The sky was painted in the colors of blood and ash. It was one of the darkest, most brutal days of the Last Plea War. The smoke from the burning cities stung the throat, and mounds formed by torn bodies stretched to the horizon.
Devranna was walking in the middle of the battlefield with that noble, uniquely powerful body of hers. She glided as if her steps did not touch the ground, ignoring the ruins around her, observing the lifeless bodies left behind by the war and the cold silence of death spreading around. While her flawless, light copper hair blew in the wind, her orange eyes held only that dull numbness brought by war.
Until she heard that frail sound of sobbing.
Devranna turned her head to the side. Under a destroyed, massive temple pillar, a little girl stood, covered in mud and blood. The girl's hands were torn, her nails were about to be ripped off, but she was stubbornly trying to push that colossal marble block, which was perhaps twenty times her own weight. Trapped under the stone was a little boy, with only his tiny arm and half of his face visible.
"Come on... please!" the girl cried, as tears carved paths through the mud on her face. "Thalos, hold on! I will get you out!".
Devranna slowly approached them. Her presence was so overwhelming that when the little girl felt her coming, she flinched in fear and raised her head. She looked at this mighty being with eyes as deep as the ocean yet equally desperate.
"Why are you attempting the impossible with that weak body of yours, little one?" Devranna asked, her voice carrying a deep resonance that drowned out the hum of the war. "You cannot move that stone.".
The little girl trembled but did not pull back her bloody hands pushing the stone. "He is my everything..." she sobbed, the stubbornness in her voice suppressing her fear. "I can't leave him! I won't!".
A strange ripple, something she hadn't felt in a long time, appeared in Devranna's orange eyes. That pitiful yet equally unbending will of humans.... She slowly raised her hand into the air. With a single movement of her finger, that giant marble block lifted as if it had lost its gravity and was thrown meters away with a crash.
While the little girl stood frozen in shock, Devranna gently lowered her hand and looked at her. "You don't need to leave him anymore. Both of you are coming with me.".
The vision rippled, the smell of blood giving way to the comforting aroma of freshly brewed herbal tea.
It was a sunny, windy afternoon. Devranna was sitting on a wide wooden chair by the hearth, sipping tea from the delicate porcelain cup in her hand. It was a rare, perhaps the most precious moment for an Elder: Relaxation.
At the large table right across from her, Sira and Thalos, now grown and turned into young, vigorous warriors, were in the middle of a heated argument.
"If you swing that sword at that angle, you'll break your wrist on the next move, Sira!" Thalos grumbled, crossing his large arms over his chest. "Speed isn't everything.".
Sira rolled her eyes and slammed the wooden training blade in her hand onto the table. "Look at your own clumsy steps, you big bear! By the time you lift your sword, I'll run three laps around the enemy!".
Devranna brought the cup to her lips as she listened to this endless yet affectionate bickering. Her orange eyes narrowed, and an incredibly warm and maternal smile appeared on her face, breaking the cold mask she had worn for years.
"This war must end as soon as possible," Devranna said, her voice spreading through the room like a peaceful breeze. "Otherwise, you two will kill each other before the enemy does.".
Sira and Thalos instantly stopped arguing and turned to Devranna with huge, respectful smiles on their faces. Both of them simultaneously placed their right hands over their hearts and bowed their heads.
"Whatever you say, My Lady," said Sira, her eyes smiling. Thalos nodded in agreement and added in his thick voice: "We are with you until the end, until our last breath.".
The dream shook. The peace shattered.
The sky this time was covered with gray clouds, carrying a suffocating weight. The surroundings were a giant, empty rocky plateau, one of the special meeting grounds of the Elders.
The duel was continuing with all its ferocity. Devranna and the other Elders were watching this mind-boggling clash from the shadows, holding their breath. To Devranna, the battle was completely even; she even thought that Yuria was slowly starting to gain the upper hand with her massive power and unshakeable will. The green and white auras in the air were clashing into each other, tearing the sky apart.
Until Devranna blinked for just a moment.
Following that blink, for exactly eight seconds, both Elders completely vanished from the plateau. Not a sound, not a trace of mana, not even a shadow.... In the deafening nothingness that emerged, none of the watching Elders could comprehend what had happened or where the two had gone. Because Valerith's true special power was a controversial secret among the Elders even back then, and it was not fully known by anyone.
When reality settled back into place at the end of the eight seconds and the two returned to the plateau, the battle was already over. The shaking of the ground and the mana explosions in the air abruptly ceased.
In the middle of the plateau lay Yuria, her black robes torn to shreds, her poison-green hair smeared with dirt and her own blood. The blows she had taken were so heavy that the cold breath of death was practically on her neck. Wheezing sounds rose from her lungs as she breathed.
Right by her head stood Valerith. There wasn't a single speck of dust, not a single bloodstain on the white silk outfit she wore. With her pure white, pupilless eyes, she was looking at Yuria agonizing on the ground in disgust, as if looking at a bug.
When Valerith turned her back as if nothing had happened and started to walk away with elegant steps, Devranna couldn't bear it any longer and dashed forward through the crowd.
"Why?!" Devranna shouted, her voice echoing across the plateau. Her anger and bewilderment were mixed together. "Why did you treat her so ruthlessly, what did you do to her Valerith? She is not our enemy! She is your, our sister!".
Valerith halted her steps. She turned her head slightly over her shoulder. On that flawless face, the most terrifying embodiment of pure arrogance had taken shape.
"Even if she isn't an enemy, she needed to know her place, Devranna," Valerith said, her voice as clear as a waterfall but equally freezing. "Someone who forgets her own limits and tries to play deity with those disgusting spirits inside her is a danger to us all. I merely... reminded her just how fragile that shell she trusts so much actually is.".
As Valerith walked away and disappeared among the shadows, the other Elders silently dispersed as well. No one had dared to help Yuria. Devranna, gritting her teeth, ran, gently embraced Yuria's bloody, broken body, and lifted it onto her back. As Yuria's weak breath hit her neck, the first great seed of doubt was planted inside Devranna.
Time leaped forward, to that cursed day. It was right before that grand and final meeting at the Lux Dolaris Church.
Devranna had donned her most magnificent armor. She was at the peak of her power. She paused before entering through the massive doors of the church and turned to Sira and Thalos, who were waiting right behind her, standing tall and loyal as always.
There was a strange unease inside her, but she didn't reflect it upon them. She placed that sincere, warm smile that always gave them strength on her face.
"Fix those gloomy faces of yours," Devranna said, extending her arms and giving both their shoulders a friendly squeeze. "After this meeting... When everything is over, let's go on a long journey. To lands without war, lands that do not smell of blood. Just the three of us.".
Sira's eyes sparkled, Thalos's stern face lit up with a huge smile. "Do you promise, My Lady?" Sira asked with excitement.
"I promise," Devranna said. And she took her step through that door.
Devranna suddenly opened her eyes, gasping for breath.
Her chest was rising and falling rapidly, cold sweat trickling down her forehead. Sira's cheerful voice and Thalos's thick laughter were still echoing in her ears. For a few seconds, she tried to comprehend where she was and what body she was in.
She looked at her hands. Those unique hands of hers, bearing the scars of years of wars, were gone. In their place were the thin, weak, and pale hands belonging to a mortal young girl. Her nose filled with the smell of that sulfuric, disgusting mixture Elian had smeared on her face. She was in Silverpine Town, in that small, creaky bed on the upper floor of the old herbalist's shop.
Letting out a deep, trembling breath, she sat up in bed.
"Ah..." she whispered in a cracked voice. As she rubbed her face with her hand, she felt that colossal weight sitting upon her heart. "It was a dream.".
She stood up slowly. Her legs were still aching. Wrapping herself in the giant, old black robe she had on, she walked toward the room's small, wood-framed window.
Out the glass, she looked at the hazy streets of Silverpine Town, which was just beginning to wake up. People were rushing about their ordinary lives, their ordinary troubles. Whereas Devranna's world had been completely shattered on the bloody floor of Lux Dolaris, on the day she gave her word that they would go on that long journey.
The knuckles of her thin, mortal fingers gripping the windowsill turned pure white. Sira had died. Thalos had died. While Valerith sat on her ornate throne, all that was left was this weak body covered in mud and a never-ending grudge.
"I couldn't keep my promise..." she whispered toward the glass. That orange light in her eyes began to shine like a dark and savage fire in the morning gloom. "But I will have your revenge.".