The moon hung low that night pale, full, and silent.
Aiden couldn't sleep.
He tossed and turned in his small apartment, the faint hum of the city leaking through cracked windows. His hands wouldn't stop trembling. Every time he closed his eyes, the scent of rain and steel filled his lungs.
And that voice...
That name...
Ariselle.
He didn't know who she was.
He only knew that when he heard it, his chest ached like something sacred had been torn away.
"Who are you?" he whispered into the dark.
"And why do you feel like me?"
The air around him shifted colder, sharper, alive.
The light flickered once, and suddenly... the world changed.
He stood in a vast hall of white marble, moonlight spilling through shattered glass.
The air smelled of blood and incense.
At the center of the hall was a woman tall, radiant, with hair the color of sunlight and eyes that mirrored his own.
She turned slowly, her expression soft and sad.
"So, you finally came," she said. Her voice was both his and not his echoing from somewhere deep inside his soul.
Aiden stared at her. "You're"
"Lady Ariselle," she finished, smiling faintly. "Or what's left of her."
He shook his head. "This can't be real."
"Reality and dreams are only different sides of the same mirror," she replied.
"I've been waiting, Aiden. Waiting for you to remember."
The hall trembled, cracks spidering across the marble floor. Outside, thunder rolled.
"Why me?" he asked. "Why my body?"
She stepped closer. Their reflections overlapped her face melting into his.
"Because you were empty," she whispered. "And I… was lost."
"Then what am I now?"
"Both," she said. "And neither."
A tear slipped down her cheek his cheek.
"The curse hasn't ended. The gods will come for us again. But this time… he's here too."
"Who?"
Before she could answer, the sound of chains filled the air golden light wrapping around her wrists, pulling her backward.
"Find him before they do!" she cried, her voice breaking.
"He remembers more than you think!"
The hall collapsed.
Aiden screamed and woke.
He was back in his bed, drenched in sweat, heart pounding. The room was bathed in moonlight, and on his desk lay something that hadn't been there before a single white feather, faintly glowing.
He reached out to touch it, and a voice low, familiar, aching whispered from behind him:
"You shouldn't have seen her."
Aiden froze.
Elias stood by the window, half-hidden in the shadows. His coat was soaked, his hair disheveled, his eyes unreadable.
"E-Elias… what are you doing here?"
"Making sure you're still alive," he said flatly. "You've drawn attention."
"From who?"
"Not who. What."
Elias stepped forward, and in the dim light, Aiden saw faint markings glowing under his skin sigils that pulsed like veins of gold.
"You…" Aiden whispered. "You're not human, are you?"
Elias looked at him really looked and for the first time, Aiden saw sorrow beneath the storm.
"Neither are you," Elias said quietly.
"Not anymore."
A gust of wind blew the window open, scattering papers across the room.
The feather dissolved into light.
Aiden stood frozen, realizing that the life he thought was ordinary… never truly belonged to him.
And outside, beneath the cold, indifferent moon someone, or something, was watching.