⟡ Chapter 25: The Bad Cow
The path was light, but the air was hollow.
It stretched beneath their feet in a gentle arc, floating through the vast dark void that surrounded them. No horizon. No wind. No walls. Just the sense that something ancient watched with unblinking patience.
Vexi walked a few steps behind, her arms crossed, her eyes sharp but quiet.
Jio glanced at her.
"You okay?"
"No," she muttered. "This place is older than death. And we're walking in it like tourists."
Havella raised an eyebrow. "You're the one who read the door."
"Not on purpose," Vexi hissed.
They walked in silence for a while, the echo of their steps vanishing into nothingness.
Then Vexi spoke again.
"Since the beginning… at least for us, in the outer rings… everyone is born knowing her name."
"Alminice?" Jio asked.
She nodded slowly.
"It's not religion. It's like... memory. Carved into our blood. We're told never to seek her, never to knock on the door. Her body, they said, is made of dark matter itself, collected from collapsed stars, silent wars, and broken destinies. She's not a beast. She's... consumption. The Void clothed as will."
Jio blinked. "And we just… spoke with her."
"She let us pass," Vexi muttered. "Because we're beneath her. Not because we're worthy. She can't even go further in. That should tell you what's ahead."
Havella frowned. "You mean the First Fairie's realm?"
Vexi didn't answer right away. She stared into the shifting light ahead, her voice softening.
"The place I thought I lived in… the one I thought was a realm... it was nothing but the doorstep. Like dirt outside the temple of something impossible. I thought I understood her presence. But now..."
She stopped walking for a second.
"I don't understand anything anymore."
Neither did they.
But no one said it aloud.
Jio adjusted his belt, a quiet click heard as he touched an empty sheath.
"My knife didn't come through," he said.
Havella turned to him, noticing the slight tension in his voice. "You'll manage. You still have Bright Call."
"I know," he said. "But you made that knife for me..... It's stupid, but..."
"It's not stupid," she interrupted. "Losing things that mattered... it still matters."
She touched his shoulder gently.
Vexi, watching with a flat expression, squinted.
"Disgusting," she said plainly.
Havella shot her a look. "Excuse me?"
The girl tilted her head, pointing a lazy finger towards them both.
"You've been cultivating him since young… you truly are a bad cow."
"...What?" Jio blinked, confused.
Vexi just stared at them both, deadpan.
"You two fight monsters, get lost in other realms, talk with ancient snake queens and hold hands like it's a bedtime story. You're not partners. You're a farm."
Havella's mouth opened, speechless.
Jio coughed a laugh, then tried to hide it.
"I don't even know what that means," Havella muttered under her breath.
Vexi just kept walking ahead, her small steps echoing into the stillness.
"You don't need to," she said. "Cows never do."
Jio smiled despite himself.
And together, the three of them continued their slow march into the place no one was ever meant to reach — the true first realm, where the First Fairie still waited, unseen and unchanged.
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End of Chapter 25
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