CHAPTER 332: 332: A NAME IN WHITE DRESS

---

The bowl of light inside the right side forest held still as if it had been waiting for the moment to arrive. Birds traded short sentences across the canopy. A thread of water whispered through stones and tried not to be noticed. The woman in white stood where the shadows softened, head slightly tilted, eyes on Kai as if she had turned to answer a call rather than to discover a stranger.

He did not draw closer yet. His body wanted to, in the simple way a thirsty man wants the cup in front of him. He denied the want and gave himself the small work of breathing evenly and taking in details. Sand in the creases of her toes, which meant she had crossed the outer skirts of the desert. No dust on the hem, which meant she had not been walking long inside this forest. A thread on her sleeve had pulled and been teased away, which meant nimble fingers and a casual habit of fixing things that should not be left to unravel. The line of her throat tightened when she swallowed. Not fear. Focus.

The part of him that remembered every face he had ever chosen to remember went riffling through its own shelves and found nothing. The part of him that remembered scents tracked clean soap and leaf shade and something like the cool smell of a spring whose mouth had never been found. The part of him that tasted soul threads felt a faint hum that did not offer purchase, the way a string will sing if you pass your hand near it while another musician plays out of sight.

He decided questions would do better work than guesses.

"Who are you," he asked. "What help do you need? What are you doing here? It is dangerous in this stretch. What brought you into this forest? Are you hurt? Are you alone?"

She blinked once, and then her lips parted in what might have been the beginning of a laugh that did not want to be rude. Her eyes slid aside and then back to him, as if she were giving courtesy to the trees and then returning it to the only other living thing in the bowl.

"Oh my," she said, "so many questions at once. It is a first time for me. Which one should I answer?"

He kept his posture open and waited. People reveal themselves in the order they choose to speak.

"Let us start with my name," she went on, and lifted one hand without offering it yet. "I am Ikea. I am only a traveler. I came here to experience life. I have discovered that I forgot to learn the basics of it. There has always been someone who took care of everything basic for me. I never learned anything basic. I am struggling to find food and to build shelter. I am discovering that it is important to learn basic."

The name settled into the space between them as if it had belonged there for a while and had just been mislaid.

Kai did not let his face show his first thought, because it was unkind to think it where she might see it, even if it were also true. A runaway princess.... Maybe not necessarily royal, not necessarily a court with gold and banners, but a life where other hands had held tools for her and now those hands were far away. The way she stood told him she could stand for a long time if she decided to. The way she had described her problem told him she was new to deciding for herself.

What should I do? The question rose like heat from stone. Help her and risk bringing trouble to the mountain. Turn her away and risk leaving someone soft to be devoured by the place that devours soft things first.

There was no rule against asking the tool that sat inside his head and liked to answer as if it were a god.

[Ding! System Notification: Query received.]

Kai did not move his lips. His voice went down to where only the part of him that still could hear it. System, tell me if she is dangerous.

[Ding! System Notification: Analysis complete. The subject holds no hostile intent toward the host at this time.]

"That is not enough," he thought. Seriously. That is it. Give me more information about her. What star rank is she? What species is she? Do not be a stingy bitch. I cannot feel her aura. Either she is very strong or very weak. Which is it?

There was a pause. Not the useful kind. The offended kind.

[Ding! System Notification: Host has employed unacceptable language toward the System. Penalty applied. The System will not provide further information regarding the lady for a probationary interval.

Reminder: respect yields clarity.]

Kai shut his eyes for a bare heartbeat and accepted the slap the way a man accepts a gnat bite on a hot day. Annoyed with himself, more than with the thing that had been right to punish him. He had overdone it. He should not have said the word. The habit of barking at the system was a habit born in the kind of nights where the only voice you hear is your own and it is not kind.

"Apologies," he thought, with more sincerity than he liked to admit. The System did not answer. It sat where it sat, arms folded in perfect mechanical patience, and let him feel the shape of its silence.

"Are you thinking very hard," Ikea asked, head tipping another fraction. "Can you help me or not?"

He opened his eyes. He let the System’s sulk sit where it would sit and turned away from it for now. "From, where did you come from," he asked. "How strong are you? What are you?"

"I am not strong," she said with untroubled honesty. "I did not even reach one star rank yet. I came from the east. I do not know the place name. About what I am. I am a girl. A beautiful girl. Can you not see!"