Time seemed to slip by in the blink of an eye.
Lyanna thought quietly to herself.
Everything had been peaceful lately. Everyone laughed together, talked together, as if nothing in the world could disturb this fragile calm.
And then
"Well then, friends," Ignara suddenly said, her voice bright yet carrying something unreadable beneath it,..
"since we've been together for quite a while… and we'll be leaving tomorrow for our next journey… how about we play a game first?"
At her words, everyone naturally gathered and sat on the sofas nearby.
Seeing their attention settle on her, Ignara continued, folding her hands lightly.
"Since the road ahead is bound to be difficult, and since we don't even know how long we'll stay together… don't you think it would be nice if we truly introduced ourselves to each other?"
Her gaze shifted deliberately.
Straight to Lyanna.
"Truly introduce…?" Vaelith asked quietly, his deep voice calm yet edged with curiosity.
Ignara smiled faintly, that strange, knowing smile of hers.
"I mean… secrets. The things we don't know about each other. For example… who we were before coming here, or how we've changed since arriving."
She finished speaking without breaking eye contact with Lyanna.
Lyanna understood immediately.
Her head lowered slightly. Silence wrapped around her like mist, her thoughts sinking somewhere deep and distant.
Ignara noticed.
Her smile sharpened almost imperceptibly.
"Well then," she said lightly, "let's have Lyanna start first. After all, she's the newest among us… and technically, the reason we all gathered here today. So go on, Lyanna. Tell us one of your secrets."
The last sentence carried a faintly peculiar tone.
Lyanna felt it.
Instinctively, she glanced toward Vaelith.
He was already looking at her.
But his eyes… they didn't feel entirely present, as if part of his thoughts were somewhere else entirely.
Rosielle clapped her hands softly and laughed.
"Yes, yes, Lyanna, start!"
Lyanna lowered her gaze once more.
A secret…?
Information was like a weapon. danger, it could become a ray of hope , in the hands of the cunning, it was a weapon that could sever fate itself. People say Spoken words were never harmless .. but
A secret… harmless if I kept to myself. But once spoken, it becomes a key. And every key exists only to open doors , doors that could lead straight to my own ruin.
Telling someone your secret… isn't that like a cutting away a piece of your own life and handing it to them?
If she spoke about her past before coming here… there was nothing she could clearly remember.
Everything back then had felt ordinary. Too ordinary to call a secret.
But after arriving here…
Her thoughts stopped.
Lyanna slowly lifted her head and looked around. Every single person was staring at her, waiting.
Rosielle giggled gently.
"Aww, Lyanna, what are you thinking so hard about? Just say something. Maybe about your love life? Or some boy you secretly went out with, or.."
"Rosielle. Stop."
Vaelith's voice cut cleanly across hers.
At the same moment, Rosielle's teasing words stirred something inside Lyanna's mind
A name surfaced, faint but sharp.
"Za… Zaryth…"
She whispered it under her breath.
No one heard clearly.
Except Vaelith.
His eyes shifted instantly, fixing onto her with a strange intensity.
Before the silence could settle, Ignara spoke again, a trace of irritation slipping into her tone.
"Lyanna, you're quite strange… Are we not important enough for you? Or do you simply not value our time?"
Sylvara let out a soft laugh from beside Lyanna and tilted her head toward Ignara.
"My, Ignara… you really do enjoy moving everyone according to your will, don't you? I see you've even started scolding people like children now.."
Ignara's voice cut through the room, sharp and brash.
"When did I scold anyone?!"
Sylvara ignored her completely, as though the interruption didn't exist.
"Lyanna is the youngest among us," Sylvara said, calm, measured, almost predatory in her composure.
"Perhaps she doesn't yet know what to say. So I will begin. As the older… and more responsible one here.."
Her eyes drifted toward Lyanna..
Why do I care about her? Sylvara wondered silently. Why protect her when I do not even know myself?Perhaps she reminded me of someone… someone who once lingered by my side.
Her voice softened, almost tender, but carried a quiet weight.
"I was very young back then. Twelve… maybe thirteen. I woke in the middle of a forest. Alone.."
She paused, letting the silence stretch. Then she spoke again, each word deliberate, like a trap slowly tightening.
"In front of me… a woman. Beautiful , no, unreal. Hair that shimmered pale yellow and green, eyes the color of soft blue light framed by long brown lashes. She wore a dress like sunlight itself."
Sylvara's gaze lowered.
"The ground was strewn with beasts, dead, twisted, terrifying. I survived… because of her."
A faint, almost cruel smile touched her lips.
When I tried to speak… she lifted me into her arms..
Her voice grew warmer, deceptively gentle.
"I lived with her after that. She cared for me as a mother. I remembered nothing before that day. Not my past. Not my name. Not my origin. And yet… I was not sad."
Her eyes closed briefly.
"Every morning, she would comb my hair, tie it gently. I was hers , her possession, her ward. I used to think… if only that moment could last forever."
The smile faded.
"But fate is not gentle. Less than a month later… everything changed.."
Her fingers tightened on her sleeve, almost unconsciously.
"The girl without a name… became Sylvara.
The girl without a home… was given a realm she could never have imagined."
A pause.
"And then… she vanished."
The room fell silent.
"The only question I had… was her name. I never learned it."
Sylvara's gaze darkened, sharp as a blade. Then she spoke words that made the air itself grow cold.
"Most people think this realm demands solitude… that you can have everything, yet no one beside you. That is a lie."
Confusion flickered across the faces before her.
She smiled faintly, a smile that did not reach her eyes.
"When the woman ,the Holy Mother left, she gave me her title, her duty. And that duty… was to capture women and imprison them as servants.."
The words fell like stones into the room, heavy and unyielding.
"At first… only three. Perhaps four. But now…" Her gaze swept across the group, sharp, deliberate.
"In my domain … nearly a hundred."
Another pause.
"All of them… locked away in a hidden place."
Silence followed, thick, suffocating.
Rosielle froze mid-word, confusion clear on her face.
"Wait , how… how did it become hundreds from just three or four women?"
Sylvara's lips curved, amusement hidden but palpable.
"The way these things always happen. Must I really explain it?"
"The… way?" Rosielle's voice trembled. "You mean..."
"Rosielle, enough. Stop being naive," Ignara snapped, sharp as a blade.
Sylvara's lips twitched into a faint smile, as though the interruption were nothing more than a passing annoyance.Then she spoke again, voice calm, deliberate.
"You may call it a trap… or perhaps an attempt to reshape this realm . My tursomer told me I need not inherit her title, nor her duty. That I could end all of it if I wished." She paused, weighing her own words as one might weigh gold.
"At first, I considered stopping it. But desire is a strange thing. Minds change… hearts change. And I changed."
Her gaze swept the room.
"The trap is simple. Men, driven by lust, wander here from countless places... They seek to satisfy their desires… and often, they never leave. The reward? I eliminate them. Claim their territory. And life continues to grow here… generation after generation."
A memory flickered in Sylvara's mind sharp, vivid, painful.
A woman, torn, dirty, eyes wide and pleading. Her hands clutched herself as if trying to hold together a life already shattered. And before her… Sylvara. Holy Mother , yet utterly unmoved. Not joy. Not sorrow. Not fear. Nothing.
Why… did she become like this?
Another fragment surfaced. Laughter. Sunlight. A girl standing quietly beside her familiar, intimate. A sister? She could not recall the face, yet the feeling lingered.
Sylvara exhaled lightly, almost as if to shake off the memories.
"I never thought I'd tell any of you this… but now that you've seen, there is no reason to hide it. Still, it is best if this remains a secret. After all… it happened in another realm."
Lyanna's voice was sharp. "Another realm?"
"Yes," Sylvara replied. "Did you really think none of this was controlled?"
Most nodded in confusion. But for Lyanna, those words struck differently. Something deep, primal, understood.
Ignara scoffed, cutting the tension like a jagged knife.
"Boring. Pointless. You're terrible at telling stories, Sylvara." She crossed her arms over Varen as if to underline her dismissal..
Azerion's voice was quiet, measured. "I do not think she lies. Because.."
He stopped, eyes flicking toward sylvara.
"Alright," Ignara said, voice sharp. "Now , Lyanna ..You can start talking now."
Lyanna hesitated, words trapped by thought. But Sylvara's tone, calm yet commanding, moved first.
"You insulted my story earlier, Ignara. I may not be a child… but now you're targeting Lyanna too?" Her tone remained gentle, yet firm. "Besides, I skipped many parts of my story anyway."
Another memory flickered in her mind
Holy Mother Sylvara… please don't let my child suffer for my sins…
A broken woman, sobbing, whispering prayers for a child's safety. Beside her, a man bloodied, presumably the child's father ,his body mutilated beyond recognition, his face too ruined to identify. And the child, the unseen child… fated to inherit sin.
The image faded.
Sylvara's voice broke the spell, cold and precise.
"It's already late. Everyone should return to their own tasks. And Lyanna… " she added, glancing at her softly, "you're the only one here who's still weak , unlike the rest of us. Go and get some sleep. Tomorrow's journey will be long."
Ignara's irritation, which had been simmering all this time, suddenly collapsed into silence. It was as if all her earlier plans had been quietly dismantled by Sylvara's words.
Before she could speak, Vaelith rose.
"Yeah , I agree with Sylvara."
Lyanna blinked in confusion at his sudden action. Over the past month he had felt strangely unfamiliar… yet in this moment, he seemed like the person she once knew. Still, she understood something now
Just as Sylvara had said, a person's heart could change at any time.
As always, Lyanna said nothing. She quietly turned and walked away, not meeting anyone's eyes. When she reached her door, however, she stopped.
Standing right in front of it
was Vaelith.