reality couldn’t decide which version of her to keep.

  Holly tried to stand. Her legs wouldn’t obey. She crawled forward, fingers digging into the dirt.

  “Please,” she whispered, voice breaking in half. “Come back...”

  A shockwave tore outward in a ring, flattening grass and knocking lanterns from their hooks. Holly shielded her face with her arm but looked anyway.

  She had to look.

  Ariel was losing. She could see it. Feel it. The corruption crawled too fast. The chant was too loud. The light was failing.

  Ariel writhed, wings folding inward, her whole body trembling as if something inside was devouring her from within.

  “No,” Holly whispered. “No, no, no…” Her tears dripped silently onto the scorched earth.

  And then—

  Something pulsed.

  A single flash of silver light.

  Holly’s head jerked instinctively toward its source: the statue at the village center.

  The Eiranth bloom in its stone palm was glowing.

  Once. Twice...

  Faster. Brighter...

  The chant stuttered. Reality wavered.

  The bloom exploded in a blinding pulse that shot outward like a thrown spear, straight into Ariel.

  Holly threw an arm across her eyes as silver-green fire engulfed Ariel in a pillar of healing light.

  Ariel screamed again, this time the sound cracked into a desperate gasp as the light washed over her, peeling back the black ichor in burning sheets.

  The corruption sizzled. Evaporated. Melted from her skin like frost under sunrise.

  When the light faded, Ariel knelt there, trembling, panting, her body steaming.

  She was herself again.

  Mostly.

  One wing, her right, still dripped with black ichor, its feathers warped and twisted with malice.

  Her eyes flickered between green and void-black, as if two selves warred behind them.

  She lifted her head. Met Holly’s gaze.

  “H-Holly…” she whispered. Then, distorted beneath: “—STAY/ FLEE/ BECOME—”

  Ariel grimaced, clutching her head. Her eyes darted toward the distant horizon.

  The tower on Eir’s Crown blazed with ghostly light. The chant… came from there.

  Ariel’s voice broke. “H…Holly… s-stay… away…”

  Then she launched into the sky, a streak of gold and black, shooting toward the tower faster than any arrow.

  Holly reached out with a trembling hand toward the vanishing trail of light.

  Her voice cracked open.

  “Come back to me… please…”