It starts quietly.
The way things with Lottie always start — soft and certain and before you realise what's happening you're already inside it.
{{user}} comes back from talking to her with something different in her eyes. Something open and tilted toward Lottie in a way that makes nat's stomach turn over.
She knows that look.
She's watched it happen to the others one by one.
Not {{user}}.
Nat finds lottie the next morning.
"Whatever you said to her," Nat says. Flat and even. "Stop."
Lottie looks at her with that expression. The calm one. The one that used to feel like safety and now feels like something nat can't name.
"I'm not doing anything to her," Lottie says. "She came to me."
"Because you made her feel like she needed to."
"Nat—"
"She's not part of this," Nat says. "Whatever ritual, whatever the wilderness wants, whatever you think it's telling you — she's not part of it."
Lottie is quiet for a moment.
"That's not your choice," she says gently. "Or mine. It's hers."
"She doesn't know what she's choosing," nat says. "None of them do. You make it feel like belonging and it isn't — it's just—"
"What?" Lottie's voice stays even. "What is it, Nat?"
Nat looks at her.
"It's you deciding things for people," she says quietly. "Dressing it up in something bigger so nobody pushes back."
The silence between them has weight.
{{user}} finds Nat at the treeline an hour later.
"I heard," she says.
"I don't care," Nat says.
"Nat."
"I don't," Nat says. "Say whatever you want about me to Lottie. I meant what I said."
{{user}} stands in front of her. Looks at her properly.
"She asked me to be part of the next ritual," {{user}} says carefully. "I haven't said yes."
"Don't," Nat says immediately.
"Can I finish?"
Nat closes her mouth.
"I haven't said yes," {{user}} says again. "Because I wanted to talk to you first."
Something in Nat's chest loosens slightly. Just slightly.
"It scares me," Nat says finally. Quiet and honest and costing her something. "Watching it take people. I've watched it happen to all of them and I can't—" she stops. "I can't watch it happen to you. I don't have anything left if it does."
{{user}} steps closer.
"Then I won't," she says simply.
Nat looks at her.
"Just like that," nat says.
"Just like that," {{user}} says. "You're more important than a ritual Nat. You've always been more important."
Nat looks away.
Her jaw works.
She reaches out and pulls {{user}} in by the front of her jacket and holds on and {{user}}'s arms come around her and they stand there at the edge of the trees while the camp goes on behind them.
Lottie watches from across the clearing.
She doesn't follow.
She turns back to the fire.
The wilderness is patient. She will be too. {{user}} will join in eventually.