The Echo of Fire

At the edge of the Ashvine forest at twilight, where shadows stretched long, The waste was even more chaotic with remnants of heat from the fire, long passed. Charred wood contrasted with touches of green nosing its way up through the black soot.

Mina crouched near a gnarled root, brushing ash off a tiny sprout. The orb held gently in her other palm, flickering faintly.

“Do you think the fire still remembers burning this?” she asked.

Lyra straightened from where she was scanning the forest line. “The fire’s gone, Mina. It doesn’t think or remember.”

“But it left something behind,” Mina murmured, stroking the sprout with her finger. The orb pulsed faintly, catching Lyra’s eye.

“Sometimes,” Lyra said carefully, “what’s left behind is worse than the fire itself.” She crouched next to Mina, brushing her fingers through the ash. “Fear, anger… they don’t burn out so easily.”

Mina hesitated. “The orb gets quiet when I’m scared. Like it’s waiting for me to figure things out, but… what if I can’t?”

Lyra’s tone sharpened. “You can.”

The orb brightened slightly in Mina’s hand, and she looked up at Lyra, startled. “How do you know?”

Lyra met her gaze, her voice softer now. “Because you’re still here, aren’t you? That’s what matters.”

Mina clutched the orb tighter, her brows furrowed. “Sometimes I feel like it’s trying to tell me something, but I don’t understand. What if it’s scared too?”

The air between them grew heavier, the distant chirping of crickets underscoring the silence.

Lyra glanced at the orb, then back at Mina. “Fear can twist things,” she said quietly. “It can make you see what you’re afraid of, even when it isn’t real.”

Mina stared at the orb, her voice barely above a whisper. “So… it’s like a mirror?”

Lyra blinked, caught off guard by the simplicity of the thought. She nodded. “Yeah. Something like that, but it sort of distorts things and hides things.”

For a moment, the orb’s light steadied, and Mina’s grip on it relaxed.

Lyra reached out, her hand brushing against Mina’s. “You don’t have to figure it all out right now. Just keep asking questions.”

Mina looked up at her, and for the first time, there was something like trust in her eyes. “Okay,” she said.