Chapter 46: Her Mother's Silence
The fire was violet.
Not hot. Not burning.
It sang.
Rootfire, Kael called it now. He didn't know how he remembered that name only that when Lyra spoke the true thread of him, something ancient woke in his bones. Like his blood had been waiting centuries for permission to rage.
And rage it did.
The corpse that wore Oran's face dropped in two neat halves, the roots inside writhing like exposed nerves.
Kael dropped to one knee, gasping for air, sword pulsing in his hand like a heartbeat.
Across from him, Lyra struggled to her feet.
She looked different.
Heavier.
Not in body but in spirit. As if each name she had spoken had tattooed itself across her ribs and spine.
She looked at the broken Oran, tears trembling in her eyes.
"That wasn't him," she whispered.
Kael nodded. "No. But part of him was still in there."
"Then he watched us do it."
Neither of them spoke after that.
The fire didn't fade.
It just… waited.
Maerin ran up, sword slick with sap. "Is it done?"
Lyra shook her head, slow. "Whisperwood doesn't end with the pactmakers."
Kael looked up, face tight. "What's next?"
Lyra's voice dropped to a whisper.
"It'll come for my heart now."
A rumble cracked the soil.
The old sky the fake sky peeled back, layer by layer. Stars blinked out.
The village fell away.
And they stood again in Whisperwood proper.
But it was… wrong.
---
The town was empty.
Not dead.
Not ruined.
Just… missing.
The buildings were intact, but doors stood open. Tables were set. Fireplaces burned.
But there were no people.
Only shadows where people should have stood.
Kael walked to a door and pushed it open.
Inside was a mirror.
Just like the one from before but this time, it reflected him and someone else.
A woman with Lyra's eyes.
"Kael…" Lyra's voice cracked.
He turned back to her.
She was staring straight ahead toward the center of town.
Where a single figure stood in the courtyard.
Wearing a blue cloak.
Hands clasped in front of her.
Still.
Silent.
And unmistakable.
"Mother," Lyra whispered.
---
Kael's throat went dry.
He had seen her once in a drawing, long ago, before the fire took everything.
But this…
This was no drawing.
And no echo.
This was her.
Maerin stepped forward, wary. "That's not possible."
Lyra nodded. "I saw her burn."
"We all did."
The woman didn't speak.
She just lifted her head.
And smiled.
It broke something in Lyra.
She sprinted toward her before Kael could stop her.
He shouted after her ,"Lyra, wait!" but she was already across the stones, already reaching.
The woman opened her arms.
And Lyra fell into them.
---
At first… it was warm.
It smelled like rose water and cedar.
Like childhood.
Like the dream Lyra had replayed in her mind a thousand times, just to feel safe.
Then
Pain.
Not hers.
Her mother's.
Pouring through the contact like molten guilt.
"You were never meant to come back," her mother whispered. "You were supposed to forget. That was the deal."
Lyra froze. "The deal?"
The woman pulled back.
Her face was wrong now.
Eyes hollow.
Mouth open too wide.
No tongue.
"I gave you to the roots to protect you. You were meant to sleep."
---
Kael reached them, dragging Lyra back just as vines split from the woman's dress and lashed out. He pulled her behind him, sword up.
Maerin threw a blade straight through the woman's chest and it stuck in wood.
Not flesh.
The woman crumbled.
Roots twisting.
Voice echoing in dozens now:
"You came back."
"You remembered."
"You will pay."
---
Lyra collapsed to her knees.
Her voice was shattered glass.
"She… she offered me. She knew. She gave me to the town."
Kael crouched in front of her. "She was trying to protect you."
"No," Lyra sobbed. "She was trying to protect herself."
She looked up, and for the first time since she'd come to Whisperwood, there was nothing behind her eyes but fury.
"She struck the first bargain."
A tremor cracked the square.
Statues began to scream.
Yes scream.
Stone faces contorted, mouths splitting, arms bending as if something inside was trying to crawl out.
The town had stopped being symbolic.
Now, it wanted to become real.
And that meant…
It had to devour her.
Lyra stood, bloodied and shaking.
She turned to Kael, her hand glowing gold.
"I'm done being afraid."
"If Whisperwood wants my heart"
She pulled a dagger from her belt and sliced her palm open, letting the blood hit the roots below.
"then it'll have to tear it out while I'm still breathing."
---
The blood hissed.
Smoke rose.
And the entire town howled.
Because that wasn't just Lyra's blood.
That was the bloodline of the First Ward.
The only blood that could unbind the original pact.
Kael took her hand and laced their fingers.
His pulse synced with hers.
And then he said:
"Let's finish this."
From beneath the town…
A single bell rang.
And all the shadows that had once been people turned to face them.
Eyes open.
Mouths whispering one word in unison
"Remember."