Gilded Ashes-Chapter 283: Still Alive

The woman’s hand paused over a leaf. She looked at Enya fully now, the brim of the hat lifting just enough for sunlight to catch her bright emerald eyes.

"Did you?" she said, still gentle.

Enya nodded so hard her curls bounced. "Yes! And it was insane! It was all fog, rain and screaming, and everyone had beasts and the beasts were all weird – nothing like I saw at the Academy! One of them was like a bear with scales and these huge bees and wolves with too many extra eyes - and nobody was panicking, everybody was moving and shouting and it was so loud and-"

She stopped, cheeks puffing as she ran out of breath. Then she continued immediately.

"...But I did it right. I did it exactly like you said."

The woman’s fingers returned to the plant she tended. She pinched a dead petal and set it aside. "Tell me"

Enya’s hands started moving as she spoke, acting out the steps.

"Ok, so first" Enya said, serious now, like she was reciting something sacred, "I watched everything for a few minutes. I didn’t jump in like an idiot. I looked where the Nyxes were, where the tamers were, who could get hurt first."

The woman nodded once, approving.

"So I made platforms." Enya leaned forward, eyes bright. "Like - proper ones. Not little stumps. I pushed trunks up from the ground and locked them in place so the tamers went higher, and the beasts could fight without the people getting ripped apart. And I did it fast. Fast-fast."

"You protected the weak point" the woman said softly. "Good"

"Yeah!" Enya said, pleased. "And then I went in. I didn’t stand still like a stupid pillar. I moved with it. Because if you stand still, you get caught. You told me that."

The woman’s lips twitched. "I did."

Enya smiled and leaned back on her hands, reliving it. "And then I went wild."

Her voice got dreamy for a moment.

"I made vines so thick I could run on them. I swung from one to another. I threw seeds and grew them immediately. I made vines whip and snap and crack the air, and when a Nyx tried to jump, I just... Shoved a trunk up and speared it. It was SOO satisfying! Like -" Enya mimed a brutal upward thrust with both hands.

The woman’s expression didn’t flinch. She listened like she’d heard battle reports before. Like she knew what Nyxes were capable of, but also knew what kids were capable of. Like she understood that Enya needed to talk it out.

Enya’s eyes shone with pride.

"And everyone just watched" she said, quieter now. "They were all staring. Even the commanders. Like they didn’t know what to do. I didn’t care. I just kept going. I cleared a whole area, all by myself! The fog even moved away. Like it couldn’t keep up."

The woman’s gaze softened. "You used your space."

Enya nodded hard. "Yes! Hehe, it became my own battlefield, not theirs. You taught me that, too, remember?"

For a few breaths, she proudly smiled to herself. Then her expression twisted.

"And then" Enya said, and the word came out a note sadder, "a big one showed up."

The woman’s hand stilled again.

Enya frowned so deeply her nose scrunched. "Not like the animal ones. This one moved weirdly. Like it was thinking. It had an arm that... Just changed, can you believe that?"

Enya held up her own arm and curled her fingers, mimicking the Nyx’s shifting darkness.

"It pointed at me, and of course, I had no idea what it was about to do!"

Her voice dropped, almost resentful. "And it literally shot something!"

The woman’s eyes narrowed slightly, the first sign of anything close to tension.

Enya sat up straighter, anger warming her cheeks. "It went through my vines" she said offended. "It didn’t break them. It didn’t burn them. It didn’t get slowed. It just... Went through. Like they weren’t even there in the first place!"

Enya clenched her fists. "That’s not fair! That’s not how stuff are supposed to work. I had literal walls. Thick ones. I had layers. And-"

The woman exhaled slowly through her nose, then reached out and brushed Enya’s curls away from her face, calming her without words.

"I know, I know..." she said.

Enya glared at the garden like she wanted to punch a flower. "There was literally nothing I could do. It just exploded. It was like... Darkness, but it hit like a bomb."

Her voice rose. "And it hit me in the chest! Like it was aiming for it!"

The woman’s hand stayed at Enya’s head, steady. Her other hand continued to take care of leaves gently.

"Yeah..." she sighed, like an annoying memory resurfaced. "They’re really annoying to deal with sometimes."

Enya blinked. Her anger felt like it paused mid-manifestation.

"Sometimes?" Enya echoed, eyes widening. "You had to fight them too?"

The woman’s hand stopped, like she was considering. Enya leaned forward, suddenly hungry for more answers. "...In your time with the Phalanx?"

The woman’s smile didn’t disappear, but something about it shifted. It tightened at the edges. Like the memory carried weight. Enya didn’t notice right away. She was too excited, too focused on the idea that her mom understood this. That she’d been there.

"You fought stuff like those" Enya insisted, like she was confirming a story she always wanted to be real.

The woman’s gaze dipped to the blanket of tiny flowers under them.

"Yes" she said quietly.

Enya’s grin returned in a rush. "So you get it! You get why it was so stupid! The projectile - it shouldn’t have-" 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

She cut herself off. Because the woman’s expression changed again. Not sadness. Not quite. Something smaller. Something she tried to hide.

Enya tilted her head. Then her voice softened.

"You remember them, from when you were..." she started.

The words came a lot slower now, like she suddenly felt the dark shape of them.

"...Still alive?"