The Unmoving Wall

Their bags and belongings lay untouched on the ice-cold ground. They had camped by the river to avoid any chance of running into the Ivory elves, but it seemed Zel had led them elsewhere. He was long gone, too.

Grabbing their things, they headed east, staying close to the mountainside. They didn't speak to each other; the silence was thick and heavy. The adrenaline had worn off, replaced by suffocating exhaustion. Haku walked a few meters away from the two, her boots crunching on the rocky ground. Lily chewed her lips while staring at the dirt, and Ren just tried to survive the cripplingly awkward atmosphere that surrounded them.

The air around them grew noticeably colder, carrying a clean, mineral smell of damp stone and granite. The rock face wasn't smooth. It was rough and unforgiving, a massive, unmoving wall that seemed to scoff at their presence. The afternoon sun cast stark, black shadows into every crevice, making the mountain feel less like a natural landmark, daring them to disturb it.

Suddenly, Lily stopped and waited for the others to do the same.

"We're going this way!" the girl declared, pointing at the brown, rocky side of the mountain.

Haku and Ren's eyes met as they raised their eyebrows in a shared look of confusion.

"Lily, are you okay? I know you didn't get much sleep, but..." Ren didn't know how to finish the sentence without offending the Prophet. She seemed to have gone mad. This might be a different world, with magic and strange creatures, but walking through solid rock felt like a step too far.

Lily, with an impassive face, pointed to the same spot, "You're going to make a path for us!"

"Into the mountain?" he asked, a sense of desperation rising in his voice as he hoped he had heard wrong.

But he got no answer. Haku burst into uproarious laughter, wiping tears from the corners of her eyes. "See? Even she thinks it's a stupid idea!"

"Hey, what do you mean 'even she'?" Haku menacingly waved her sword at Ren.

"It's time you finally learn how to use your borrowed power!" Lily clapped her hands together.

She really had gone mad! Ren's voice was subdued. "I think I've done enough with it already."

The events still haunted him, recurring in all his nightmares.

Haku left disinterestedly while Lily searched for something in one of the large canvas backpacks. A small bottle appeared—something similar to Haku's healing concoction. Ren was sure it was hers.

"Drink it!"

Ren reluctantly accepted it from the unyielding Prophet and drank its contents. It was sweet, with a strawberry flavor and a hint of honey, and the familiar taste was a welcome sensation.

"Take off your shirt!"

"You try to make me strip too often!"

Lily feigned indifference, then, when Ren wasn't paying attention, she pounced on him, grabbed the bottom of his shirt, and began to pull it up.

"This is sexual harassment! I'll report you!"

"Oh yeah? Who would believe you?"

Her weight, though light, knocked the wind out of him, and he hit the hard ground with a muffled thump. He felt the soft leather of her clothes against his bare chest, and the scent of wild herbs, forest flowers, and the sweet, unrecognizable scent of her hair as she wrestled him.

Lily, lying on his chest, without a hint of embarrassment, pulled his shirt up.

"Look!"

A shiny, thick blue line ran across his bare chest like a vein. It continued up his neck and down under his pants. A strange tingling sensation, hot and alive, ran along the line. He felt as if a river of liquid fire were coursing through his skin.

"Do you feel this? This is your power!"

He propped himself up on his elbows to get a better look at his stomach, and the scorching heat beneath his hand felt less like a fever and more like a separate, living entity inside of him. Through the line, he could feel a pulsing, terrible energy, like a caged beast rattling its chains. The thought that this power had caused all of his pain made his stomach twist with a grim mix of awe and repulsion, but he still didn't understand how it could help him.

Lily helped him up from the ground and this time let him keep his shirt on. They stopped directly in front of the mountain, on which Lily drew a large circle with ink, roughly high enough for them to pass through on all fours.

"Now that you have an image of how your power flows inside you, it will be easier to imagine concentrating that power into your fist. Then, boom! You punch through this whole thing!"

She twirled her fist childishly. It was unusual to see her in this state. Surprisingly cute.

Ren closed his eyes, trying to follow the instructions. Yes, something did move inside him, a swirling heat beneath his skin. A tremor ran down his arm, and he felt a searing pressure building behind his knuckles. He extended his hand to prepare for the blast he would cause for the first time of his own accord, but... nothing happened.

"I did everything you said. So why?"

"Maybe it's too much for you at once. Not everyone can be a born talent."

The girl smiled smugly as she began to push Ren by the shoulder. He was now facing the trunk of a small green tree. A significantly smaller circle was drawn on the rough bark, where thick moss grew here and there.

Lily plopped down on the grass a few meters away to quietly observe and give him advice.

Ren sank next to her, exhausted. Failure after failure. "This is impossible! It must be easy to be a Prophet. I bet everything was handed to you."

Ren instantly regretted his words. He saw Lily’s smile falter for just a second, a flicker of pain in her eyes, before it was gone. He tried to backtrack but felt he would only make the situation worse.

She quickly hid her pained expression, putting on a new one like a mask. She smiled and nodded, but the mask was too empty to be believable.

"I'm so sorry. I'm here if you want to talk about it."

"Why would I want to tell you anything?"

She was still smiling. Her white teeth flashed more sincerely now, but it still sent a chill down Ren's spine. He had never seen her like this. He was used to this kind of self-containment from Zel, but with Lily, it was different. She didn't even try to connect. The residents’ mentality at Ivory Concord Castle stood in stark contrast to Haku, who was raised in Ebony Vow and longed for a connection. He realized with a jolt that she walked her own path, and there was no room for anyone else in it. He could see she was too kind to say this to everyone's face, a terrible contradiction that seemed to define her.