A Debt Unwanted

They spent the next stretch of time moving deeper through Hearth Forest, cutting down whatever stragglers remained. Thankfully, none came close to the size of the beast Sam had killed earlier. If something like that had reached Boisclair, Gavin doubted the wooden stakes around the village would have done much to stop it.

The farther they went, however, the harder it became for him to keep pace.

His legs felt heavier with every step, and each breath seemed to take more effort than the last. The miasma had grown so dense that it clung to the air around them, turning the forest ahead into little more than purple-black silhouettes.

“You can head back, you know,” Sam said without turning around. She continued forward as though the miasma surrounding them were nothing more than fog. “I can handle the rest. Stay in here much longer and you’re only going to make yourself sick.”

“N-No. I’m fine.”

Gavin immediately caught his boot against a root and stumbled forward.

Sam glanced back at him.

He straightened. “Still fine.”

She didn’t bother arguing.

The Miasma Rift split through the earth ahead of them, a jagged opening several meters across whose bottom disappeared into darkness. Miasma poured from it in thick waves, far more than Gavin remembered ever seeing here.

Gavin knew he shouldn’t remain this close for long, but he had never left Sam alone while she purified a rift. He wasn’t about to start now.

Sam stopped near the edge and planted her feet, raising one hand toward the haze.

Neither of them spoke.

A moment later, the air shifted.

Gavin’s cloak stirred behind him as the miasma began to move. Thin streams peeled away from the trees and ground, curling toward Sam’s outstretched palm. More followed until the entire forest seemed to breathe inward.

Purple and black spiraled around her before gathering into a dense sphere suspended in front of her hand.

The wind strengthened as the mist receded.

Trees that had been hidden moments ago slowly emerged from the haze, then the ground beneath them. The sphere continued to swell, growing larger and darker as Sam pulled more of the corruption into one place.

Gavin’s expression tightened.

There was too much.

Sam shifted one foot back as if bracing against the weight of it. Her arm trembled, but she kept pulling until the last traces of miasma disappeared from the surrounding forest.

For the first time since entering the deeper woods, Gavin could breathe without his chest burning.

Sam closed her fingers around the condensed mass.

The sphere collapsed inward.

Miasma rushed into her body.

Gavin took a step forward before stopping himself. It had been a long time since he’d watched Sam purify a rift, but even his clearest memories of those days didn’t come close to this. The amount gathered before her dwarfed anything he remembered seeing her absorb.

Sam staggered.

“Sam—”

Her arm shot out, stopping him from coming any closer.

She steadied herself, clenched her hand into a fist, and drove it toward the ground.

The air changed again.

“Sacred Genesis.”

White light erupted from her body.

It raced across the earth in a widening pulse, washing through the trees and sinking into the soil. Wherever it passed, the dull grass brightened, leaves regained their color, and small flowers pushed through ground that moments earlier had been smothered beneath miasma.

Gavin had seen it before.

It never became less extraordinary.

The light reached the rift and spilled down into its depths until even the miasma rising from below thinned to almost nothing.

Then Sam’s knees gave out.

Gavin was beside her before she hit the ground, catching her weight against his chest.

The forest had changed completely around them. What had been buried beneath purple-black haze was green again, the trees visible beneath a clear sky and the air easier to breathe.

Sam could cleanse the miasma that had escaped and restore what it damaged, but she couldn’t erase the source itself. Eventually, more would rise from below.

Gavin only hoped it wouldn’t return this badly.

He looked down at Sam. Her breathing was steady, though exhaustion had already pulled her unconscious in his arms.

A faint smile touched his face.

“Good work.”

He adjusted her carefully against him and began the walk back toward Boisclair.

~~~

A familiar smell pulled Sam out of sleep.

Her eyes opened slowly, adjusting to the dim interior as the scent of herbs and cream drifted through the room. Her stomach reacted before the rest of her did, tightening hard enough that she almost groaned.

She knew that smell.

Sam pushed herself upright and looked around. Pots and pans hung above the modest kitchen, and an older woman stood near the hearth in a long dress, her white hair tied neatly into a bun.

Madam Fleur.

The house looked almost exactly as Sam remembered it, only more worn around the edges.

“You’re finally awake.”

Gavin sat in a chair beside the bed, looking far too amused with himself.

“Madam Fleur was kind enough to let you rest here. She even made something for you.” His grin widened. “Your stomach wouldn’t stop complaining.”

Sam felt her mouth pull into an embarrassed grimace and quickly turned away before Gavin had the chance to notice.

Gavin chuckled.

Sam ignored him and glanced toward the window. “What about the miasma?”

“Gone for now.” His expression settled. “It’ll probably start building again eventually, but whether it spreads that badly a second time…” He shrugged. “Hard to say. The village should be safe for the moment.”

Sam’s fingers loosened around the blanket.

She hadn’t realized how tightly she had been holding it.

Knowing the miasma had receded eased some of the tension that had followed Sam since entering Boisclair.

“We’re fortunate you both arrived when you did,” Madam Fleur mentioned.

She turned from the hearth carrying a pot, and Sam immediately recognized the creamy soup inside. Madam Fleur used to make it whenever they passed through the village.

“The miasma kept spreading, and the beasts were getting closer every day,” the older woman continued as she set the pot on the table and reached for two bowls. “Eventually, some of them made it right to the village. We weren’t sure what else we could do.”

“You never requested help?” Gavin asked.

“Our village chief left several days ago for Naveia to ask the lord for assistance, but once the miasma spread this far…” Madam Fleur shook her head. “I imagine getting anyone back through the forest became difficult.”

Her gaze shifted toward Sam, and a smile softened her face.

“Seems the two of you were the only ones foolish enough to come through anyway.”

Madam Fleur chuckled before ladling soup into the bowls.

“Now come eat. And I still haven’t properly thanked either of you for saving Glenn.”

The smell hit Sam again.

Her stomach tightened painfully.

For one brief moment, all she wanted to do was sit down, take the bowl, and eat until there was nothing left.

Instead, she clenched her jaw and pushed the blankets aside.

Sam gathered her things and headed for the door.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Gavin asked, and the edge in his voice was enough to make Sam stop. She didn’t need to look at him to know he wasn’t pleased.

“There’s no need.”

She kept her back to them.

“We did what we came here to do. I’m not staying around just so someone can repay me for it.”

The room fell quiet behind her.

Sam pulled her hood up.

Kindness didn’t mean much to Sam anymore. She had learned how quickly people could turn on you, no matter what they had done or said before. A warm meal wasn’t enough to make her forget that.

She opened the door and stepped outside without another word.