(Lián Xinyue POV)
The dawn was reluctant, spilling pale light over the courtyard like molten silver. Mist clung to the stones, curling between her ankles as she moved with careful precision. Her palms still tingled faintly from yesterday's training, the fire within her restless, whispering, aching for release.
Kaien was already there. Sword sheathed, stance relaxed but alert, eyes scanning the mist as though he could see beyond it, into the Hollow itself. Her chest tightened at the sight. She wanted to tell him how close she had come to panic, how the shadows had brushed her mind in the night. But the words died in her throat.
"You came early," he said, voice low and even. Not a greeting, an observation.
"I couldn't sleep," she admitted, gripping her staff tighter. "The flames… they kept calling."
Kaien's eyes flickered, storm-gray meeting hers with an intensity that made her pulse stutter. "Do they call only for you?" he asked quietly, almost to himself.
She hesitated. There was something in his gaze, a tether of unspoken understanding. "No," she murmured. "They answered yesterday, too… through you."
He didn't respond immediately. His lips pressed into a thin line as he studied her, the faintest flicker of something like regret shadowing his features. Then he stepped closer, and the warmth radiating from him brushed her skin like sunlight spilling through smoke.
"Again," he said. The single word carried command, encouragement, and caution all at once.
She lifted her staff, raising it into position. The Hollow stirred at the edge of her awareness, a whispering silk of darkness that lingered at the corner of her vision. It wasn't threatening yet. Not entirely. But it hummed with possibility, curious and patient, like it had been waiting for this precise moment.
Kaien's gaze caught hers. "Focus," he murmured, stepping into her peripheral vision without closing the distance. His presence grounded her. Anchored her. It wasn't magic, not really. It was something sharper, more dangerous, human.
The staff moved. Flames curled along its length, responding to her intent. Each strike, each pivot, became a wordless conversation between her and the fire. She felt the Hollow probe, testing, measuring. But she also felt Kaien, a counterweight of steadiness beneath her trembling energy.
"You're holding back," he said, circling her like a shadow that breathed, careful, precise. "Not because you can't, because you're afraid of me."
Her pulse kicked, sharp and irregular. "I'm not," she said, but the lie hung between them, fragile and warm.
His eyes softened, just slightly. "Fear doesn't make you weak. It makes you human. But don't let it bend your flame."
Her next strike was cleaner, surer. She could feel the pulse of him behind it, subtle and persistent, like a tether threading through the mist. He intercepted her staff with the flat of his blade, steel humming against her fire. The clash sent a ripple of heat that pressed against her chest.
"Better," he murmured. "But not enough."
Her lips parted, words slipping out despite herself. "Am I ever enough for you?"
Kaien froze mid-step, the faintest hitch in his breath betraying him. Then he shook his head slowly. "You misunderstand. I don't measure worth that way."
The mist thickened, curling between them. Something beyond the morning light moved, an echo, a flicker, a pulse that wasn't their own. The Hollow, lingering, testing.
Kaien's hand brushed hers, not on purpose, not fully. But enough that the warmth pressed through her bones, grounding her trembling pulse. "It's closer," he murmured. "Can you feel it?"
She did. The fire responded in kind, licking her skin with delicate tendrils that didn't burn, but vibrated with urgency. Her chest tightened. "Yes," she whispered. "It wants—"
"Don't finish that thought," he said, storm-gray eyes sharp. "It wants to provoke fear. It wants hesitation."
Her gaze fell, caught on the way his fingers flexed as if resisting the same invisible pull. She realized then, the Hollow wasn't just testing her fire. It was testing the space between them, the fragile thread of trust that had grown over days, over moments, over silence.
"Then we'll outlast it," she said softly. "Together."
He didn't smile, but something like relief softened his jaw. "Yes," he whispered, almost inaudible, but it carried across the mist like a promise.
The sun rose higher, spilling molten light across the stones. Shadows stretched and recoiled as if breathing, a subtle reminder that they were not alone. She moved, staff cutting through the air, flames responding with devotion, not chaos. Kaien mirrored her movements, a shadow of control beside her. Their rhythm was uneven, fragile, but growing stronger with every heartbeat.
She faltered. A surge of the Hollow pressed against her mind, dark, silky, insistent. Kaien caught her wrist instinctively, grounding her, heat radiating from his palm, steady and tethering. She felt the pulse of him in a way that had nothing to do with flame, and it steadied her trembling heart.
"Stay with me," he murmured.
The words wrapped around her like a shield. She didn't know if it was him, or the fire, or the tether of both, but for the first time in days, she felt less like prey and more like a force in her own right.
Her staff arced through the air, a perfect strike, and the Hollow recoiled, hissing in frustration. She gasped, chest heaving, and Kaien didn't move away. Instead, his storm-gray eyes held hers, steady and grounding, anchoring the chaotic pulse of magic inside her.
"You're stronger than you think," he said.
She let the staff drop slightly, overwhelmed by the intimacy of proximity, by the fire coiling inside her, by the tether they hadn't yet named. "I feel it," she admitted. "And I'm scared."
He stepped closer, so close that she could feel the warmth radiating from his cloak, the faint pulse of energy in his presence. "Good," he said. "Fear keeps you sharp. But you are not alone in it. Not ever."
For a fleeting second, the mist around them parted, revealing the first golden beams of the sun. They illuminated the glint of silver across her wrist, the faint mark left by their first shared flame. It pulsed, quiet, alive. A reminder that her power was hers, but her tether to him was now undeniable.
She met his gaze fully. For a moment, time narrowed to mist, sunlight, and the quiet embers of something unspoken between them.
And the Hollow stirred. But it didn't press. Not yet.
Kaien stepped back, voice low and commanding: "Rest now. We begin again at first light tomorrow."
She wanted to argue, to insist she could go further, that she could face the Hollow alone. But she didn't. She only nodded, feeling the weight of his watchfulness linger longer than it should.
And as he disappeared into the mist, she realized something she had tried to deny: the Hollow wasn't the only danger in the courtyard. There was something human, just as fierce, just as unyielding, testing the boundaries of fire and control, and her heart, unwittingly, belonged to it.