Once Betrayed Never Forgotten

Chapter 88: Through the Firewraiths‘ Domain

The horizon bleeds with a blood–red sunrise as we prepare to leave. Bloodbane tells me we can reach the Blood Scribe’s sanctuary atop the Black Mountain by sundown if we make good time. “But it won’t be without its dangers,” he warns, his eyes scanning the horizon. “We’re about to ender territory of the Firewraiths.”

1 nod, absorbing his words. “Let me guess. They’re creatures like you, but with fire instead of blood coursing through their veins?”

“Creatures like us,” he corrects me, reminding me once again that I’m no longer quite human. They are wild, sadistic, and utterly merciless. The Firewraith tribes don’t build homes; they roam, nomadic and ruthless, hunting each other and anything else foolish enough to enter their territory.”

“Like us,” I say grimly, and he agrees with a somber nod.

We set off, transforming into our red mist forms, drifting over the scorching landscape below. The sensation of traveling as a cloud of red mist is nothing short of miraculous. I’ve been doing this for hours on end for the past few weeks, but I’m still getting used to it. It feels trippy, almost euphoric, as if I am both everywhere and nowhere at once, weightless and free. The speed is exhilarating–faster than any car I’ve ever driven. Over the past few weeks, we’ve covered unimaginable distances, and Bloodbane has taught me that the trick to faster travel is to streamline the mist, pointed at the front to cut through the air like an arrow.

I can feel myself spread out, about five feet wide, the air rushing past, the scenery a blur below. Bloodbanes caution about not spreading too thin echoes in my mind. “Keep control,” he had said. “A dense, thick cloud of blood mist, moving as one. Losing cohesion would mean my thoughts scattering, my form possibly dissipating into nothingness. Despite the inherent danger, the thrill of moving this way is intoxicating

Even if I could turn back into a human, I don’t really think I’d want to. The first few days after my transformation into a Bloodwaith, while I was still terrified by the sudden life changing metamorphosis, I’d wondered if perhaps I should ask the Blood Scribe to change me back into a human when we reached her. If she’s as powerful as Bloodbane says she is, that sounds like something she’d be able to do. But now, I’m not so sure I want that. I like my new form, my newfound power. It’s addictive.

As we advance, the fiery lakes and rivers of molten rock gradually give way to a landscape dusted with gray ash. Scorched earth, the blackened remains of what might once have been a forest, and occasional outcrops of black granite punctuate our path. It’s a stark, devastated world, eerily silent but for the whisper of our crimson mist forms cutting through the hot air.

Bloodbane shifts into his solid form upon a large rock dusted with a coat of fine grey ash, and I follow suit, condensing back into my physical body. The ash flies up into the air all around us as we solidify and materialise.

Bloodbane’s face is wearing an expression of grave concern, and he’s serious now, his voice barely above a whisper. “We are in their territory now. They’ve been here recently; there was a battle.”

“How can you tell?” I ask, looking around the desolate landscape.

He points to the ground, to markings and disturbances in the ash that I wouldn’t have noticed without his guidance. “See here, and here–this was a fierce fight, one side was clearly overpowered.”

“Where are all the bodies?” My voice is a whisper, too, partly out of respect for the fallen, partly in fear that the winning side might still be someone

nearby.

“They burn their dead, including their enemies,” he explains. “What you’re standing on, this ash, it’s not just from the trees.”

I shiver, looking down at the gray dust. A battlefield beneath my feet. Bloodbane’s keen eyes then catch tracks leading away from the battle site. The victors took captives, split into groups here.” He points where the footprints scatter in various directions, then disappear. “They shifted to their fire forms here–wisps of living flame, streaking across the sky like comets.”

We set off again, hoping we’re not headed in the same direction as any of the Firewraith groups. As we travel, my mind races with thoughts of the upcoming encounter with the Blood Scribe, and the possibilities of learning more about my powers and potentially finding a way back to my own realm. back to Aleksandr.

But first, we must navigate this perilous terrain, avoid the Firewraiths, and reach the sanctuary. Every step takes us deeper into their land, every shadow could hide a fiery loc, and every gust of wind might carry the echo of their fiery passage. The weight of my newfound abilities, the exhilaration of flight, the sobering reality of the Firewraiths‘ brutality–it all melds into a sharp focus on survival and the desperate quest for safety and knowledge.

“Keep close,” Bloodbane advises as we resume our mist forms, swirling upwards into the blood–red sky. “And remember, we are as much hunters as we are hunted.”

Chapter 88. Through the Firewraiths Domain

As we ascend, the landscape shifts below us, a brutal tapestry of destruction and sunvtal.

Bloodbane and I glide silently over the desolate landscape, our forms mere wisps of red mist. The terrain below is a harsh out of legged rocky outcrops and deep crevasses, scorched by centuries of fire and conflict. As we pass a relatively Babarren stretch. I feel the oppressive heat ever through my ethereal form.

We soon re–enter an area dense with rocky shelters, navigating with precision toward the direction Bloodbane has set. My docus ahead, until I spot three humanoid figures encased in flames in the rear distance. “Firewraiths,” I think to myself feeling a surge our safe distance.

Bloodbane, maintaining his mist form, silently veers off, leading us away from the trio. I follow closely, trusting another group appears, larger, with at least five or six fiery figures. They re still a distance away, but our options we must move forward, threading between these two groups through the narrow passages between the crevasse

entirely on the path

Bloodbane communicates nothing, but I sense his intention to stay as far from both groups as possible. We push through the ances firm shifting swiftly through the natural mazes of rock..

As we near about twenty feet from the smaller group, a snippet of conversation catches my attention. My form hata mi

A younger male voice asks, “Should we stop them?”

An older, gruffer voice responds, “No, let them have their fun. She’ll be dead soon anyway.”

“But she’s a priestess, a servant of the Blood Scribe, the younger voice says. “If the Blood Scribe hears about-

The older voice cuts him off. “All the more reason to put the miserable bitch out of her misery. She’s a traitor against our kind, serving thus canad bloodwraith. Let the warriors have their fun.”

Rage bubbles inside me as their words echo through the crevasses. The scene painfully reminds me of my narrowly avoided gang rape at the hands of a bunch of frat boys back in California. Only Aleksandr’s timely arrival saved me. Now, someone else needs that chance, that intervention

Bloodbane pauses too, likely sensing my sudden stop. He waits, a silent shadow in the red mist, perhaps puzzled by my reaction.

I can’t just leave. The memory of my own terror, the helplessness, fuels me. Deciding in an instant, I burst from the cover of the crevasse, mcing towards the direction of the larger group where the priestess is reportedly in danger. My form stretches and speeds through the air, pushed by newfound resolve and the desperate need to intervene.

As I dart across the open, the landscape blurs below me, a streak of red against the charred black earth. The wind roars in my ears, my heart pounds with a fierce purpose. I’m a bullet shot from a gun, a comet blazing across the night sky.

I’m sure Bloodbane is freaking out and wondering what the hell I’m doing, but I have no choice. I have to save her.

The last time I was in this situation, I was the victim. It’s about time for me to take another role.

This time. I will be the saviour.

Chapter Comments

EJ

oh lord! I hope it’s not a trap