The light in Lunareth was different. It wasn't like the sun back in his city, heavy and yellow. Here, everything seemed freshly washed, as if the world had just awakened. The clouds were larger, the shadows softer. Even the air seemed to have texture.
Amelia breathed deeply, smiling.
"My boy…" she said, touching her cheeks. "Nothing hurts. I think… I can move."
Elías still couldn't speak, not out of fear but because his heart was pounding so hard that if he opened his mouth, he was afraid it might escape.
There were flowers that bloomed when looked at. Stones that mumbled nonsense. And a tree with crystal leaves that chimed like tiny bells.
"What is this place?" he asked the wind.No one answered.
They walked through a tall field until they reached a small hill. In the distance, a round structure made of curved wood and blue roofs seemed to float above the ground.
"Is that a house?" Elías asked.
"Or a dream…" his grandmother replied, still smiling.
The house was real. It didn't float, it stood on long legs of white stone and outside, sitting on a bench of roots, was a woman with wide eyes and braids down to her waist.
"Newcomers?" she asked, without a trace of surprise. "Did you arrive through the bookstore?"
Elías tensed.
"You know about...?"
"Of course. Everyone who shows up with that 'where am I and why are the flowers greeting me' look has come through The Echo of Days. Are you hungry?"
They nodded.
The woman introduced herself as Tissa, a baker and "caretaker of lost steps." She offered them wind-baked bread, crisp on the outside, soft as clouds within, and warm root milk that smelled of almonds.
"You have nowhere to stay, do you?"
"No," Elías said, still wary.
Tissa looked at Amelia, who couldn't stop staring at her own hands, as if they were brand new.
"There's a cabin past the Forest of Broken Light. It belongs to the order of healers, but it's been unused for years, I can show you the way. Will you accept it?"
Elías had no other choice.
"Yes, please. But… why are you helping us?"
Tissa smiled.
"Because someone helped my grandmother when she, too, crossed through that door. A long time ago."Then she looked at Amelia."And because that woman carries memories that Lunareth might wish to awaken."
Amelia tilted her head.
"That reminds me…" she said, rummaging through her old, frayed bag. "When I was a child, I found this among my mother's things. I never knew how to read it. I kept it out of affection. But now… now I can."
She pulled out a small booklet made of thick paper, yellowed with time. It was covered in strange symbols—spirals and curves that looked like dancing script.
Amelia read softly:
"House of Northern Knowledge. Open to all travelers of pure heart. Protected by the Council of Dawn."
Elías looked at her, wide-eyed.
"Grandma… how do you...?"
She took his hand.
"I don't know, my love. But I don't think your arrival was an accident.Neither this land… nor this language… are unfamiliar to me."