She looked at me softly in response to my sudden question, her eyes curving faintly even though her lips never moved.
But then, I noticed something strange about her magic circle. Those runes, the formula she had crafted, carried a slight difference from the actual magic formulas for the forbidden technique. She had tweaked it. This variation was not a simple sharing of life force; it was a medium pouring all its remaining life into the intended target while completely cutting their connection, ensuring they would not be bound by a shared death.
The pale vines wrapped around her arms flickered weakly, their green glow slowly turning to a volatile red that barely reached the edges of the hidden basin anymore, as darkness slowly swallowed the rest. A sudden, artificial draft—stirred by the dying magic—whirled through the heavy air of the cavern while the flowers inside were also slowly drying.
"Madam… Grandma?"
Eane's voice cracked beside me. His eyes slowly opened, unfocused at first as if he were still trapped somewhere between sleep and pain. Then, he noticed the vines connecting their bodies, and panic instantly shattered whatever weakness remained in him. He instinctively knew exactly what that spell indicated.
"Stop!"
His body jerked violently, scattering glowing petals across the stone floor as the vines tightened around his arms.
"You shouldn't do this!" His breathing turned ragged. "I… I don't deserve it!"
He reached for the vines, but I grabbed both his wrists before he could touch the spell. "Stay still."
The moment my fingers touched him, a chill ran through my skin. Even if I did not want this to happen either, we had no other choice. "If the ritual breaks now, both of you could lose your mana hearts."
'If the connection snaps mid-transfer, the incomplete energy will backflow into their bodies like a tidal wave. Their now weak channels can't handle that kind of raw, turbulent force. It will shred their mana hearts from the inside out.'
The glowing patterns beneath the clematis flickered unstably for a moment, and Eane froze. Then, the strength left him almost immediately afterward. His shoulders trembled once before his hands slowly covered his face, though not before I caught the tears gathering in his eyes.
"…Ma… stop…"
The words barely escaped him.
"I'm bad luck, a curse…" His voice shook unevenly between breaths. "Everything they say is true…"
Silence settled over the basin. Even the restless mana seemed to quiet down around us.
"My parents… and now you…" Tears slipped through the gaps of his fingers, falling onto the glowing petals below. "I don't understand why I need to be saved."
Something tightened painfully inside my chest.
"Why should I keep living," his lips trembled weakly. "Even my siblings looked happier after I disappeared."
No one answered him. The old woman's hands continued trembling as she maintained the spell, thin strands of light still moving through the vines though much slower now. Then, Eane looked at her again, his eyes already red.
"Grandma…" His voice sounded frighteningly small. "I don't want to live if it means trading your life for mine."
For the first time since meeting him, I truly noticed how tired he looked. It was not a physical fatigue; it was something far deeper, the kind of exhaustion that settled into someone's soul after carrying too much for far too long.
The old woman lowered her hands after finishing her spell and gently pulled Eane closer into her arms. "Don't say that, my dear." Her voice was warm, yet fragile enough to break apart. "I've already lived long enough," she whispered softly. "Seen more than enough for one lifetime."
A faint scent of herbs and damp earth clung to her robes as she held him close. "Now it's your turn to continue the story."
Eane bit hard against his lip while her wrinkled fingers slowly brushed through his white hair.
"Even if I'm no longer here, you still have Kaiser." The clematis swayed quietly beneath the night breeze. "If your brothers and sisters turn away, he won't." A faint smile appeared on her face. "You know how much that child treasures you."
Eane's shoulders trembled harder beneath her embrace.
"We're family, Eane," she whispered. "So please… don't say things like that."
"K-Kaiser is destined for greatness," Eane whispered shakily. "If I can't become his strength… then I don't want to become something that drags him down."
The old woman's expression softened with quiet sadness. "Oh, Eane…" She pressed a gentle kiss against his forehead. "You still don't understand how precious you are to us."
After that, Eane buried his face against her shoulder while his quiet sobs disappeared into the fabric of her robe. Around us, the pale flora continued to wither beneath the moonlight, petals curling and blackening as the heavy cave air grew crisp and heavy with the scent of decaying stems. And for the first time, I finally understood what kind of person Eane truly was. He was not weak or fragile; he was simply tired. He was tired of surviving, tired of believing that everyone who loved him would eventually suffer because of his existence.
A crushing numbness dropped straight into my stomach, and a sickening guilt followed almost immediately after. Because I knew something they did not. This was never supposed to happen. Eane was never meant to survive this long in my original drafts. And somehow, looking at his shaking shoulders now, that authorial calculation disgusted me.
As if sensing the turbulence of my spirit, the old woman suddenly reached out and brushed my pink hair lightly. Her fingers carried a profound, fading warmth despite the chill settling over the basin.
"It's not your fault, my dear," her telepathic voice whispered softly inside my skull.
Those words nearly shattered the last of my resolve.
I lowered my gaze toward the clematis petal beneath my feet. "You haven't answered me," I said quietly, my voice still raw and scratchy from the physical strain of the expired mute penalty. "Are you the lost princess of the Elven Kingdom?"
A surprise appeared on her face at my stubborn persistence. The residual energy of her spell stirred her golden hair while an expectant silence stretched between us. Then, she smiled—a tired, almost nostalgic expression.
"It has been a very long time since someone called me by that title," her telepathic voice transferred directly into my brain once more, even as her lips remained perfectly still.
So it really was true. She wiped the blood lingering at the corner of her lips before sitting beside Eane atop the remaining petals glowing inside the cavern.
"You know far too much for someone claiming to be a simple wanderer."
I stiffened slightly, answering her within the same telepathic frequency. '…And you know far too much for someone who shouldn't know about me either.'
A soft, mental laugh rippled into my mind. "My dear, there are many things in this world that exist beyond fate's written pages."
A sudden pulse of displacement hummed through the basin, carrying the dried petals into the air as it moved softly around us. It was not her words that unsettled me. It was the way she spoke about fate—like it was not absolute at all.
Her eyes lowered toward Eane's now sleeping face. Without fear clouding his expression, he looked too young, too innocent.
"This child has suffered greatly," she whispered, her physical voice finally breaking through the silence of the basin.
The guilt returned almost immediately after hearing those words, heavy and uncomfortable.
"You regret it." Her quiet voice pulled me from my thoughts.
I stared silently at the glowing petals beneath my feet before finally answering. "…I do."
The old woman remained silent for a moment before speaking again. "The world listens closely to those who shape fate," she said softly. "Especially those who abandon it midway."
The still air of the basin suddenly felt sharper against my skin. "…What does that mean?"
She lightly brushed Eane's hair beneath her fingertips. "When a creator leaves behind an unfinished story, the suffering inside it does not disappear. The grief remains. The pain remains." Her eyes slowly lifted toward me. "And unfinished destinies continue searching for an ending."
Not even I could find words after that. Silence wrapped itself around the three of us, remaining unbroken for several minutes until a faint crunch echoed from the darkness.
Both of us froze instantly. Another step followed shortly after.
Footsteps. Someone was descending.
The atmosphere shifted immediately as a suffocating pressure rolled across the cliff like a storm—cold, violent, and utterly overwhelming. Even the glowing vines recoiled instinctively, retreating closer toward the old woman's sleeves. It was only then that I noticed only the flower in the center of the basin remained alive, while everything around it had already died.
Then, a familiar voice echoed from above. "…Eane."
Kaiser.
At that exact same moment, a searing agony ripped through my hand. I nearly hissed aloud as the eye buried beneath my skin started burning again, its iris twisting wildly under my flesh.
[ Warning: The Protagonist is within a fifty-meter radius. ]
Of course, he had found us already. The old woman sighed softly beside me. "My troublesome grandson arrived faster than expected."
Meanwhile, my soul nearly left my body. I immediately tried forcing myself upright.
"…Ow."
Pain instantly shot through my entire body. The old woman glanced toward me with visible amusement. "My dear," she said gently, "you currently resemble a dying fish attempting to walk."
'That was unnecessarily accurate.'
Her gaze slowly lifted toward the cliff above us before her expression softened slightly. "Young man," she said quietly, "that child… and the one approaching… both carry the future this world needs. Guide them well."
A strange heaviness settled inside my chest.
"For now," she continued softly, "your soul and Kaiser's are not yet in harmony."
The way she said it made my stomach tighten again, as if she could see far more than she should. She carefully lifted the sleeping Eane before placing him back into my arms. His body still felt cold, though his breathing had finally steadied. Then, she brushed away the remaining tears on his face and kissed his forehead gently.
"And now…" Her voice trembled faintly. "Before Kaiser reaches us… you must leave."
She stepped back slowly before raising her staff. The moment it touched the ground, glowing clematis petals bloomed around us in swirling waves of pale light as a magic circle spread beneath my feet. A localized updraft of warm air rushed toward the sky while the glowing petals spun around us like drifting feathers, brushing softly against my skin. For some reason, seeing her standing there alone filled my chest with an unbearable sadness.
Before I could stop myself, the question escaped my lips. "Wait… what's your name?"
The woman smiled softly. "Martha."
The distant moonlight cut through the abyss, resting across her golden hair while the flowers swayed quietly around her feet. Her eyes curved gently as she looked toward me one last time.
"I hope you succeed this time… my dearest."
Then, the petals closed around us completely.