I thought that night would be like any other. After a calm day in the woods, with no monsters, no absurd chaos, and no new debts knocking at the door, my body finally seemed to relax. We were back at the house we rented in Vailor, and even though the roof had some suspicious leaks and the floor creaked as if complaining about our presence, I was content. It felt like, for the first time in weeks, I was going to sleep without a single worry.
Elara had already passed out on her improvised mattress, completely exhausted after the mana collapse earlier. Vespera wrapped a blanket around her shoulders while muttering under her breath about how the child's cat had scratched her leg. Liriel was trying to conjure a small light to illuminate the room, but the magic flickered and went out, as always. When I noticed the goddess was starting to get irritated, I asked her to put it away before something else exploded.
I lay down, took a deep breath, and closed my eyes.
I just didn't expect to wake up in the middle of something that didn't feel like a simple dream.
At first, there was silence. A silence so deep it almost hurt. There was no wind, no footsteps, no distant sound of running water. Nothing. Just a white void surrounding me on all sides. I looked around, trying to understand where I was, but the only visible thing was a road of ice stretching endlessly into infinity. The ground was so smooth that I could see my own distorted reflection on it.
I took a step, and the sound echoed in an unnatural way, as if thousands of voices were repeating the same movement right behind me. My chest tightened. This wasn't a normal dream. My instincts screamed that at me.
The flame inside me burned faintly, as if trying to get my attention.
That was when I heard the first real sound in that place: something cracking. I looked up.
A massive block of ice began to break apart, revealing a glowing fissure. The light was so intense that I had to cover my eyes for a moment. When the light faded, he appeared.
A tall, thin figure, wrapped in a dark cloak that floated lightly, as if it didn't obey the rules of this world. His skin looked like it was made of the very ice that covered the ground. His face was hidden in shadow, except for two things that were impossible to ignore:
Two white eyes. Completely white. No pupils. No life. No emotion.
When he spoke, it was as if the sound came from every direction at once.
"I finally found you."
My body froze. An icy wave ran down my spine. I tried to take a step back, but my feet wouldn't move. It was as if the ice had trapped me.
"Who are you?" I asked, but my voice came out weak, almost as if it didn't belong to me.
The figure tilted his head slightly, as if analyzing every part of me. The flame inside me burned stronger, as if trying to warn me of a danger I still couldn't understand.
"You carry that which should not exist in this world," he said. "And because of that… I have been searching for you."
I felt something tighten around my heart. A cold, deep pain, as if I were being pierced from the inside out. I tried to breathe, but the air seemed to freeze before it could reach my lungs.
"If you continue walking this path… we will meet soon," the figure continued. "And when that happens…"
He raised his hand. Long, thin, almost translucent fingers. The ice on the ground cracked toward me.
"…I will take back what belongs to our realm."
The ground opened.
I fell.
An abyss of darkness swallowed me, and the last sound I heard was his laughter. A cold, distant laugh that echoed inside my head as if it were glued to my soul.
My eyes snapped open.
I was lying in the living room of the house in Vailor, my heart racing and my body trembling. My chest ached as if someone had truly squeezed it. My breathing was heavy, and it took me a few seconds to remember where I was.
Vespera was sleeping in a strange position, using her boots as a pillow. Elara was still out cold, her expression peaceful. Liriel was softly snoring, probably exhausted from spending too much magic trying to light a simple lamp.
Everything was normal.
Everything was the same.
But inside me… nothing was the same.
The flame reacted, pulsing restlessly, as if it had been forcibly awakened by the dream — or by the presence of that being.
I ran a hand over my face and let out a long sigh. That wasn't the kind of dream you could ignore. Those white eyes… That ice… That voice…
"Found you."
Those words echoed in my head as if they were still being spoken at that very moment.
I took a deep breath once more, trying to calm myself. But the truth was simple:
Something had reached me in my dreams.
And that… was only the beginning.