Ruby woke to the smell of ash.
For a long time she didn’t open her eyes.
The ground beneath her felt cold and damp, and every part of her body ached in a deep, heavy way that reminded her of the worst flu she had ever endured in her old life. Not the mild kind that made you groan and drink soup for a day or two, but the kind that hollowed you out completely, where even lifting your head from the pillow felt like climbing a mountain.
Her muscles refused to move.
Even breathing felt like lifting something heavy.
Her chest rose slowly, painfully, like each breath had to be dragged up from somewhere deep inside her ribs.
Her head throbbed.
Not sharp pain.
A slow, crushing pressure that pulsed behind her eyes.
Something inside her chest felt hollow, scraped clean, as if someone had reached into her body and scooped something vital out with a spoon.
Mana depletion.
The books had warned about it.
Though they had described it politely.
Fatigue.
Lethargy.
Emotional instability.
They had not described this.
Ruby forced her eyes open.
The forest was blurry.
Gray smoke drifted zily through the trees, curling around bckened trunks where the fire had burned through the clearing. Patches of grass still smoldered softly, glowing red beneath thin yers of ash like dying embers in a hearth.
The air tasted bitter.
Burned pine.
Charred earth.
Something else too.
Something heavier.
She tried to sit up.
Her arms trembled violently the moment she pushed against the ground.
The effort sent a wave of dizziness crashing through her skull.
Ruby colpsed back onto the forest floor with a weak gasp.
Her breath hitched.
And then the memories came back.
The lions.
Her father.
The fire.
Her stomach twisted so hard she thought she might be sick.
“No…”
Her voice came out hoarse and fragile.
Ruby pushed herself up again, slower this time.
Her entire body screamed in protest.
It felt like every muscle had been wrung dry.
She rolled onto her side.
The clearing looked like something out of a nightmare.
Bckened earth.
Burned grass.
Trees scorched dark along one side where the bst had struck them.
The deer was gone.
Not even bones remained.
Just a dark stain on the dirt where something had once existed.
Ruby’s heart began to race.
“Dad?”
Her voice cracked.
No answer.
The word echoed weakly across the ruined clearing.
Ruby’s hands began to shake.
“Dad?”
Still nothing.
Her breathing sped up.
Her mind began filling the silence with images she didn’t want.
Darius burning.
Darius screaming.
Darius colpsing.
Her fault.
It was always her fault.
Emma had died.
The kids had died.
Now Darius too.
Ruby pressed her hands against her head.
“I ruin everything…”
The thought slid into her mind like a knife.
You kill everyone who loves you.
Her chest tightened painfully.
It would be easier if you were gone.
Ruby’s breathing turned shallow.
Her heart pounded erratically.
She felt hollow.
Empty.
Like something inside her had cracked open and let all the warmth leak out.
Maybe dying wouldn’t be so bad.
Maybe if she stopped fighting.
Maybe if she just y here—
Ruby blinked.
Wait.
The thought felt strange.
Wrong.
She frowned weakly.
Because that wasn’t her.
Ryan Anderson had been sad before.
Grief-stricken.
Heartbroken.
But he had never wanted to die.
Not even after the accident.
He had wanted answers.
Not escape.
Ruby’s brow furrowed.
The books.
The magic books.
Her mind struggled to focus through the fog.
There had been a passage.
Mana depletion does not merely exhaust the body. It also disrupts emotional equilibrium. The mind may experience sudden despair, irrational guilt, or intrusive thoughts that do not reflect the caster’s true feelings.
Ruby inhaled slowly.
“Oh…”
The crushing weight in her chest shifted slightly.
The thoughts still lingered.
But now she could see them.
Like dark clouds drifting across the sky instead of the sky itself.
Her magic had drained her so completely that her mind was misfiring.
Her guilt.
Her grief.
Her fear.
The mana backsh was twisting all of it together and feeding it back into her thoughts.
Ruby squeezed her eyes shut.
“That’s… not real.”
The words came out weak but determined.
The sadness was real.
The guilt was real.
But the voice telling her to give up wasn’t.
It was just magic exhaustion.
Just her subconscious screaming in panic.
Ruby y there breathing slowly until the worst of the pressure in her chest began to ease.
The world slowly sharpened around her.
The smoke thinned.
The trees stopped spinning.
Her arms still trembled when she pushed herself upright, but this time she managed it.
Ruby sat there in the burned clearing.
Ash clung to her clothes.
Her hands were bckened with soot.
Her chest still hurt.
But the dark spiral inside her mind had loosened its grip.
She looked down at her palms.
The skin was red and raw.
Tiny burns dotted her fingers.
“Too much mana,” she whispered.
Her voice sounded small in the quiet forest.
Then she remembered.
Her head snapped up.
“Dad.”
Fear surged through her chest again.
Ruby forced herself to stand.
Her legs wobbled like they barely remembered how walking worked.
But she took a step.
Then another.
She scanned the clearing.
Burned grass.
Charred branches.
A long bckened streak across the dirt where the fire had surged forward like a tidal wave of molten light.
Then she saw something lying near the edge of the clearing.
A shape.
Human shaped.
Ruby’s breath caught.
“Dad?”
Her legs carried her forward before her brain could stop them.
Every step felt heavy.
Every second stretched longer.
Please be alive.
Please.
Please.
She reached the edge of the clearing.
And dropped to her knees beside him.
Darius y on his back in the dirt.
His clothes were scorched bck in pces.
His beard was dusted with ash.
The sleeve of his shirt had burned away near the shoulder where the lion had bitten him.
His sword still y loosely in one hand.
But he wasn’t moving.
Ruby froze.
Her entire body went cold.
“No…”
Her voice cracked.
She leaned closer.
“Dad?”
Nothing.
Her stomach dropped into a pit of ice.
Her hands began to shake.
“No no no no…”
Ruby grabbed his shoulders gently.
“Dad!”
Still nothing.
Her vision blurred.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered desperately. “I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry…”
Tears spilled down her face.
She pressed her forehead against his chest.
“I didn’t mean to—”
Something moved.
Ruby froze.
A faint sound escaped his throat.
Then his chest rose.
Slow.
Shallow.
But unmistakable.
Breathing.
Ruby gasped.
A broken ugh escaped her throat.
“Oh thank God…”
More tears followed immediately.
Darius groaned faintly.
His eyes opened halfway.
They were unfocused at first.
Then they found her.
“Ruby…”
His voice sounded like gravel.
Confused.
“You… uh…”
He blinked slowly.
“Did you… do that?”
Ruby wiped her face quickly.
“I think so.”
Darius stared weakly at the charred clearing around them.
The burned earth.
The melted stones.
The massive bck shapes in the distance that had once been lions.
He let out a slow breath.
“…remind me not to make you angry.”
Ruby sniffed.
“I’m really sorry.”
Darius looked back at her.
For a long moment he didn’t say anything.
Then his expression softened.
“It’s okay,” he murmured.
“I’m quick at taking cover.”
His eyes drifted toward the charred corpse of the nearest lion.
“…though the sabre-tooth I hid behind seems to have had a rougher day than I did.”
A shaky ugh escaped Ruby despite herself.
Then the emotion she had been holding back broke.
Ruby colpsed forward and buried her face against his legs.
Great heaving sobs tore out of her chest.
Her shoulders shook violently.
Darius leaned back against the tree behind him, exhausted.
He lifted his good hand slowly and rested it on her soot-covered hair.
“Hey,” he said softly.
Ruby didn’t answer.
“You know I love you, right?”
Ruby nodded weakly against his leg.
“I know… Dad.”
Her voice cracked.
“I love you too.”
For a while neither of them moved.
The forest had grown quiet again.
Only the faint crackle of dying embers drifted through the clearing.
Finally Darius sighed.
“Alright,” he said gently.
“Let’s go home.”
