Gilded Ashes-Chapter 282: World That Doesn’t Need Armor

Enya opened her eyes to the blue sky. Not gray. Not cloud-choked. This sky was clean and wide - a soft, bright blue with a few small clouds drifting lazily across it like they had nowhere urgent to be.

For a second, Enya didn’t move. She sat upright on a bed that felt too soft to belong anywhere real. The sheets weren’t stiff, and they didn’t smell like metal or damp fabric. They smelled like sun-warmed cotton and something faintly sweet - like crushed petals on fingers. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

Around her, a garden spread in every direction.

Not a normal garden, either. Not a greenhouse, like Ukai’s careful, controlled growth. This was... Too much. Too alive. It overflowed with color, shape and impossible variety. Flowers as big as Enya’s head swayed gently in a breeze she couldn’t feel on her skin. Vines climbed quartz arches willingly. Low bushes with berry clusters shimmered as if the berries held tiny lights inside them. Trees in all kinds of sizes leaned over thin paths, their leaves tinted in strange gradients - emerald to gold to pale pink at the tips, like they couldn’t decide what season they belonged to.

And the flowers. There were thousands. Some looked familiar - lotuses, lilies, little white blooms that reminded Enya of the Academy’s terraces in early spring. But mixed between them were things that didn’t exist anywhere else. Petals that spiraled inward like a shell. Blossoms that opened in layers like folded paper. Flowers that grew as strings of tiny bells, each bell holding a bead of dew. A patch of dark blooms that looked almost black, but when sunlight hit them, they shimmered green and violet like oil on water.

The sunlight here didn’t hurt to look at. It didn’t glare. It just... Existed.

Enya inhaled slowly, and her shoulders loosened as if they’d been clenched for hours.

She loved this place, and she always loved coming here. She has been here enough times that her feet already knew where to go.

Enya swung her legs off the bed and stood. She wasn’t wearing the armor. That fact should’ve startled her.

Instead, she only glanced down, saw her bare arms and a simple dress, and accepted it like it was normal. Like the armor belonged to another world - the wet, damaged one - and this world didn’t need it.

She stepped off the white bed. The garden paths weren’t paved. They were made of soft, pale stone that felt warm under her feet. She followed them, weaving through tall flowers and low shrubs like she walked this route every day.

Then she saw her.

A woman stood a little distance away, half-hidden behind a cluster of tall, feathery plants. She wore a pale yellow dress that fell to her ankles, and a straw hat that slightly shaded her face. Her hands moved calmly as she tended to the flowers, brushing leaves aside, pinching a dead bloom at the stem with enormous care, pressing her palm lightly to the soil like she could feel the roots breathing.

Her hair was pale green.

Curly, like Enya’s, but just a tiny bit softer and longer. It spilled down her back in a gentle wave, catching sunlight in a pretty way that almost made it look bright.

The woman didn’t turn when Enya saw her .She didn’t have to.

Enya’s chest tightened anyway, and then all the excitement in her body snapped loose at once. "Mom!"

She ran. She didn’t even think about it. Didn’t slow down. She sprinted down the path, nearly tripping over a low vine and laughing as she hopped it. The flowers blurred past her in a wash of vibrant color.

Enya threw herself into the woman’s arms and hugged her really hard.

For a brief moment, she forgot everything else. The fog. The rain. The Nyxes. The explosion. The feeling of falling. Anything that had to do with the other, darker side of the world.

The woman wasn’t startled by Enya at all. Her arms came around her with gentle warmt, one of them rested on Enya’s back, and with the other she lifted and patted her head twice, slow and gentle, like she had all the time in the world to do it.

Enya squeezed tighter.

The woman’s laugh was quiet. Not teasing. Just... Soft.

Enya pulled back just enough to look up at her. The woman’s face stayed half-shaded by the brim of the straw hat, but Enya could still see her smile. It wasn’t huge, like hers, but it was the kind of smile that made you feel like nothing you said could ever be too much.

Enya’s whole body was radiating with excitement.

"So - so, guess what happened today, Mom!" Enya blurted out. "Come on, guess!"

The woman hummed thoughtfully, as if she was actually considering it. Then she flicked her fingers lazily toward the ground.

A long line of tiny flowers pushed up through the soil in an instant. They just... appeared, blooming into existence, quickly weaving into a soft carpet of petals.

The woman lowered herself onto it as if sitting on a blanket. She patted the space beside her.

"Oh, dear" she said, amused. "I have no idea. Why don’t you sit down and tell me everything?"

Enya dropped down beside her so fast she nearly bounced on the flowers. She crossed her legs, leaned forward, hands on her knees, and tried to speak and breathe at the same time.

"Okay, okay. So. Remember how I told you about that guy, Raizen?" Enya’s eyes shone. "The one that fought with Mina for me?"

The woman tilted her head slightly.

"Well" she said, voice calm. "He didn’t really fight with Mina for you."

Enya froze for half a beat, then waved it off like that detail didn’t matter. "Yeah, yeah. Whatever. You know what I mean."

The woman’s smile didn’t change. She waited patiently for whatever Enya wanted to say. Enya inhaled like she was about to dive underwater.

"I went with him on my first real Nyx hunt!"