The voices rose twisted, desperate, echoing through the black smoke.
"Let us go… please, release us… come closer take our place."
The voices screeched from all directions, a thousand whispers tearing through the air.
From the darkness emerged a creature its form like black smoke bound by agony, its eyes hollow, echoing hunger.
It lunged at Lyanna, shrieking and screamed with a voice that could split bone.
Its cry spread like a plague and then more came. Countless, distorted beings, each more grotesque than the last howling, crying, clawing at the air. The sounds pressed against her skull until Lyanna clasped her hands over her ears, stumbling through the endless corridor of wailing shadows.
Her breaths came sharp and broken. The air itself trembled as if alive.
her heartbeat thrumming against her palms.
The noise was unbearable a sound that clawed straight into her mind.
She stumbled forward, through the thick mist, running until the world bent and the path itself came to an end.
At last after what felt like an eternity she reached the end. A vast boundary stood before her, an open space suspended in a void of black clouds.
In its center a colossal door, towering endlessly upward, its edges fading into nothing.
The moment Lyanna approached, the creatures fell silent.
There were no walls now.
No cages.
Only an endless black field floating beneath storm clouds, and at its heart a towering door, ancient and lightless, stretching so high the top vanished into the dark.
The moment she stepped closer, the creatures fell silent.
Through the split door, Lyanna saw a single parchment hovering above a black mass that pulsed like breathing smoke.
From the darkness beyond the door, something shimmered a floating page upon a smoky pedestal. Beside it, an ancient pen hovered, waiting.
A low laugh rippled through the chamber deep, hollow, unearthly.
"Go on," a voice said from beyond the door, rich and cold.
"Take it. Write your name.. You should feel honored to stand before me so soon. I promise you this… you won't be alone."
The pen floated toward her, stopping just before her trembling hand.
Around her, the creatures began to shudder, muttering, laughing, whispering words she couldn't understand their eyes gleaming with something close to hope.
Uncertain and afraid, Lyanna reached out. The pen was cold, almost alive. On the page before her, words appeared by themselves:
"You have been brought here.
Yes, brought
Because of a single spark of pity in your heart.
Through you, the eternally cursed shall find release.
Your presence alone is enough to free those who have suffered for eternity.
Their pain ends with a single touch yours.
Then another line formed:
Read the next line, and close your eyes.
You will see."
Her lips trembled as she whispered the strange words written below.
"Hoyong mong… hoyong mong…"
The world cracked.
Lyanna gasped as light and shadow swirled together she was pulled into a vision, into a place stitched from the memories of the trapped souls.
She stood in a realm of floating shadows, surrounded by smoke and silence.
A sound came from behind her a deep, painful groan.
She saw a man tall, bare, half starved, his ribs pushing through pale skin. His hair was long and tangled , his body thin and wasted, skin torn where chains had bitten deep.
He leaned against the wall, bound by ropes that glowed with cruel fire.
When the black smoke began to coil around him, he screamed his skin melting, his bones breaking apart into the darkness.
"Please… let me go! Free me!" he begged, his voice fading into ashes.
The darkness swallowed his words, devouring his body, tearing him apart until nothing but his voice remained
Lyanna stood frozen, horror locking her breath.
Then came another scream a woman this time. Something unseen pulled her down, swallowing her whole.
For one fleeting moment, their eyes met lovers torn apart by something far worse than death.
And then both were gone.
Lyanna's heart pounded.
Her chest tightened as she realized these creatures weren't born this way.
They had once been human.
She blinked and the vision dissolved. The page still floated before her, new words forming.
"Do you not wish to end their torment?
They have endured for thousands of years.
You may free them
Sign your name, and grant deliverance
All you must do is sign,
Offer freedom.
Let the seal be broken."
The creatures began to wail again, their voices now trembling with longing rather than rage.
"Sign it!"
"Give us freedom!"
"Save us!"
"Our savior… our light…"
Lyanna stepped back, her hands shaking ,
"What will happen to me if I do?" she whispered toward the door.
The creatures went silent.
Then, a heavy, distant voice replied:
"Nothing in this world is free. To gain something, another must lose. To earn peace… one must bear sorrow."
Lyanna frowned. "What do you mean?"
The voice continued, calm yet commanding.
"Those trapped here are bound by their own choices. They glimpsed this realm, and their desires consumed them. They cannot die.
Only certain souls rare ones an release them.
If you choose to take their place, their pain will end."
Lyanna's eyes widened. "So if I become one of them… they'll be free?"
A low chuckle drifted through the darkness.
A soft, grim chuckle echoed :
"No. Only one may be freed for every soul that chooses to stay. Not forever.
Every soul that trades its place holds a power the power to return.
After nine hundred and ninety nine days, you may pass it on to another.
Until then, this realm will belong to you
A world of your own making.
Where no one can hurt you.
No one can leave you.
Only you."
Lyanna stood still, her heartbeat loud in her ears.
The creatures waited, whispering softly now, as if afraid to break her silence. She fell silent, her mind sinking under the weight of it all.
"And what's the gain in that?" she whispered.
The creatures began to cry again, their voices like breaking glass.
The voice spoke again lower, nearer:
"The gain is freedom....
You may shape your own world empty, peaceful, perfect.
If you sign… you'll no longer be bound.
You'll have a world where only you exist no pain, no betrayal, no eyes watching you. Only peace. Only you."
Lyanna stared at the page. The pen trembled in her hand.
"Isn't this what you wanted?" the voice whispered.
"A place where no one can reach you?
Where every wound fades, and every memory sleeps?
Lyanna exhaled slowly.
Her hand tightened around the pen.
"…Alright," she whispered.
"I'll do it."
---