Shadows of Ash

The dojo was behind her. Silent. Empty.

Its doors creaked in the wind like the last words of someone who died mid-sentence.

Mai stood still for a moment longer, her red clothes darkened by mist. She exhaled.

No footsteps. No words. No Yamora. No Tiffany.

She walked.

Not like a warrior. Like someone carrying something too heavy to show.

The road ahead wasn’t a road — it was memory. Half-dead roots, broken stone, grass that had forgotten what green was.

The further she moved from the dojo, the colder the air became.

It wasn’t night, but it wasn’t day either — that dangerous space between.

Mai paused at a wide clearing surrounded by blackened trees.

Something about this place made her chest ache.

The wind blew gently, lifting strands of her short red hair. The silence wasn’t peaceful — it was holding its breath.

Then she saw it. Not a creature.

Not a person.

A symbol, carved into the cracked soil: four petals, each with a different angle, as if pointing to four forgotten truths. It pulsed slightly. Red dust clung to its grooves.

She knelt beside it. Touched the edge. A faint vibration ran through her fingers, up her arm. Not pain, but old power.

It felt... ancient. Wild.

Wrong.

She whispered to herself, “I’ve seen this in the scroll Yamora showed me...”

A shadow moved behind her. Mai turned fast, aura snapping red — but it was just a bird. Dead quiet again.

She stood up, breathing deeply.

And then, like an echo, her mind drifted.

Duncan.

She hadn’t thought of him in days.

He used to fight in silence. No drama. No light in his eyes.

Where was he now?

Was he even alive?

And then...

“Nice place to brood.”

The voice came from behind.

Mai turned.

Tiffany stood with her hand on her hip, golden eyes sharp, hair catching soft rays of dying light. She wore her usual smirk, but this time it felt... tired.

“You followed me.”

“Technically, I walked slower than you. So I arrived fashionably late.”

Mai rolled her eyes. “Why are you here?”

Tiffany’s face lost its edge for a second. “I don’t like being alone when I’m thinking about... things.”

Mai raised an eyebrow. “What kind of things?”

“Things I’ll never say.”

They stared at each other in the gray fog.

Tiffany stepped forward, looked down at the symbol in the dirt.

“You know what this is?”

“No.”

“I do,” Tiffany said. “But not enough to help you.”

Then she smiled again, bitter and small. “That’s what I do best — know too much and do nothing.”

Mai looked at her. And for a second, just one — she saw someone else behind the yellow aura.

Not a fighter. Not a flirt.

Just a girl who’d lost too much and wore ego like armor.

Then Tiffany turned and started to walk back.

Mai didn’t stop her. But she didn’t look away either.

The symbol at her feet pulsed once more.

Mai didn’t sleep that night.

She sat with her back against a twisted tree, the symbol still carved faintly into the earth nearby. The mist had thickened, clinging to her arms and legs like whispers. Her eyes were red, not from power, but from fatigue.

Somewhere behind the fog, birds were calling out. But they didn’t sound real.

She closed her eyes.

And saw blood.

Not her mother’s.

Not Duncan’s.

Tiffany’s.

The vision came fast — a flash. A golden blur on the ground. A scream.

Mai snapped her eyes open, breathing hard. The cold air scraped her throat.

She stood.

She needed answers. And if Yamora couldn’t give her more... someone else had to.

Maybe Michael. Maybe that cave Duncan once mentioned.

Maybe even the mountain where the red petals first bloomed.

But one thing was clear: if the flower inside her was truly ancient — and possibly destructive — it was only going to grow hungrier.

She clenched her fists.

A rustle.

She turned.

Tiffany stepped out from the trees again, arms crossed, sweat clinging to her neck. This time, she wasn’t smirking.

“Can’t sleep either?” she asked softly.

Mai didn’t answer.

Tiffany stepped closer, careful now, like she was approaching an injured animal.

“I saw you... earlier. With the symbol.”

Mai finally looked up. “Did you follow me again?”

“No. Not this time. I just... I’ve been here before.”

Mai blinked. “You what?”

Tiffany looked at the symbol. “When I first got my power. Years ago. Before I ever knew your name.”

Mai studied her.

Tiffany’s tone darkened. “He didn’t give it to me. But he caused it.”

“Who?”

She didn’t say it at first. Then whispered:

“Gigel.”

Mai’s entire body went cold.

Tiffany sat down in the dirt. Her voice shook just slightly.

“It wasn’t a gift. Not really. It was a reaction. He destroyed my home. Killed my brother. Left me alive because I was ‘nothing.’ I screamed at the world until it screamed back. That’s how I found the sunflower.”

Mai’s mouth was dry. “Why are you telling me this now?”

Tiffany met her eyes.

“Because you’re starting to crack. And no one warned me when it happened to me.”

They sat in silence again. But it was different now.

Mai didn’t know what to say. So she said nothing.

Tiffany broke the quiet. “You asked earlier why I act like I enjoy the pain.”

Mai nodded faintly.

“I lied,” Tiffany said. “I hate it. But it’s the only part of me no one ever tried to take.”

Mai watched her closely.

The air around them was colder now. Not from the weather — from truth.

The kind that sits in your bones long after words are gone.

Tiffany’s shoulders were hunched, her voice quieter than usual. And for once, her legs weren’t crossed like a model in a magazine — they were pulled toward her chest like a child trying to keep herself small.

“I lied,” she said again, her tone barely above a whisper. “I hate the pain. But it’s the only part of me no one ever tried to take.”

Mai opened her mouth, then closed it again.

And then... it happened.

The golden hue that always shimmered around Tiffany — her hair, her glow, her eyes — flickered.

Just once.

In that flicker, Mai saw something else.

Tiffany’s hair — no longer golden — was chestnut brown, soft and unpolished. Her eyes turned deep blue. Her clothes stayed the same, still half-revealing, but suddenly they didn’t feel like armor.

They felt like clothes.

The glow was gone.

Tiffany didn’t notice.

She kept talking.

“When I first got the sunflower power, I thought it would make me untouchable. I laughed louder. Walked taller. Got louder with every fight. But that wasn’t me. That was what I thought a warrior was supposed to look like.”

Her voice cracked slightly.

“I haven’t told anyone this. Not even Michael. Not even Yamora.”

Mai sat still. Her breath caught in her throat. She could still see the blue in Tiffany’s eyes. Still see her – not the performer, not the flirt.

Just Tiffany.

Then, like a light switch, the glow returned.

Golden hair. Golden gaze. Same cocky tilt of the head.

“I’m gonna hate myself for saying all that,” Tiffany said, smirking again. “So let’s pretend I didn’t.”

Mai nodded slowly. But she didn’t look away.

Because for a moment, she had seen the girl behind the sun.

And it terrified her.

Because she had no idea what Tiffany would become if the mask ever truly broke.

And worse — she wasn’t sure she would become either.

The red symbol pulsed again beneath them. This time, it pulsed twice.

And neither of them moved.

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