She sat upright, the necklace in one hand and the book in the other.
This must be a waste of time, she thought.
She opened the first page.
She took a deep breath.
THUMP, THUMP, THUMP...
And began to read.
There was no table of contents, just the story that started right away.
The following pages poured over her like hot water in a terrible winter.
It was fantasy.
A world too distant — with magic, creatures, tragedy.
It was strange, yet it flowed with ease.
Was it... interesting?
Once upon a time, or many times?
In short, since the book was quite complete, the introduction told of a world devastated by supernatural predators. Magical creatures and humans lived there, but not in harmony. Dragons, demons, devouring beasts — all saw humans as easy prey. They were the weakest, even though, ironically and tragically, they held the largest reservoir of mana. This energy was rare and precious, and even though ninety-eight percent of humans could not manifest it, they were still hunted to feed monsters and dark rituals. A world where being human was a death sentence.
Marin frowned as she read that.
Even then, she felt a growing discomfort. The following pages told of the rise of an entity that surpassed the threat of wild creatures: the Demon King. Summoned by corrupt and ambitious humans, his power swept across kingdoms, and with him was born the Blood Cult, a group of humanity's traitors.
Four heroes rose to fight him, from the most powerful clans of humankind.
Each carried the strength of blessed generations:
Druvaka, the mountain clan, descendants of giants, masters of physical strength and honor.
Virelion, the people of the forest, healers and warriors graced by a god from another plane.
Marevilles, lords of the southern isles, protected by the spirits of the water.
Elyndor, children of the central plains, heirs of the great white dragon and wielders of sacred fire.
The Lieutenant had arched her brows at this part.
They sounded like noble houses from some cheap romance.
She kept reading.
The four heroes defeated the Demon King and founded an empire, unifying humans under a single banner. Druvaka and Marevilles refused to rule — one desired the isolation of the mountains, the other only wished to care for the islands. That left Virelion and Elyndor. The holy warrior of Virelion married the blazing hero of Elyndor, becoming empress. Their bloodlines sealed a pact: from time to time, their descendants would unite in marriage to keep power within the families.
Over time, the empire prospered. Elyndor became the imperial house, while the other three clans became ducal. Nobles, blessed with the gift of mana, were tasked with protecting commoners. At least on paper. The reality, hinted between the lines of the manuscript, was that the powerful grew ever more distant from the people.
The book then introduced its protagonist: Lucius Elyndor, the empire's second prince. Blond, with golden eyes like flames, beloved by all, admired for his beauty and generosity. Considered the likely next emperor, even though he was not the firstborn. He had strong ties with the ducal heirs, especially Lydia Virelion, the young saint — his fiancée since childhood.
"Of course..." Marin muttered, rolling her eyes.
But then the antagonist appeared: the first prince. A bastard son of the emperor and a servant, with no maternal family, no political inheritance. Silent, reserved, he envied Lucius and desired the throne. He went to war seeking recognition, but when he returned, there was something dark in his eyes. He had allied with the Blood Cult.
The story escalated into tragedy. The dark prince, upon learning of Lucius's engagement to Lydia, went mad. He conquered Marevilles, now vulnerable after the extinction of its ducal house. The duke's daughter had died in childhood, and the duke himself had taken his own life.
The territory was adrift. The population, isolated and tainted by rumors of being cursed and abandoned by the water spirits, became easy prey.
There, the prince established his domain.
He kidnapped Lydia and tried to force her into marriage.
Lucius set out on a desperate mission to rescue her.
Marevilles became a bloody battlefield.
Thousands died.
War consumed everything.
The book described the horrors with a sick beauty.
The prince trying to force Lydia into marriage.
Lucius riding to the rescue, heroic.
A bloody war that devastated Marevilles.
Thousands of innocents dead.
Thousands!
The cult was reborn, stronger.
The prince was now a new Demon King.
Marin felt her throat tighten.
The narrative described his black hair, his red eyes — "eyes that terrified Lydia" — and that stuck in Marin's mind.
She stopped reading for a moment.
THUMP, THUMP, THUMP...
Her heart pounded with anger.
She went on.
Lucius and Lydia managed to escape.
The empire shrank inward. Nobles and descendants of the clans hid in the capital, shielded by the saint's magic barrier. Meanwhile, the rest of the world was crushed by chaos.
Entire peoples wiped off the map.
Children slaughtered.
Villages burned.
The narrative continued to exalt the main couple.
After many years and millions dead — millions — Lucius finally killed his brother. The villain fell to his knees, bleeding, and his last words were:"I only wanted to..."
But before he could finish, Lucius tore out his heart.
THUMP, THUMP, THUMP...
Marin shut the book.
She felt nauseous.
She breathed deep and opened it again.
Lucius ripped his brother's heart out with his bare hands, still beating, under the euphoric screams of the nobility and the blood dripping from his brother.
Lydia kissed Lucius in front of the corpse, still warm.
The survivors of the capital celebrated.
Celebration.
Lights.
Wedding.
"Love."
Millions had died, yet everyone who mattered — nobles and allies — lived. The royal couple's wedding ended the book, with a lavish feast that lasted a week.
Happy ending.
"Happy ever after, while the rest of the world rots in ruins," Marin thought, throwing the manuscript angrily onto the bed.
She stood still for a few seconds, then let out a disbelieving laugh.
"Millions died because of two spoiled brothers and a woman called a 'Saint'?" she spat the words, as if the taste of the text disgusted her. "They call this heroes? They call this love? The whole world sacrificed, and the happy ending is a shitty royal wedding?"
She rose, pacing in circles.
Her fingers trembled.
She hated that story.
Why did it affect her so much?
"Was it you who wrote this, Eshiley?" she murmured, her gaze falling back on the manuscript on the bed. "Is that why you sent it to me? What did you want me to see here?"
She picked up the necklace again with both hands.
She studied the piece for long moments.
"This has nothing to do with that damn book. You only sent me the necklace so I'd open the package, didn't you? But why? What's the point of all this?"
Marin had no answers.
Only anguish.
It had taken her about ten hours to read that detailed manuscript.
There was particularly useless information about political conversations and secondary events. Yet she felt the book had countless holes.
The perspective of the story followed only Lucius — what he saw, heard, and spoke. The narrator was almost absent. More a witness than an author.
The sun had already risen, and Marin hadn't slept at all.
She tried not to think she had wasted her time.
She was sure the story was more than it seemed. Much more. And now, she needed to uncover what.
Outside, the sky was beginning to brighten, painting the horizon in pale, cold tones. The morning light seeped into the room, bringing with it the sense that nothing would ever be the same again.
Then, her phone buzzed with an urgent message.
A familiar yet tense voice came through the line. It was from the military communications sector. It wasn't common to receive such calls this early — and least of all, during a silent night.
THUMP, THUMP, THUMP...
"Lieutenant, we need you to come to command immediately. There were heavy casualties during the last mission of the Aegis."
THUMP, THUMP, THUMP...
She swallowed hard, her heart racing. Aegis was the ship where the captain had been deployed. The news didn't yet say everything, but the silence behind the words spoke loudly.
Marin dressed quickly, the medallion cold against her skin. The truth, however, was still shrouded in shadows.
She didn't yet know exactly what had happened on that battlefront.
But she knew that from that moment on, her life would change forever.
To be continued...