She who sees

The world felt wrong the morning after.
Snow had fallen in the night, not heavy enough to blanket the town in white, but just enough to dust the pavements and rooftops with frost. It sparkled faintly in the weak December sun, beautiful but brittle, as though the whole world might shatter if touched too roughly. Aisha watched her breath puff into the air as she hurried toward school, the cold sharp in her lungs.

It should have been an ordinary day. Kids trudged ahead of her, laughing, their scarves flying behind them, chattering about Christmas holidays and presents. A teacher passed carrying a cardboard box stuffed with paper chains made by younger students. Someone's muffled radio played a Christmas song, the sound tinny but cheerful.

How was it December so soon? It felt like Autumn had gone by in a daze.

None of it felt real. Not after last night.

The memory of the figure in the garden haunted her every step. The hand, raised and beckoning. The glow of her pendant. Ruby's voice on the wind. And most of all, the feeling that something vast and ancient had shifted and now the ground beneath her feet was no longer steady.
Her fingers slipped into the school building, warmth hit her all at once, carrying the smells of floor polish, paper snowflakes, each one curling slightly at the edges. The festive decorations clashed with the pit in her stomach, the gnawing reminder that nothing was truly festive in her world anymore.
"Aisha!"
Nathan's voice rang down the hall. She turned, startled, to see him jogging towards her, his satchel bouncing against his side, hair ruffled as if he'd barley had time to brush it.

"You forgot," he said as he skidded to a halt beside her, breath puffing. "The project. We're meant to finalize it before class today. Don't tell me you—"
"I didn't forget," she cut in though the truth was she nearly had. "It's all in my notes. I've been...looking through them."
Nathan raised an eyebrow., "Looking through them? That's not exactly reassuring." But then he smiled, softer. "Come on. We've got a few minutes  before class. Let's grab a spot."
They ducked into an empty side corridor, settling against the wall with their notebooks. The noise of the school filtered faintly around them— shouts, footsteps, laughter — but here it felt quieter, cocooned.

Aisha flipped her notebook open, heart skipping when she saw the symbols she'd drawn. The same spirals and interesting lines, scrawled absentmindedly in the margins, staring back at her like a secret only she could see. Her chest tightened. They seemed sharper today, almost alive, as if the ink still pulsed faintly against the paper.
Nathan leaned closer, squinting at one of the doodles. "You really went all in on this. Is that supposed to be...a crest or something?"
Aisha froze. "What do you mean?"
He tapped the page. "This pattern here. Looks like one of the old heraldic symbols we found in that history book. Lord Sadon's, remember? The circle with the lines branching through? Except yours is a little different."
She stared at the page, heart hammering. He was right. She hadn't noticed it before, too distracted by her own thoughts, but now it was undeniable: the shapes she'd been drawing echoed the same crest they'd studies. Her hand had drawn them without thought, guided by something beyond her.
"Maybe we should check that book again," Nathan said, his tone more serious now. "Feels like we missed something. If these symbols meant something back then..."

His words trailed, but the look in his eyes was sharp, searching. He wasn't just talking about history anymore.
The bell rang, pulling them back into the current of students. Aisha followed numbly, but her thoughts spun. The project wasn't just a project anymore. It was part of the puzzle. Lord Sadon, the pendant, the symbols— all threads in the same tangled weave.

She was still replaying Nathan's words when she turned a corner and froze.
Ruby.

She stood halfway down the corridor, a still point in the rush of students around her. While others jostled past with chatter and books in hand, Ruby remained motionless, untouched by the current, as though she existed just outside of it. Her gaze fixed on Aisha — steady, unblinking — and in her dark eyes flickered something Aisha couldn't define. Not anger, not sadness, but a depth that pressed against her chest with equal parts fear and recognition.

Aisha's breath caught in her throat. "Ruby?" she whispered, pushing forward, her pulse leaping.
But before she could take more than a few steps, Ruby's outline wavered, like heat rising from tarmac on a summer's day. The edges of her form blurred, dissolving into the throng of students until she was simply gone. Not pushed aside, not walking away— gone, as though she had never been there at all.

 The corridor buzzed on with laughter and voices, no one else seeming to notice the small creature who had just vanished in plain sight. Aisha stood frozen, the noise around her muffled and distant.
Had Ruby been trying to reach her? To warn her? Or had it been another trick of her imagination?
Her heart insisted otherwise. Ruby had been there. And whatever message she carried, it wasn't finished yet.