POV - Lecia
Me dolía la respiración.
Cada aliento me quemaba la garganta como fuego líquido. Corrí, corrí con todo lo que me quedaba. La vegetación se apartaba a mi paso, los arbustos me arañaban los brazos y mi túnica de cadete estaba empapada de sudor, tierra y miedo.
El bosque ya no se sentía como el mismo lugar donde habíamos recogido plantas medicinales. Ya no era ese lugar lleno de vida, con los rayos del sol filtrándose entre las hojas. Era una jaula oscura... y yo era un pájaro escapando por instinto.
"Tú, pequeña... escucha con atención", recordé las palabras de la maestra.
"Vas a correr. Vas a llegar a la ciudad. Y vas a decirle al consejo, a los guardias, a cualquiera: que fuimos atacados por humanos encapuchados. Que nos estaban esperando. ¿Entiendes?"
"No puedo..." murmuré entre jadeos. "No puedo hacerlo sola..."
Pero corrí.
Lo hice por ellos. Por los pequeños que se desmayaron por el gas. Por Luahn, que nos protegió con un muro de hielo, rodeándonos como una loba cuidando a sus cachorros. Por la maestra, por la escolta... por todos los que no podían moverse.
Y por mí.
Porque si no lo hacía... todos desaparecerían.
Los árboles empezaron a escasear. El sonido de la ciudad era como un murmullo lejano. Seguía lejos. Me temblaban las piernas, me dolían mucho, pero eso no podía detenerme.
Pensé en Luahn.
Recordé lo que me dijo, cómo se interpuso entre nosotros y las figuras encapuchadas. Cómo su hielo se alzó en un instante. No como un arma, sino como un escudo. No para hacernos daño... sino para protegernos.
«Él... no puede quedarse ahí», me dije a mí misma, apretando los dientes.
Cuando por fin vi los muros de Sephros, caí de rodillas. Mi cuerpo ya no respondía, pero mi voz sí.
«¡GUARDAS! ¡AYUDA!»,
un grito que rompió la calma del mediodía.
Dos figuras aparecieron por la entrada y corrieron hacia mí. Una de ellas se agachó y me abrazó.
"¿Qué pasó? ¡¿Dónde están los demás?!"
"Nos... atacaron... ¡Los encapuchados! ¡Luahn! ¡Todos...!"
*
A la entrada de Sephros, minutos después
me llevaron a un pequeño refugio improvisado. Un sanador revisó mis heridas y me limpió la cara. Los soldados corrían a toda velocidad en direcciones opuestas. Un mensajero partió inmediatamente hacia la residencia de la sacerdotisa Melhe.
Solo pude aferrarme a una manta mientras bebía agua con manos temblorosas.
"¿Estaban lejos?", preguntó una mujer con rostro amable.
"Cerca... no muy adentro del bosque. Estábamos recolectando plantas... no era peligroso. Nadie lo esperaba". "
¿Cuántos había? ¿Cuántos atacantes?"
"No lo sé... vi... vi al menos quince figuras encapuchadas, no eran bestias, eran humanos".
Silencio.
"¿Estás seguro?"
"¡Sí! ¡Sus ojos! No eran como los nuestros, pero no eran demonios. Y su energía mágica era diferente a la nuestra, era energía yin".
El murmullo de miedo se extendió como un virus.
Humanos.
Habían sido atacados por humanos.
En territorio del Clan del Lobo.
Y habían tomado prisioneros.
Permanecí en silencio durante un largo rato. Miré mis manos, pequeñas y frágiles. Todavía podía sentir la mano del maestro empujándome suavemente hacia el bosque.
Recordé la última imagen que vi de Luahn: con su espada desenvainada, el hielo elevándose como un muro a su alrededor... y sus ojos decididos. Aunque contenían miedo, también mostraban responsabilidad.
No estaba pensando en sí mismo.
Estaba pensando en nosotros.
"Volveré por ti, Luahn", susurré, con los ojos húmedos.
"Todos lo harán".
Y con esa promesa flotando como un eco en el viento, Sephros dejó de ser una ciudad tranquila.
Porque las montañas ya no dormían.
Porque el silencio del bosque se había roto.
Y porque una pequeña niña había traído consigo la verdad que iniciaría el inicio de una guerra silenciosa.
*
POV - Emilia
The afternoon had been peaceful.
One of those afternoons where training left you with barely enough energy to move, where the sun caressed the stone of the practice yard and laughter filled the air like soft bells. That day, I had finished a tough round of exercises with Liifa and Selena. We were on our way back to the break room, sweaty, exhausted... but in good spirits.
Nothing had prepared us for what happened next.
At first, we only heard hurried footsteps. Then, raised voices. Something in the atmosphere changed, like a cold draft that sneaks in without warning. Everyone in the building stopped when a familiar figure walked through the doors of the central hallway. It was one of Sephros' inner guard messengers. His face... pale.
"What's going on?" Liifa asked, but he didn't look at us.
He ran straight to the instructors' office.
I... felt something.
A twinge in my chest. Something dark forced me to drop the canteen I was holding in my hand.
And then I saw her.
Lecia.
She was staggering in, accompanied by two guards. Her face was covered in mud. Her hair was messy. Her eyes... were dead.
"No..." I whispered. But I didn't know why I said it.
The murmurs began, other students crowded near the doors. Someone asked if they had been attacked. Another if it was a wild creature. But then I heard clearly, like a hammer falling:
"It was an ambush. They locked up the elders, Luahn, and the others."
My heart stopped beating.
"What did you say?!" I shouted without thinking.
Lecia barely looked at me, but her lips moved.
"They... took him."
I don't remember exactly what I did next.
I only know that I ran, ran without thinking.
I pushed whoever I had to push, reached her, took her hands, felt them cold.
"Where is he? Where is Luahn?"
She looked at me, her eyes filled with tears.
And she didn't answer.
That silence...
That damn silence told me more than any words could.
I staggered backward, the world spun. I couldn't breathe, Liifa held me by the shoulders, but I felt like I was falling apart, like everything inside me was shattering.
"It can't be..." I stammered. "No... no..."
My mind was racing a thousand miles an hour.
Luahn was fine. He had to be. He... always came back to me. He always smiled at me.
I remembered his face, his voice... the way he had hugged me on my birthday. How he promised to protect me. How he looked at me when he thought I didn't notice, he couldn't... he couldn't just disappear like that.
He was Luahn!
My Luahn.
"TELL ME WHERE HE IS!" I shouted, but my voice sounded distant.
Everything became blurry, voices around me, hands trying to calm me down, instructors calling for order, Lecia crying in a corner, Liifa trying to hug me.
I couldn't, I couldn't think, I couldn't breathe.
It was as if a knife had been stuck between my ribs and someone was slowly turning it.
"Emilia!" My mother's voice brought me back.
She was standing at the entrance, next to Mrs. Olivia. They had both come when they heard the chaos.
When she saw me, her face changed, she ran to me and hugged me tightly. And then I broke down.
"They took him, Mom... they took him..." I whispered over and over, like a broken prayer.
She didn't say anything.
She just hugged me tighter.
"We'll bring him back," she whispered in my ear.
"I promise."
But I couldn't quite believe it.
Because in my chest, where hope once vibrated, there was now only a hole.
A hole shaped like Luahn.
I didn't sleep that night.
Every corner of my room spoke to me of him, the box of memories, the sword my father gave me, the ice statues that hadn't yet melted completely.
I couldn't look at his face without my throat closing up.
I couldn't remember his voice without feeling like I was drowning.
But I knew one thing for sure.
If anyone thought I would sit idly by, they were very wrong.
Because if I had to search the entire forest with my own hands, I would.
If I had to break rules, defy authority, or start a war... I would do that too.
Because I loved him.
And the world would not take him away from me so easily.
*
POV - Olivia
The afternoon was peaceful, and as usual, I was folding clothes.
Luahn had gone out that morning with the other boys. They were going to the forest to gather medicinal herbs as part of one of those little academy exercises. Nothing dangerous, they told me. Just a walk and a little botany lesson.
I trusted him, his growth, how much he had matured.
Even so, a part of me... that part of a mother that never completely sleeps, couldn't stop thinking about him all day.
I put his folded tunic on the shelf. I picked it up and folded it again.
Not because it was badly done... but because my hands couldn't stop touching it.
"Again with that?" asked Leyla, who had come to bring me some sweet apples from the market.
I smiled.
"I can't help it. It always smells like him after training. Like sweat, grass, and sun."
She laughed softly.
"That's how children smell when they grow up," she said.
"When they become men."
I nodded. But I didn't know that the next scent I would smell... would be that of fear.
It was the sound of footsteps.
Urgent, heavy footsteps. More than one, too many for a normal visit.
I turned just in time to see a council guard coming down the dirt road, agitated, his face somewhat pale.
My heart sank.
"No..." I whispered before he could speak.
"No. Don't tell me."
"Olivia," interrupted Leyla, who jumped to her feet.
"What's going on?"
The guard swallowed hard.
"Ma'am... there was an attack in the forest."
I froze.
Everything around me became blurry. The ringing in my ears was louder than anything else. Like an internal thunderclap that split me in two.
"Luahn," I said softly. It wasn't a question, it was a cry from my soul.
The guard looked down. He didn't want to tell me, but I knew, I knew before he opened his mouth.
"It was an ambush, a group of hooded men. They attacked with gas, Luahn... and the rest... have been captured."
I don't remember how my knees touched the ground.
Only that I no longer felt the world.
Not the air.
Not my skin.
Only that coldness that swallows you up inside when your child disappears.
"How could you let this happen?!" Leyla shouted, approaching the guard.
"They were children! Cadets! And you sent them without enough protection!"
I couldn't hear anything.
Only one image.
Luahn, my little boy, asleep on my chest, his cheeks warm, his hair tousled, his breath soft.
Where was that child now?
Was he cold? Was he alone?
Was he... alive?
I felt tears running down my face without warning.
"No... it can't be..." I hugged my chest.
"Not again..."
Leyla fell to her knees beside me and held me. But even her embrace was shaking.
"We'll get him back, Olivia," she said through clenched teeth.
"Whatever it takes."
I nodded.
But at that moment, I couldn't see how.
I could only feel the emptiness.
A void that was not silence.
It was screams.
Thousands of silent screams from a mother who had just lost what she loved most.
The next few hours were a whirlwind. Leyla dragged me to the academy in search of Emilia.
Melhe arrived shortly after. She squeezed my hand, said nothing, just looked at me.
And for the first time since we had known each other...
I saw fear in her eyes.
I wanted to scream.
I wanted to run to the forest on my own two feet, search under every root, break every tree if necessary.
I wanted to tear the answer out of the world that wouldn't give it to me, but they wouldn't let me.
All I could do was sit there, my hands shaking, staring at the door, waiting for her to come in.
To tell me it had all been a joke.
That he would smile. That he would say, "Mom, I'm back."
But the door never opened.
Only my tears fell, who knows for how long.
*
POV - Grisel
The news came while I was reviewing ancient texts about the Rings of Energy.
It was one of the temple apprentices who burst into my room, breathless, her face pale.
"Grisel! He... Luahn...!"
The name was enough.
I didn't need to hear more.
I dropped the book, stood up so quickly that my robe tangled around my feet, and almost knocked her over as I ran out.
In the temple corridors, the bells had not yet rung. The formal announcement had not yet been made, but there were already rumors, whispers.
One of the gathering groups had been ambushed. Humans. Missing. Children.
And Luahn... was among them.
I felt the blood drain from my body.
I don't remember how I got to the oracle room where my mother was.
She was talking to one of the city councilors, but when they saw me come in with a distraught look on my face, they both fell silent.
"Is it true?" I asked breathlessly.
"Tell me, Mom. Is it true?"
She just looked at me. Her expression tensed.
"Yes," she finally said, in a voice that sounded like someone else's.
"Confirmed. Luahn... was one of those captured."
I stood still. The air became thick. It hurt... it hurt in a place I didn't know existed inside me.
"Eh," I whispered. "It can't be."
"We don't have any more information at this time," she added.
"Only one girl escaped, they are moving to search for the group."
I wanted to say something. But my throat burned.
I didn't cry.
I just felt as if an icy fog was covering my entire body.
Luahn... Luahn couldn't be missing. Not him.
"What are you doing?" my mother asked later, finding me in my room packing a small bag.
"I'm going with the search party," I replied without looking at her.
"Grisel..."
"Don't stop me," I said.
"Don't talk to me like a priestess, don't talk to me like a daughter, not now."
She approached me. Slower than usual, as if she didn't know what to do.
"What does he mean to you?"
I stopped.
I clenched my fists.
I didn't answer.
"Grisel."
"I don't know!" I suddenly burst out, dropping the bag.
"I don't know! All I know is... if he disappears, if something happens to him... something in me will break too!"
The confession left me shaking.
I covered my face.
My mother hugged me.
She was warm. Strong. But I still felt cold inside.
"He's your friend," she whispered.
"Your first. Your only one, right?"
I nodded.
"When he arrived... when he was just a quiet boy who couldn't use energy... he was the one who saw me. The only one who wasn't afraid of me. Or idolized me for being a future priestess."
"I know," she said.
"I've seen how he changed your world."
"He... didn't ask me for anything. He was just there. He listened to me. He understood me. And now... how can I stay here? How can I pray for his return when my heart screams that I must go after him?"
My mother was silent for a moment.
"Sometimes, the hardest thing is not having faith... but holding on to it when everything in you is telling you to act. And yet, if Luahn were in your place, what would he do?"
It hurt even more, because I knew the answer.
He would think things through.
He would prepare himself. He would wait for the right moment. He would do what he had to do... to protect his own.
I took a breath.
I put down the bag.
"Then... I'll stay."
"They'll bring him back."
"They'd better," I said, sitting back down on the floor.
"Because when he comes back, I'm going to yell at him for making me worry like this."
"And then?" my mother smiled.
"Then... then I'll pretend I don't care. But he'll know the truth."
The truth was, even though I never said it, Luahn was my first true bond. And losing him... was losing my only point of light.
So all I could do was wait.
Angrily.
With a broken heart.
But steadfast.
Like he taught me to be.