I stepped outside the house. The old wooden door creaked as it shut behind me, but I didn't look back. My hand lingered near the frame for a second—half-expecting, maybe even hoping, that someone might call out, tell me to wait. But the silence remained.
The air was cool. Not cold, but still enough to make the hairs on my arms rise. My breath fogged faintly in front of me as I walked, and my footsteps echoed on the stone path like they carried weight far beyond my own. It felt like the sky was holding its breath with me.
So many questions pressed in all at once, flooding my head like a broken dam. With each step, my thoughts came faster—blurring and colliding like voices in a storm. Why now? Why me? What had I done to deserve this?
No answers came.
The village looked exactly the same as before. Same crooked shops leaning too far over the street. Same rickety carts overloaded with glinting stones and bottles of who-knew-what. Lanterns dangled from thin ropes, their lights flickering in rhythm with the evening breeze. But none of it touched me anymore. It was like walking through a painting I'd seen a thousand times, only now the colors had dulled.
I passed the alley.
The same one where I'd first seen them.
The children.
They were still there—curled against the wall like shadows that didn't want to be noticed. Their clothes hung off them like rags pretending to be blankets. Skin stretched thin over bones. Eyes that once shimmered with something mysterious were now heavy with hunger. They didn't move. Didn't beg. Just stared at the ground, like hope had long given up on them.
I slowed. I looked at them.
And I hated myself.
Because I kept walking.
What could I do?
This world didn't play fair. It didn't offer second chances. Their paths were carved into stone long before they'd taken their first steps. And now… so was mine.
So I moved on.
One step. Then another. My legs carried me forward, but my mind stayed behind.
By the time I realized where I was, the houses had disappeared. Stone gave way to dirt. The road vanished beneath fallen leaves, and the sky was painted in amber and rose. The forest had crept around me quietly, like a secret.
Tall trees stretched overhead. Their branches clawed at the fading light, casting long, broken shadows that swayed with the wind. Birds no longer sang. The air grew still, thick, heavy.
I stopped.
A strange hush fell over everything, and a chill settled in my spine.
Something was wrong.
The forest wasn't this quiet before.
I turned to go back.
The air shifted.
Warmth vanished like it had been pulled from the earth. Even the wind forgot to breathe. Every part of me tensed as I slowly turned back toward the trail.
And then I saw it.
A creature.
It stood there, motionless, in the middle of the path ahead. It had no arms—only two long, impossibly thin legs, too tall for any natural thing. Its hair was long, dark, and knotted, hanging in thick ropes that covered most of its face. But not its eyes.
I could feel them.
Not see—feel. Like they were pressing into my skin, sliding down my spine, crawling under my ribs. Eyes that didn't blink. Didn't waver.
I couldn't move.
I couldn't breathe.
A terrible stillness wrapped around me. My body screamed to run, to move, to do anything, but I was frozen.
And then—
I stepped back.
It stepped forward.
One step. Then another.
It mirrored me.
I turned—and ran.
Branches whipped past me as I tore through the trees. Leaves exploded underfoot. My breath came in jagged gasps, and my heartbeat slammed like a war drum in my chest. The forest blurred. All that mattered was distance.
The creature followed.
I didn't need to look. I could hear it. The way its feet didn't land like normal things. The sharp, stuttering rhythm that didn't match the world. It was getting closer.
Panic burned through me.
Was this it? Would it end here—before I had even begun to understand who I was or why I was brought to this world?
No. No.
I forced my legs to move faster.
Pain pulsed in my side, but I didn't stop. I couldn't.
A massive tree loomed ahead. I threw myself behind it, pressing my back hard against the trunk, my chest heaving. I tried to slow my breath, to quiet the pounding in my head.
But something else stirred inside me.
A different kind of ache.
A deep, unfamiliar pressure swelled in my chest. It wasn't fear. It wasn't physical. It was something other. Something rising from inside my ribs—burning, shifting, ready to burst.
And then—
The world changed.
A violet mist bloomed around me like smoke pouring from the cracks of a dream. The trees turned to shadows, twisted and long. The sunset scattered into shards of purple flame.
And I stood at the center of it.
The fog.
The same fog I'd seen before.
Only this time… it didn't come from the forest.
It came from *me*.
I stared down at my hands, watching the mist coil around my fingers like it recognized them.
The creature snarled somewhere nearby. I couldn't see it, but I could hear its confusion, its frustration. It was blind in the fog.
That's when I understood.
This mist… it wasn't a curse.
It was mine.
A gift.
A *boon*.
Amma's voice echoed in my mind—"Everyone has a boon."
But I wasn't from here.
So why did I have one?
I didn't know.
But that didn't matter now.
What mattered was that I had a chance to live.
I inhaled—and the mist responded. It shifted with my breath, swirling at my will. When I focused, my vision cleared through the fog. It was like I had opened a second sight. The trees, the rocks, the path forward—it all came into sharp clarity.
The creature was still lost. Trapped. Blind.
I moved.
Careful steps. Breaking twigs on purpose. Tossing stones to draw it away.
It worked.
It followed the noise. I slipped through the forest, silent and invisible.
The valley wasn't far now.
I could almost see Khai in the distance. A few rooftops. A flicker of firelight.
Hope.
But then—hair.
The creature's hair slithered through the mist like living vines. It wrapped around a branch—then around me.
It yanked.
I screamed as I hit the ground. Pain flared in my arm, sharp and searing. Blood stained the bark beneath me.
But I rose.
Again and again it grabbed me. Again and again I fell.
But I kept moving.
Crawling.
Running.
Bleeding.
The edge of the valley came into view.
And then—one final strike.
It caught my leg. Pulled.
I slammed into the ground with such force, I couldn't move. My limbs refused. My chest barely rose. The darkness closed in.
It lifted me high, like a trophy. My blood dripped onto the leaves far below.
The mist flickered.
And vanished.
I was exposed.
It saw me.
And it screamed—a sound so vile and triumphant that it tore the silence in two.
Its hair lashed forward, dozens of strands writhing like snakes through the air, aimed for my heart.
Was this the end?
Had I come this far only to die here—hanging between sky and soil?
No.
That voice.
That dream.
Hadn't it promised something more?
My eyes fluttered shut.
And then—
A sound.
Whoosh. Whoosh.
And warmth.
I opened my eyes.
I was in someone's arms.
He landed on the forest floor and gently laid me beside a tree. I looked up, barely conscious.
The creature was still there, snarling.
But before it could come closer—
He stepped between us. A sword in his hand.
The mist behind him swirled like smoke.
And I blacked out.