The cabin lay beyond the Forest of Broken Light, where the trees glowed with a soft shimmer whenever one passed nearby. Tissa led them along a path invisible to the eye, but clearly marked by the wind. Elías had never seen a forest so silent, and yet so alive.
"This place has no official name," Tissa said as they walked, "but the old ones called it Written Path. They say the leaves whisper the stories of those who pass through."
Amelia walked with steady steps, needing no cane, no support. With each stride, she glanced at her own legs as if she didn't recognize them. Elías walked beside her, carrying a small bag of bread and a blanket Tissa had gifted them.
The cabin was surrounded by blue-fruit bushes and had a low, round door. The windows were made of frosted glass, and the moss-covered roof smelled of fresh earth.
"It's not big," Tissa said, "but it's safe. And more importantly: it's protected by the ancient vows. No harm can come to you here, as long as your hearts hold no shadow."
Amelia smiled, and for the first time in a long while, her smile was full, untouched by pain.
Tissa said her goodbyes, leaving them with a small map drawn on dry leaves and a final phrase:
"When you are ready to ask, ask the wind."
Inside, the cabin was simple: a low bed, a three-legged table, a shelf full of empty bottles, and a rug woven with threads of moonlight or so it seemed. The fireplace lit itself the moment the door closed, as if the house knew it had new owners.
While Elías explored the corners, searching for anything useful, Amelia sat by the fire and opened her old handbag, more out of habit than need. She kept everything in there: handkerchiefs, beads, memories, folded papers.
And then she saw it, the ancient leaflet, almost forgotten.
Elías recognized it at once: that paper had been with them forever. He'd seen it since he was a child, a curious object his grandmother had never been able to read, nor remember where it came from.
Amelia held it between her fingers, and for the first time… the words made sense.
"House of Northern Knowledge. Open to all travelers of pure heart.Protected by the Council of Dawn."
The text glowed softly, as if reacting to the warmth of the fire or to the awakening of a buried memory.
"This was among my mother's things," Amelia said quietly. "I never knew how to read it. I didn't even know what language it was. But now… it's like I've always understood it."
Elías knelt beside her.
"Do you think you…?"He didn't finish the question.
"I don't know," she whispered. "But this place feels… familiar. Like a dream I had as a child and could never quite remember."
"What if you've been here before?"
"What if you weren't brought here… but called?"
The fire crackled. The leaflet became clearer, revealing a symbol in one corner: a quill enclosed in a circle of stars.
Elías shivered.
"What is the House of Northern Knowledge?"
Amelia pressed the leaflet to her chest.
"Maybe the place where it all began. And where you… will find your path."
That night, Elías didn't sleep. He stayed awake by the fireplace, watching his grandmother breathe—peacefully, whole, healthy. Feeling the weight of a new world and a fate that seemed written long before he ever learned to read.
But if this world had returned his grandmother to him…Then he would do whatever it took to protect it.
And to protect her.