It was cold.
Cold. Far too cold.
The touch was like ice, sinking into my skin, spreading through my bones
A gnawing chill spread upward, creeping around my arm like a creeping fog, wrapping itself around, and for a moment I stopped breathing.
And then, I felt it. A hollow sensation that seeped deep into my core.
It was not just coldness—it was a wave of pure sadness, an overwhelming, suffocating grief that swallowed everything inside me.
I could feel my body make the slightest twitch.
Tears fell down my cheeks hot and thick and I couldn't stop them.
I didn't even know why I was crying.
For an instant, I froze.
I could feel my mind spiraling but the heat of my flames brought me back to a normal state of mind.
I erupted an explosion, flames growing wilder and I could feel its icy grasp slowly releasing.
I backed away slowly as I calmed the flames down.
This creature—the void—feeds off your mind. I feel like being here is just going to drive me crazy.
I felt desperate I needed to leave.
My vision was drained of color as I stepped.
Stepped to a shadow, any shadow would do. I just needed to be far around.
My initial step sent me about ten-to-fifteen meters away, but I continued.
I stepped.
And stepped again.
By the time I emerged from the shadows, an overwhelming wave of exhaustion hit me like a freight train. My legs buckled beneath me, my vision blurred, and a sharp, pulsating pain throbbed in my head. Everything around me appeared doubled, and I could barely move anything below my arms. Still, I knew I couldn't afford to stay down, though my body refused to obey. I had no idea where I had ended up, nor whether the creature had lost track of me.
Using Shadow Step three times had drained me beyond anything I'd ever experienced. I was utterly spent—my body aching, my mind clouded, and the only thing I could do was lie there, helpless.
My eyelids grew unbearably heavy, and my vision remained a flickering blur, caught in the familiar world void of color. Desperate, I attempted to channel mana from my core, but the effort barely helped. The pain from using Shadow Step was above all else, it was overwhelming, and I quickly gave up.
Even though the fear of the creature lurking nearby still gnawed at the edges of my mind, I couldn't muster the strength to move. As I glanced around one last time, I noticed something strange—maybe it was just my fading vision, but it appeared to be some sort of statue. Every time I tried to focus on it, my eyes burned, forcing me to snap them shut.
So, I finally let the crushing weight of exhaustion overtake me.
—
"Hiss...ssss…"
A sound I was oddly unfamiliar with startled me awake, and I reached out for my core sending flames shooting down my right arm, as I leaped backwards nearly stumbling back onto the ground.
"Oh, do snakes frighten you?"
A woman asked, her voice clearly amused.
It took me only a moment to let my guard down seeing the familiar face touching this thing that woke me up so timidly.
I let out a deep sigh before flopping back down, slightly intimidated by the fact she was able to find me and I wasn't even aware that she had come.
The presence she carried was that of a feather, light, gentle yet powerful, barely stirring the air or anything yet she was impossible to miss, she moved with quiet grace and what followed her presence so gravely was a ominous feeling, yet I couldn't help not being afraid of her.
After all, she reminded me of Stella in a way.
"You've stumbled upon The Statue of Lysandra, beautiful isn't it?"
She continued without giving me time to reply.
"Life here is rare, and Lysandra and I haven't known each other for quite some time." She smiled slightly
I glanced at the statue for a brief moment before coming to a realization of how big truly was.
In the middle of towering trees draped in moss that seemed to bend over as if to worship something stood a tall statue, the statue of Lysandra, carved from deep, gleaming obsidian, the statue coils in a sinuous, graceful spiral, the body a smooth ribbon of stone. The scales are intricately etched, each one distinct, like overlapping shards of onyx and silver, catching the light with a soft, almost metallic sheen.
Lysandra's head is poised in an eternal gaze, its eye sockets hollow yet somehow imbued with a quiet depth, as if they could clearly see through this dream. Its fangs, long and delicate, curve from its upper jaw like polished ivory, gleaming under the light of a hidden moon. Its tongue, eternally flickering in mid-air, is carved with such precision that it seems to taste the air around her.
The serpent's long, elegant tail wraps around a stone pedestal, its tip reaching toward the stars, Winding vines, twisted with beauty, luminescent flowers, creep up her body.
I peered down at the snake, evidently confused. "That monstrous creature is this thing?"
The statue was completely different from its predecessor, while the statue was monstrous the snake was no longer than a foot or two.
"She's beautiful, not monstrous, and yes that's her."
I looked at the statue once more and noticed something at the top of its mouth, just between her sharp, ivory fangs, lies an intricate symbol carved with perfect precision. It is a crescent moon intertwined with a serpent's coiling tail, the two forms locked in an eternal dance. The crescent moon curves around the serpent's tail, forming a perfect loop, with the tip of the tail piercing the top of the moon's arc.
The statue and the snake were both intriguing but it wasn't what was most important as of now, "About the Darkling—" I peered my eyes away from the statue, my attention back to the woman, "—what am I supposed to do?"