The first thing Elara felt was cold. Not the kind that numbs your skin — the kind that seeps into your bones and makes you forget what warmth ever felt like.
Her eyes blinked open slowly.
She was lying on a stone floor, damp and cracked, in a place where light didn’t live. The walls were black stone, the ceiling lost in shadow. The only thing that moved was the whispers — soft, echoing voices that circled the prison like invisible ghosts, carrying secrets not meant to hear.
She tried to sit up, but her limbs were heavy. Her head ached.
Where am I?
The last thing she remembered was the mirror… the truth… and then nothing but a flash of darkness.
Suddenly, the silence broke.8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbosmJfgkZR
A heavy iron door creaked open, and soft footsteps echoed against the stone.
A woman entered — veiled in ash-grey silk, her face hidden, her steps calm and measured. She carried a small clay bowl filled with water.
“You’re awake,” the woman said softly, kneeling beside Elara. Her voice was gentle. Too gentle.
“Here. Drink. You’ll need your strength.”
Elara stared at her, unsure if this was kindness… or something else.
“Who are you?” she asked.
“I was once like you. A girl taken from her home,” the woman whispered, setting the bowl down. “I survived. And I want to help you. But first… you must tell me…”
She leaned in closer.
“Where is your amulet?”
Elara’s eyes widened. Her fingers instinctively moved to her neck — but the amulet was gone.
“I don’t know,” she said, quietly.
The woman paused. Her hands stilled.
“Think carefully, child. That amulet does not belong to you alone. It is a doorway... a weapon... and something far more dangerous.”
Elara said nothing.
“You refuse to speak?” the woman asked again.
Elara looked her in the eyes.
“I don’t trust you.”
The air shifted.
The woman’s soft smile twisted into something cruel — and then her face changed. The veil turned to shadow. Her eyes became two pools of red fire. Her cloak burned away, revealing black armor that pulsed like living darkness.
She rose to her full height, no longer pretending.
Queen Vishkaniya.
“Your silence is admirable,” she hissed. “But don’t forget who you are. My blood runs in your veins. You are mine.”
Shadowy forms began to slither along the walls — dark hands reaching from cracks in the stone. Elara’s chest tightened.
“You can take me,” she said, voice trembling, “but you can’t have my soul.”
Vishkaniya tilted her head.
“Ah. But child… your soul was never just yours. It holds what even I once feared.”
She turned and walked into the darkness, her voice echoing long after her body vanished.
“Soon, you will remember… and you will beg to give it to me.”
Meanwhile… Realm of Light
The palace of Queen Ayela stood quiet under a sky streaked with gold. But inside, the court buzzed with worry.
Kael stood rigid beside Ayela, his eyes hollow, hands shaking.
“She’s gone,” he whispered. “I felt it the moment the amulet broke contact.”
Ayela’s hand rested gently on the edge of the crystal table. Her expression was calm — but her magic pulsed like thunder beneath her skin.
Just then, soft flutters of wings echoed through the chamber.
A Rosy Fairy, small and glowing with pink light, flew in — holding something wrapped in silk leaves.
She bowed and offered it up.
“We found this,” she said softly. “Near the forest where the princess once walked.”
Ayela unwrapped it slowly — and there it was.
The amulet.
The moment her fingers touched it, it flared with a golden light that made every fairy in the hall lower their gaze. Kael stepped back, as if struck.
“It is hers,” Ayela said, her voice full of awe and sorrow. “And she left it behind not by choice.”
Kael stepped forward. “Then Vishkaniya has her.”
Ayela nodded once, slowly. “But where she keeps her now… even I cannot see.”
“Then how will we find her?” he asked desperately.
Ayela turned toward the crystal mirror and whispered something ancient. The surface flickered, but showed only clouds.
“We won’t use magic this time,” Ayela said. “We’ll use memory… and blood… and the path no one dares
ns216.73.216.238da2
