Vashi's eyes remained tightly shut, her breathing slow and measured, though her mind was sharpened with unease. She could feel it again—those shadows shifting at the edges of the room, lurking, circling. Closer… closer.
The air grew heavier, colder, as if something unseen leaned over her. She did not flinch, only waited, every muscle coiled in silence beneath the blanket, her grip tightened on the knife she was holding.
Then…when the presence drew near, so near she could almost feel its breath against her face, her eyes snapped open. In the same heartbeat, her arm shot out from under the covers, striking upward with sudden, deadly precision.
The blades of the knife only pierced through thin air.
Vashi bolted upright, her chest heaving in a frantic rhythm, each breath louder than the silence around her. Strands of hair clung wildly to her damp forehead, her once breathtaking appearance now reduced to a disheveled ruin.
In the pale moonlight, her eyes glimmered with a feverish intensity—half madness, half fury.
She had not slept all night. Every time her lids threatened to close, the shadows returned—mocking her, stalking her.
Now, as she sat trembling on the bed. Something…someone was trying to drive her to madness.
"Come out! Show yourself!
Her voice cracked as she whispered into the emptiness, a bitter mixture of anger and desperation:
Yet no answer came; only the faint creak of the wooden door echoed. She snapped her head in the direction of the door, just in time to see a shadow disappearing through the door.
She flung the blanket wrapped around her body away; with swiftness she climbed down from her bed, the knife still in her grip. Her dark hair cascading over her face, she made her way to the door, her hands fastening the rope of the night robe she was wearing.
She pushed open the heavy door, the hinges groaning like a warning, and stepped into the long hall. The torches along the walls had long since died, leaving the passage bathed only in the pale glow of the moonlight streaming through the tall arched windows.
She squinted her eyes as her gaze roamed around; inadvertently, her gaze darted ahead… and she froze.
At the farthest end of the hall, beyond the stretch of the moonlight piercing through the window at the end of the hallway, stood a figure—a woman's shadow.
The woman was clothed in a white dress, the breeze gliding along the hallways blew, and her hair swayed under the moonlight.
Vashi's grip on the knife tightened, her heart racing.
"I am clearly not dreaming…" she muttered as she advanced towards the shadow that was backing her; she wanted to catch a glimpse of the face of the person trying to frustrate her life.
If possible, she would disfigure the face of the shadow with the knife in her hand, and the screams of the mystery person would fill her ears like a lullaby.
Yes! Yes!
These were Vashi's thoughts: to be free, to be able to sleep with both eyes closed…peacefully.
Just as she was close enough, the figure takes a turn towards another section of the hallway, fast-paced feet gliding across the hall.
"No! Wait!
Vashi screams before going after the figure. Her nightdress giving way to the breeze, her long hair flapping behind her back. Her green eyes filled with vengeance to end this madness tonight.
...
Micah stirred on her bed; she changed her sleeping position, changing sides when something flickered on her eyes.
She sits up steadily, then reaches for the jug of water on the stand beside her bed, only to find it empty. With a sigh, she climbed down from her bed, the silk hem of her nightrobe gliding on the floor as she walked across the chamber.
But she stopped midway.
Her gaze snapped toward the table by the far end of the room—where the oil lamp she had extinguished hours ago now burned steadily, its flame alive, as if someone had only just lit it.
Micah was stunned. The jug in her hand almost faltered. After some fleeting seconds, she composed herself, her gaze wary of her environment.
She drew a slow, uneven breath, then began to move. Her bare feet glided over the cold stone as she languidly walked towards the table.
She soon realized the chair in front of the table was drawn backwards as if someone had sat on this chair. Beside the lamp rested a small folded scroll, with some stains of ink on the wooden table.
Someone had sat on this very chair and wrote a letter to her in her chamber while she was asleep!
Micah's eyes swept the chamber in a careful scan, searching for the intruder that must have come and gone without sound.
With trembling hands, she picked up the scroll and slowly opened it. Her eyes moved from left to right as she read the words written on the scroll, and as she did, the countenance of her face quickly changed to that of shock and realization.
By the time she had finished reading the short letter written with beautiful handwriting. Micah knew she had to act fast; she couldn't tell how long the letter had been sitting on the table awaiting her arrival.
She quickly made her way out of her chamber, her black hair swaying as she hastened….
"I hope I am not too late."
.......
Vashi kept running around the castle in pursuit of the figure, who only she could see; she took every turn the woman took and every staircase.
She was unaware of where she was going, but blinded by thirst to draw blood, she went after this mystery woman in hot pursuit until she arrived in the grand hall.
Vashi slowed down in her steps; the grand hall was huge, filled with statues of Ragaleon and the late king, Harris Clegane; the woman clothed in a white gown could be anywhere.
The room Vashi was standing in was lit up with torches; her eyes roamed around before resting on a rocky chair where a lady was seated.
"Who are you! Show yourself!
Vashi screamed, but only the sound of the wooden chair rocking back and forth could be heard.
"Only the dead can see me." The woman seated on the rocky chair says in a whisper.
"You are dead." She added.
"I am very much alive; I will end this right now." Vashi' voice was ice cold.
The grand hall was suffocating in silence. Faint torchlight licked the stone walls, their flames fighting against the thick shadows that seemed alive, gathering at the edges of the room.
The wooden chair rocked to and fro in the dead silence.
The lady seated on it had a perfect posture, her spine straightened up, her hands resting with unnerving calm on the cracked arms of the chair.
Around her, a heavy aura pulsed—dark, brooding, and commanding. Her face was carved into stillness, no curve of a smile, no wrinkle of rage, just a straight face void of emotions that hid more than it revealed.
But her eyes betrayed her—a cold twinkle, not of warmth, but of something dangerous, something snow and ice.
Slowly, with a sound like stone grinding against stone, the rocky chair began to turn.Shifted under her weight, the scrape echoed across the room, crawling into the bones of all who heard it.
Inch by inch, the chair rotated, the lady crossing her legs elegantly, her form revealed in dreadful majesty.
When at last she faced Vashi, her gaze locked with Vashi's for a while, who believed her to be nothing but a forgotten memory.
Vashi staggered backwards, her very sight betraying her.
The knife in her hand faltered…
"Jazell?"
She whispered… her throat contracting as she pressed the words out.
Jazell's eyes did not blink. They glittered with the cruel beauty of a storm long awaited, of vengeance coiled and ready to strike.
She did not rise; she didn't need to. The very act of turning, seated, unflinching, was a declaration.
She had returned.
And in that terrible stillness, Jazell smiles in a deranged manner; she was wrapped up with a blanket swung over her shoulders, and only the skin on her face was visible.
"Vashi, Vashi, Vashi."
Jazell called Vashi' name, emphasizing with each pause.
Vashi couldn't believe her eyes. She was too speechless to form any meaningful sentence; she could only see the unbelievable with her eyes.
"This…is not possible." Her voice was breaking as she talked.
"I am standing right in front of you, Vashi. This is the reality; you are not dreaming, so it is very much…possible."
Jazell reassured her before rising to her feet, then she inched forward, but Vashi took three steps backwards frantically, almost losing her balance.
"Don't come closer." Vashi said, placing one hand on her chest, trying to catch her breath, "Why was her heart racing?"
"Why? You are not afraid to kill me for the second time, are you?"
"I don't know what you are talking about." Vashi answered genuinely, but Jazell broke into cunning laughter. The pitch of her voice rose and echoed in the silent hall.
"You poisoned the wine, Vashi. I know it, you know it…."
"I didn't poison the wine." Vashi intruded.
"Lies!
Jazell screams and then suddenly removes the blanket she has been using to cover up herself, and it falls to the floor.
"The things the poison did to my perfect skin, and yet they stand flawless." Jazell says, fingering her hand, she was wearing a short-sleeve gown. Her hand ran up and down her skin as a mournful countenance shaped on her face.
When Vashi gazed at Jazell's skin, her eyes paled from terror, and her memory drifted back to when she had visited Jazell in her chamber just yesterday. Her skin was blue, scaly…absolutely horrible.
"You can't be a ghost." Vashi refused to admit it.
"I have come to avenge whoever poisoned the wine I drank, and it was you, Vashi!
"I didn't poison that wine, Jazell!
"If you deny it for the second time, there won't be a third." Jazell warned
"I had nothing against you, Jazell; I am only after the King. It is him I seek to kill, not you." Vashi was losing her mind; she didn't know when she started confessing.
"Oh! I see! You tried to poison the king, but I ended up drinking the wine…" Jazell puts the puzzle together.
Vashi snarls…
"Come to me, my little pet." She murmurs under her breath. calling on Viper while whispering low enchantments.
Jazell watches her with an unswerving gaze.
"Are you looking for this?" Jazell says, feigning a sad tone, as she takes two steps sideways, revealing a box that has been hidden behind her.
The box kept shifting, as if something was struggling to come outside of it. It was Viper.
Vashi's siren eyes darkened.
Just as she was about to take a step forward, a voice commanded….
"Guards, seize her!