The Witch in the Woods: The Transmigration of Hazel-Anne Davis

The fire hadn't reached us yet, but the scent of it had.

It threaded through the camp like an invisible rope—smoke, ash, and something sharper underneath. Burned grain. Charred dirt. And fear. The kind of fear that spreads quietly, carried not by flame but by conversation.

By the time I stepped into the command pavilion, the war table was already surrounded.

Half the nobles hadn't even been summoned, but they came anyway. Cowards were always drawn to warmth when it comes from burning someone else's roof.

The tent was warm with the rising tension. Wax dripped from the corner candles onto the lacquered floor. Scrolls littered the corners of the strategy map, half-rolled and unread. I let them all settle before I spoke.

The Empress stood at my right, robed in heavy white with bright red embroidery and as calm as ever. Mingyu sat opposite her, hunched slightly, a scroll in his hand. His mouth was tight. Jaw clenched. He hadn't spoken a word since I walked in.

Yaozu lingered near the rear curtain, hands behind his back. He wasn't here to debate. He was here to make sure no one walked out if I didn't allow it.

Longzi arrived last, pulling his gloves off with slow precision. "Southwestern outposts are lit," he said simply. "Smoke's visible from the Baiguang ridgeline."

"Good," I replied.

But the court hadn't gathered for updates.

They came to blame someone. They came to blame me.

Lord Yuan cleared his throat first. "We've received word from the terrace villagers. They say their fields were destroyed—before Baiguang ever reached them."

"They weren't their fields anymore," I sighed, reminding them of the entire reason why we agreed to set the fires in the first place.

He pushed a scroll across the table. "Did you give this order?"

I didn't glance at the seal. "Yes."

There was a ripple of movement—shoulders shifting, robes rustling, someone muttering a quiet curse into their sleeve. The kind of shocked silence men wrap themselves in when they think they still have a chance to reverse the tide.

Mingyu finally looked up. "The burning was strategic. It was—"

"They're calling it a purge," Lord Rui cut in. "They're saying you've turned on your own."

"They were never mine," I said, sharper now. "If a field feeds your enemy, it is not your field. If a man opens his doors to Baiguang, he is not your citizen."

"And if he did it out of fear?" Rui pressed. "Desperation? Would you execute a starving family because they shared rice?"

I met his eyes. "If they chose Baiguang's silver over Daiyu's blood, they made themselves a target. I don't spare traitors just because they tremble when I arrive."

There was a long pause.

Mingyu's hand tightened around the scroll he held, paper crinkling faintly. He didn't speak again.

Lord Yuan looked to the Empress. "Surely—"

"She's right," the Empress interrupted softly. "And more importantly, she's effective. You all knew what would happen when she was given command. You were hoping she would fail."

No one argued.

Cowards rarely do when pressed by someone who isn't afraid of their names.

"She's not the Crown," someone murmured at the back.

"No," I said. "But the Crown is still breathing because of me."

Yaozu's jaw tensed. Not from anger, but from readiness.

Then Lord Rui pulled another scroll from his sleeve—older, more worn. The seal was cracked but intact enough to make me go still.

It wasn't Daiyu's seal.

Instead, it was bright green.

He unrolled it carefully, as if worried it would burn on its own.

"A message," Rui said, his voice heavy with false diplomacy. "From Baiguang's court. They're offering a temporary ceasefire... if Zhao Xinying is removed from command."

The silence this time wasn't shock.

It was preparation. They all arrived already knowing about this offer in advance.

Yaozu's foot shifted slightly. Longzi straightened. The Empress's hand twitched once at her side.

I stepped forward, slowly. Took the scroll from Rui's hand without a word.

No one moved as I tilted it into the flame of the nearest candle.

The paper blackened. Curled.

Disappeared.

"The answer," I said, "is no."

"You're condemning the south to war."

"No," I corrected. "I'm condemning traitors to irrelevance."

I let the burned ash fall from my fingertips onto the map of the terraces.

"They're not coming for the fields," I said. "They're coming for the symbol those fields represent… and that is not me. If you think removing me makes you safer, then you've misunderstood the entire game."

The council dissolved slower than usual. No one dared speak on the way out. They bowed too low or didn't bow at all. They left in pairs, whispering into sleeves, too afraid to look behind them.

Rui lingered the longest. I didn't acknowledge him.

By the time I stepped out into the open night, the fire smoke had crept further into camp. A thin curtain of scent—bitter, earthy, final.

I didn't shiver.

Let them speak. Let them flinch. Let them count how many steps I take between now and the final blow. Their rumors weren't weapons.

They were warnings.

And none of them were sharp enough to stop me.

Later, after I returned to my private corner of the tent, I found something waiting.

A narrow jar. Unmarked. Simple clay, stoppered with wax.

Yaozu noticed it the moment I stepped toward it. "That wasn't there before."

"No," I said, already crouching.

I broke the seal. The wax crumbled easily. Inside was no wine. No perfume.

Just a silk-wrapped letter.

I removed it carefully, hands steady. The silk was deep red. The ink was black.

"Your own walls are whispering. Thought you should hear it first."

No signature. But there didn't need to be.

Tucked into the silk was a small thread of black lacquer—curved like a fan's rib. And painted faintly on its edge: a red storm cloud.

I stared at it for a long moment, then set it aside and moved to the desk.

I dipped the brush once. Not in ink.

In melted silver wax.

And began writing.

Not replies, I wouldn't reply to them, but I would send them an invitation.

One for Lord Rui. One for Yuan. One for every name that had ever spoken my downfall aloud and thought the air would protect them.

Each one politely requested their presence for a public inspection tour of the southern ridgelines. A chance to "witness the valiant efforts of our southern soldiers." To pose. To reassure.

To bleed, if they stepped in the wrong place.

Shadow stirred by my side, then settled again, watching me write without sound.

I sealed each scroll with a silver stamp—my emblem. A wolf's eye, closed.

"If they want to measure blood," I said softly, "I'll give them a river."

Let them come smiling.

I already knew how to bury them without leaving any evidence.