Aaranya's POV
I barely made it home without collapsing.
My breath came in sharp bursts, my skin still tingling from the glowing mark etched into my arm. My mind was spinning—like someone had picked it up, shook it like a snow globe, and left me to deal with the storm.
"Flameborn."
That word still echoed inside me. Not in my ears—no. It was deeper. Older. It had weight.
I pushed open the front door. The scent of incense and masoor dal hit me, grounding me for a second. Familiar sounds surrounded me—TV in the background, the faint clang of metal in the kitchen—but it all felt distant, like I was standing behind glass watching a scene that belonged to someone else.
I stumbled in.
"Back already?" my mom called from the kitchen.
"Yeah," I said, barely recognizing my own voice.
"You okay? You sound... winded."
"I'm fine," I lied. My legs wobbled. My heart was still racing. "Just... jogging."
She didn't press. Typical. She always gave me space, something I usually appreciated. But not today.
I went to my room and collapsed onto the bed.
The silence around me thickened.
I stared at the ceiling. My pulse thudded in my ears, and a headache pulsed behind my eyes. Not the regular tension kind. It felt... electric.
I kept seeing those eyes. That creature. That heat.
And the mark on my arm?
It hadn't faded.
My hands trembled. My head ached with questions that had no answers.
I tried to breathe. One breath. Two.
Then I shot up and walked straight to the kitchen.
"Mom," I said, my voice more urgent than I meant.
She looked up, startled. "What happened? Aaranya, you're pale."
I hesitated. My throat felt tight. But I had to say it. I had to know.
"Have you ever... seen anything strange about me?"
She blinked. "What do you mean?"
"Like..." I searched for the right words. "When I was little. Something I did that wasn't... normal?"
The bowl slipped from her hands.
Water spilled over the counter, pooling at her feet.
She didn't even notice.
My chest tightened. "Mom?"
She looked at me, then looked. Her face drained of all color.
"You remember something," I whispered. "Don't you?"
She didn't answer. Instead, she reached for a towel, dried her hands slowly, then sat at the edge of the dining table like her knees were too weak to hold her weight.
"I was hoping... I wouldn't have to tell you. Not like this."
A cold chill slithered down my spine.
"What do you mean?"
She swallowed. Her fingers clutched the edge of the chair like it was anchoring her to reality.
"You're not my biological daughter, Aaranya."
My world tilted.
"What?"
She nodded slowly. "Twenty-four years ago, we found you. Or rather... you appeared."
My legs gave way. I dropped into the chair across from her.
"You were... maybe 2 year old. I was visiting my aunt's village—near the hills in Himachal. There was a sudden flash of light in the sky that night. Everyone thought it was a lightning strike. But when we went to check, we found you."
I said nothing. I couldn't.
"You were lying in the middle of a meadow. Asleep. Wrapped in gold cloth that shimmered like firelight. You were glowing."
"Glowing," I echoed, hollow.
"It wasn't normal. Not sunlight. Not fire. You glowed from the inside, like embers trapped under your skin. And... you were so beautiful. Too beautiful. Otherworldly."
She reached into the drawer beside her and pulled something out.
A piece of yellowed paper, folded so many times the edges were fraying.
"I've kept this all these years."
I unfolded it with trembling fingers.
One line. Written in elegant, curling letters.
"Protect her. Don't tell her anything unless she asks. Her name is Aaranya."
No signature. Nothing else.
My voice cracked. "You just... brought me home?"
She nodded. "We didn't know what else to do. No one in the village claimed you. No one had seen you before. No missing child reports. You were just... there."
My heartbeat thundered in my ears. "So all these years...?"
"I raised you as my own. I never planned to lie, Aaranya. I just thought maybe you'd grow up and... be normal. But then there were signs."
"What signs?"
"The fever that never hurt you. The dreams you had as a kid—about places you'd never seen. You once drew a bird with ten wings and said its name was Auzlin."
My mouth went dry. "I don't even remember that."
"I do," she whispered.
I looked at the note again. My hands shook.
Everything was unraveling.
"You said I appeared. What do you mean? Like... you think I was teleported or something?"
"I don't know," she said. "I've seen things I can't explain. But what happened that made you ask today?"
I rolled up my sleeve and showed her.
The mark.
Still glowing. Still pulsing.
She gasped, covering her mouth. "It's starting."
"What is?"
"I don't know. But I've always felt it. That you weren't meant to stay here forever. That one day something would... change."
I leaned back. My body felt too heavy for my bones.
"So what am I, Mom? A cursed girl? A... warrior princess from another realm?"
"I don't know," she said honestly. "But maybe you're not just human."
We sat in silence.
Outside, the wind howled louder than before.
Inside me, something stirred. Like an ember catching flame.
Maybe the world was about to shift. Maybe I was already shifting with it.
But one thing was clear.
I wasn't just Aaranya Sharma anymore.
I had never been.