accidentally yours | claude de alger obelia

the fourth ridge

the marshlands were not friendly. not to travelers. not to knights. and definitely not to mira solwyn, who had already stepped into her fourth mud hole and was currently halfway through yelling about it.

"ugh! this place is cursed. haunted. i swear i heard a ghost whisper my name back there, kael."

"it was the wind," kael replied calmly, adjusting the sword strapped to his back.

"the wind doesn't whisper 'miraaa' in a creepy voice!"

"then it's a very dramatic wind."

mira turned, walking backward just to squint at him. "you think this is funny?"

"a little."

she let out a sharp, overexaggerated gasp and pointed a finger at him. "you're enjoying my suffering. that's evil, kael."

he didn't answer. just kept walking, boots crunching quietly against the fog-damp ground. his knight uniform still looked pristine somehow, while mira looked like a soggy towel.

they had been tracking evie's trail for hours. or rather, kael had, with mira occasionally spotting a snapped branch or clump of displaced moss and going, 'i helped!' to which kael never disagreed.

"they've gone deep," kael muttered, crouching beside a faint boot print half-sunken in the mud. "this direction leads toward the southern cave system."

"isn't that the dangerous part?"

"they're all dangerous parts."

"okay but-" she paused, teeth worrying her lip. "you think she's okay?"

kael straightened slowly. "she's evie. she's not easy to kill."

mira nodded, hugging her arms close. "i know, i just... it's been two whole days, plus she forgot her transporter (a magic device used to transfer from one point to another). and elias was trying not to cry when we left. maerin keeps muttering curses in three languages."

"we'll find her," kael said. "and the emperor."

"i still can't believe they disappeared together. in the middle of nowhere. like-what kind of weird romantic tragedy setup is that?"

"you think it's romantic?"

"no. yes. maybe? don't look at me like that."

kael didn't move. "i'm not."

mira shoved his arm anyway, then immediately winced. "ow. stupid muscle."

they trudged on in silence for a bit, the fog getting thicker the deeper they went. birds didn't sing here. trees creaked like bones. the whole place felt... still.

"so," mira said, voice quieter, "if they're together... do you think they're-like-together together?"

kael blinked at her slowly.

"what?" she defended. "don't act like you're not curious. they're stuck in a cave. isolated. evie's, you know, evie. and the emperor is all mysterious and scary-hot."

"i don't think about that."

"you so do."

"mira."

"fine, fine. i'm just saying-if they end up kissing, i'm demanding an explanation. preferably detailed."

kael sighed. but for the first time since they entered the marsh, his lips twitched-just barely.

mira grinned. "you're smiling."

"no, i'm not."

"yes, you are."

they didn't say anything after that. just kept walking-deeper into the mist, where the trees grew strange and the cave systems whispered of magic long buried.