The next morning

  Light filtered through the curtains of the manor. Golden rays of light slipped in gently, creating moving patterns on the floor. Just like every morning for almost a week, Kael's chair at the breakfast table remained empty.

  I sighed, isolated in the silent immensity.

  I had been living within these walls for almost a week now. I had spent a week acclimatizing to this immense mansion with its winding corridors and spacious rooms that always seemed too vast for my solitary presence. Yet every day, my eyes invariably returned to the same image: that of the forest.

  From my room, I could see it through the window. A sea of gigantic trees, their intertwined branches reaching toward the sky like outstretched arms. An enigmatic boundary, both dark and captivating. Nature had always been my passion—and this forest, more than any other place, held an irresistible appeal for me.

  In my old world, I loved walking in the forest. When I was young, I often accompanied my father on our hikes. He had instilled in me this enthusiasm for hiking and exploring the great outdoors.

  And then…

  Twelve years ago...

  “Elyn, are you ready, sweetheart?”

  “Yes, Dad!” I replied in a clear, cheerful, almost melodious voice.

  He smiled gently at me, that soothing smile that lit up everything around him.

  “Good, sweetheart. It's time to go.”

  “YEAH!” I shouted, jumping up and down, unable to contain my excitement.

  I still remember it as if it were yesterday. Every time we left like this, I would stamp my feet with impatience, my heart beating in unison with his.

  “Come on, I'm starting the car!”

  VROOOM

  I loved those trips. Pressed against the window, I gazed at the passing landscape. Vast expanses, meadows flooded with light, a few scattered, isolated houses... We lived quite far from the city, and the countryside prevailed all around us.

  My father gave me an amused look.

  “Still fascinated by the landscape, huh?”

  “Yes... because it's pretty. It looks like a painting.”

  He laughed quietly.

  “Ha ha ha... I understand. When I was your age, I also really enjoyed watching what was going on outside.”

  I turned my head quickly, curious.

  “Really?”

  “Yes. But you know... everyone looks for a different reason.”

  His words resonated mysteriously as the journey unfolded in a stream of light conversation, laughter, and knowing silences.

  Until the car finally parked in a small parking lot at the edge of a forest that seemed immense to my child's eyes.

  A lush green forest. The trunks seemed endless, standing like living pillars. The air was filled with the smell of wet earth, resin, and fresh greenery.

  These walks were treasures to me. We explored trails, open areas, discreet creatures, unusual insects, and mushrooms hidden in the moss. In the evening, we would sometimes camp under the stars, the campfire crackling as my father showed me the constellations.

  All of this remained engraved in my memory. So strongly that sometimes I still dream of going on one last hike with him... if only he were still here.

  Present...

  When I came to my senses, my fists were clenched. The desire to explore the adjacent forest was gnawing at me.

  I made the decision to go. Without wasting any time, I quickly went downstairs, crossed the hallways, and headed for the imposing door of the manor.

  It's just a walk. Nothing dangerous... especially with my knowledge of nature. And besides... we're on the Darvenwald estate. Kael must have hunted down all the hostile beasts.

  But when I tried to open the door, it resisted.

  No... he didn't lock it, did he? Impossible!

  I pulled again. Once, twice, irritably. Until I heard a sharp click.

  Click.

  Phew, finally...

  I pushed the door open and crossed the threshold. And, for a moment, I had the strange sensation of crossing an invisible barrier. A fleeting, icy shiver ran down my spine. But I didn't pay any attention to it.

  Outside, the air was crisp and refreshing. It was the first time I had left the mansion alone. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

  “Haaaaaa...” I sighed, as if my lungs were breathing again for the first time.

  A gentle breeze lifted a few strands of my hair. I set off, my heart already light.

  It wasn't even noon yet. The day lay before me.

  I walked around the left side of the mansion and continued on my way. When I reached the edge of the forest, my heart began to beat faster than usual.

  Where the grass gave way to roots, a green boundary stood before me—neither hostile nor soothing, just full of promise.

  The sun was high in the sky, beating down on the treetops and filling the clearing with bright light, but as soon as I stepped under the leafy canopy, the air changed: it became cooler, denser, and heavy with the scent of sap, moss, and warm earth.

  My pulse quickened to this new rhythm; it wasn't fear that gripped me, but rather a kind of excitement mixed with apprehension, like when you open the first page of a book you've been waiting too long to read.

  Calm down, it's just a little walk; everything will be fine, I repeated to myself, more to cover up my own curiosity than out of conviction.

  I stepped between the tree trunks, holding my courage in both hands.

  The midday rays filtered through in golden strips, casting patches of light on the ground covered with leaves and moss.

  Here and there, a plant whose shape I didn't recognize sparkled like a splash of watercolor; a strange insect made a soft clicking sound on a leaf. It all reminded me of a forest I had once loved—familiar and slightly distorted, like a modified work of art.

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  When I think back on it, this place is a bit like the place where the protagonist finds the eight-colored flower...

  The deeper I went, the more I lost myself in the maze of my memories. The smells, the crunching under my feet, the flash of an insect: all these little things brought back my childhood like a tide. Without realizing it, I had left the main path and ventured deeper into the thick greenery.

  I arrived at a lake.

  The water was a pure, clear blue, completely transparent like crystal; its surface reflected the sky, rippling slightly, like a vibrating mirror.

  The sun was reflected on the water, making it sparkle with thousands of tiny glints. I stood there for a long time without moving, overwhelmed by admiration that left me almost speechless.

  It felt like being in a fantasy novel... Ah, I was about to forget that I was in a book... I said, smiling despite myself, half amused, half touched.

  As my eyes scanned the surface, something broke the tranquility: a shape emerged, indistinct at first, then clear—a pale, feminine hand rising from the water as if the shore itself were offering a greeting. My eyelids automatically closed, and when I opened them again, the scene had completely changed.

  My father stood before me.

  The image was so flawless, so detailed, that my entire body froze: the same welcoming smile, the dark hair gathered and held back, the dark blue nightshirt, the black pants, and those tender green eyes that, for a brief moment, erased all the years.

  My heart skipped a beat, then started racing. Tears welled up, hot and unstoppable, streaming down my cheeks.

  “Sweetheart, what's wrong?” he said in a soft voice that brought back memories of days gone by.

  “Who dared make my princess cry?” he added, using the teasing tone he reserved for our games.

  He approached me and cupped my head in his hands as he used to do when I was little. For a heartbeat, I became that child again, the one to whom nothing could ever happen. He knelt before me, a smile on his lips, and whispered, “Don't worry, Elyn, everything's fine...”

  Everything inside me broke with nostalgia. I wanted to cling to that sweet lie and follow him to the end of the world, no matter where.

  I wanted to tell him so many things. However, the tenderness of the moment was quickly disrupted by something else—an indefinable feeling, a dissonant note that my mind has not yet been able to identify.

  At the same time, elsewhere, Kael was speeding along in the carriage.

  “How tiring it is to talk to fools...” he murmured in a low, ironic voice, as was often the case.

  But behind the joke, a sharp alert pricked him. A dull and brutal intuition: something was wrong. Approaching the manor gave him a strange feeling of agitation. As he crossed the threshold, he noticed that the door had not been carefully closed—it was poorly closed, as if in a hurry.

  A whisper, almost inaudible, brushed his ear, a vibration that belonged neither to the wind nor to the laws of mortals.

  He closed his eyes and recited a spell, whispering ancient syllables. Whisper.

  When he reopened his eyes, his vision was altered by a golden glow, as if magic revealed invisible footprints to the world. Glowing marks sparkled on the ground—traces that led to the edge of the forest.

  He didn't hesitate and quickly set off, following the red traces. They soon led to the lake.

  Positioned on the shore, she seemed static, her head held high toward the sky, tears continuing to flow down her cheeks.

  Lyssandra seemed to be in a trance: beautiful, fragile, and strangely distant. But something was sucking the life out of her. Between her knees and the water stood a grotesque figure: the naked torso resembled a woman with a sinuous silhouette, but from the waist down, her existence transformed into a tangle of slimy tentacles.

  Kael materialized a silver sword out of thin air and brandished it. He leapt forward, weapon in hand, while the creature retaliated by lashing out at the air with its limbs.

  Several were sliced clean off, and a dark blue liquid spurted out, splattering rocks and ferns. The beast let out a howl that shook the air around the lake: a mouth opened, torn up to its throat, revealing a jaw armed with countless fangs.

  Hhriiiiiiii!!

  A savage battle erupted, body against sword, magic against rage.

  The hissing of tentacles and the wet thud of blade against flesh: it all formed a wild, chilling music. Kael fought back, his movements as sharp as flashes of light; the creature defended itself with the ferocity of an ancient predator.

  With each cut, it screamed, its piercing cries filling the forest with a note of terror.

  Amidst the turmoil, in Lyssandra's trembling consciousness... another world was still unfolding:

  I felt supported, surrounded—and my father's voice spoke to me.

  “I am proud of what you have done so far. I know how much you have endured and how brave you have been,” he whispered in my ear, his gentle presence like a blanket.

  I lifted my head, my eyes filled with tears, finding the child I had once been.

  “I know it hurts, but you have to accept it...” he said.

  He stood up, staring at me with a look that mixed pride and pain.

  “You are my daughter. Our daughter, mine and your mother's. I know you can endure it. And you're not alone now...”

  He looked behind me; I followed his gaze and saw Kael, in the thick of the battle, his silhouette clear against the maelstrom of tentacles and foam dust.

  He fought like a living wall, blade and will. The creature spat its inner flames, its scales gleaming, and its jaw—so long—seemed capable of swallowing the night. Just seeing it made me shiver to my core.

  It was the first time I had ever seen such a creature. In the original story, the monsters weren't so horrific. But this one looked like it had come straight out of a dark fantasy.

  I looked back at my father; he was still smiling, but it was a smile full of sadness that spoke volumes.

  Memories of abandonment and grief hit me: my mother leaving when I was four, my father disappearing when I was nine, and the orphan in the middle of a family that didn't want her. It had left me with a bittersweet anger, a fear of getting attached. Yet his voice told me to let go, to move on.

  I resigned myself to it; I couldn't stay stuck in the past and deprive myself of the present.

  “Thank you, Father... Thank you for everything. I will always carry you and Mom in my heart...” I sobbed.

  He placed his hand on my head again before vanishing, as light as ash carried by the wind, leaving a sweet, penetrating sensation that stung my eyes.

  The awakening was brutal: I blinked, and Kael's massive shadow loomed protectively over me. His broad, solid back blocked my view for a moment. I stood frozen; the sound of the battle seemed distant, as if softened by a protective bubble.

  At one point, time seemed to stretch out, as if every second had slowed down. There was no sound, just total silence. It was then that Kael, in the midst of this calm, spoke in a low, calm voice:

  “Don't move. Stay still. It will be over soon..."

  He raised his left fist. On the back of his black glove was a golden emblem—a sun emerging, beginning to shine—and he recited an incantation with the precision of a blacksmith working metal:

  “Glory to the eternal Sun, may your fire punish evil!”

  Above the lake, the same gigantic solar symbol manifested itself, outlined in the air like a stained-glass window of light. It fell in a glowing beam that struck the creature.

  Soon after, the creature was convulsing: its skin turned black, its tentacles retracted, and jets of flame consumed it. It screamed in pain.

  Its heart-wrenching cries were filled with anguish as it rushed into the water, but the fire consumed it even beneath the surface; its screams echoed through the forest like sharp bursts of pure suffering.

  The creature, in agony, then emerged, dragging its mutilated and burned upper body toward Kael with its only remaining arm.

  Her tears—if you could call the liquid flowing from her eyes that—evaporated immediately upon contact with the flames. She sobbed sounds I didn't understand but which undoubtedly called for pity.

  Kael remained calm, almost implacable, like someone watching an insect struggle at their feet. His coldness chilled me and worried me; yet a tiny spark of pity arose in me, for the creature was only dying, and death is always a cruel thing.

  He watched it until its last breath. Then it turned to ash, a brown cloud that vanished into the hot air. Silence fell again, heavy and strange, as if nature were holding its breath.

  Kael turned to me and stared at me. I was prepared for him to get angry and lecture me.

  But his face remained impassive as usual. He sighed and held out his hand. Seeing that I remained frozen, unable to respond, he approached me, grabbed me, and lifted me up as one would lift a princess from a fairy tale. The warmth of his grip and his quiet strength made me blush to my ears.

  He carried me to my room, laid me on the bed with a gentleness almost foreign to his character, then placed his hand over my chest and whispered a healing spell. A gentle warmth spread through my body, soothing the burns of fear and the contractions of fatigue.

  “Rest,” he said, his voice betraying a hint of amusement. “We'll talk about what happened later.”

  Before turning away, he let out a little smirk, almost a tender mockery that made me blush even more. As the room stretched out around me and my breathing slowed, I found myself thinking, half-frightened, half-amused:

  Haaaa... I really screwed up. I wonder what's going to happen and what he's going to say to me... I'm expecting the worst...

  Strangely tired, my head heavy as if the whole world were weighing on my eyelids, I gave in to sleep.