The Witch's Heart and The Mortal's Light(GL)

The moon rose blood bright, Really Blood Bright.

It hung heavy above the Dreadwood like an omen, too full, too red, like it remembered every promise ever broken in its very bright light.

Inside the fox bone cottage, Morgwyn stood at the window in silence. Her fingers twitched against the glass. She hadn't spoken in hours.

Elara watched her from the hearth. The silence wasn't fear. It was calculation — and something deeper.

Regret.

"She's coming, isn't she?" Elara asked softly.

Morgwyn didn't turn. "Yes."

Elara tightened her cloak. "Then we face her."

"No." Morgwyn's voice cracked the air. "I will face her."

"You think I'll just sit here while she tries to burn down everything we've built?"

"We haven't built anything—"

"Yes, we have!" Elara stood. "You let me in. You taught me. You stayed."

Morgwyn turned, something fierce behind her eyes. "That doesn't mean I want you in her crosshairs. Emberwyne's not like the Dominion. She's personal."

"I'm not leaving you."

"…You sound like her," Morgwyn whispered.

Elara blinked. "What?"

"She said that too. The first time I tried to protect her by pushing her away." Her voice turned bitter. "She died anyway."

They stepped outside just as the wind changed.

A flare of orange gold fire split the horizon. It licked across the trees in a perfect line — not burning them, just marking them. A warning. A gate.

Fen growled from the shadows. "She's drawing a fire-circle. Ancient witch duel law."

Elara looked up at Morgwyn. "You have to fight her?"

"She's challenging me. If I don't answer, the fire will spread. It'll call creatures far worse than her."

Morgwyn stepped toward the edge of the flames.

"Wait," Elara said, grabbing her wrist. "I saw something in Vel Ashen. I saw you, Morgwyn. Whole. Unbroken. Before everything fell."

Morgwyn looked away. "That witch is gone."

"No, she isn't. She's just buried under the ashes."

Then the fire opened like a curtain.

And Cressid Emberwyne walked through.

She was beautiful in the way comets are — destructive, dazzling, a danger you couldn't look away from. Flames rippled from her cloak like living snakes. Her red-gold hair coiled down her back in braids tipped with embers. And her eyes — molten, gleaming, locked on Morgwyn like a long-lost god returning for judgment.

"Morgwyn of Vel Ashen," she purred. "My star. My storm."

"Cressid," Morgwyn said, steady. "Turn around."

Cressid laughed — not cruelly, but intimately. Like this was a reunion, not a battle.

"I gave you time. Years. I waited while you played shadow and silence. Now the world wakes, and you're still hiding."

"I'm at peace."

"You're wasting power."

"I made my choice."

Cressid's smile twisted. "Then I'll make mine."

She raised a hand.

Flames erupted.

Morgwyn leapt back, conjuring a shield of obsidian mist that swallowed the fire. Sparks rained down like dying stars. Fen barked — warning or alarm, it was hard to tell.

Cressid advanced, her hair rising in a corona of living heat.

"I admired you," she hissed. "Even when the others feared you. You taught me to become fire. But now you wear ashes like a shroud. You let a mortal girl speak in your stead."

Elara stepped forward. "Say what you want, but Morgwyn didn't run. She chose to heal. That's not weakness."

Cressid tilted her head, noticing Elara for the first time.

"Well then," she purred, "let's test your conviction."

She threw a sigil — a crimson spiral of fire shaped like a serpent.

Morgwyn moved faster.

She didn't block it — she redirected it. The spell bent, curved, and slammed into a nearby tree, splitting it in half.

"You....Stay out of this!" she shouted at Elara.

"No, I won't."

Cressid circled.

"I see it now," she murmured. "The tether between you. The mortal girl has your heart."

Morgwyn's hands clenched.

"Don't speak of things you don't understand."

"Oh, but I do, Morgwyn." Cressid's voice turned savage. "You taught me how to read hearts. And hers shines like yours once did."

"She is not a weapon!"

"She could be."

"She is not like us!"

"She is exactly like us. Afraid. Buried. Starving for more."

Elara stepped between them.

She felt something awaken in her chest — a warmth that wasn't just heat. It was memory. Purpose. The bloodline of Wynn. The mark of the Oracle.

The fire recognized it.

So did Cressid.

"…You're her kin," she whispered. "The gold-star girl. The light-bearer."

Elara nodded. "And I'm not afraid of you."

Cressid's smile returned. "Good. Then survive this."

She drew her hands together, and flames leapt skyward — not as a weapon, but a sigil, ancient and spinning.

Morgwyn roared, "NO—!"

But it was too late.

The Sigil of the Severed Star burned into the sky.

The forest cracked.

Reality shuddered.

And from the fire, something emerged.

A creature of smoke and glass, with many arms and no face. It screamed with ten mouths, none its own. A Dominion experimental spirit — bound in silence, fed by trauma.

Cressid stepped back, admiring her work.

"You want to protect the girl? Then do it."

She vanished in a flame-warp — not retreating, but watching from afar.

Elara faced the spirit.

It moved with chaos — shattering trees with a swipe, pulling echoes from the air and crushing them.

"Elara!" Morgwyn shouted. "Run!"

But Elara did not run.

She lifted the mirrored flute.

And played.

The sound wasn't music.

It was memory.

It was hope.

It was Vel Ashen's sorrow, made song.

The spirit reeled, shrieking.

Elara stepped forward.

The crystal shard in her pocket burned.

She held it out.

"You don't belong to her," she said. "You don't belong to anyone."

The creature slowed.

Flickered.

And for a moment — just a blink — it bowed.

Then shattered into sparks.

Silence fell.

Morgwyn approached slowly, her eyes unreadable.

"You—"

"I didn't fight it," Elara whispered. "I understood it."

Morgwyn's voice was low. "You did what I couldn't."

Fen stepped beside them. "She's gone. Emberwyne fled. But she'll return."

Elara nodded. "Let her."

END OF CHAPTER 9