Elaine was back in the Eternal Confluence.
The Temple of Dreams believed that mastery of the Veil and its shifting layers was the heart of a disciple's devotion. The Veil was their goddess's gift, after all, the Moon's reflection upon the soul of the world. To walk its dreaming paths was to step within her light.
Today, the chosen realm awaiting them was an ancient battlefield, a record of humanity's first defiance against the dark. Back then, mortals had been fragile things: flesh and faith and fear, armed with nothing but will. Their enemies were monsters drawn from nightmare, and yet… they fought. They dared to fight.
Elaine stepped through the silver gate after her class, the portal whispering against her skin like cool breath.
The smell hit her first.
Iron. Old blood. Rot and smoke clinging to the air like a ghost.
When her vision cleared, the battlefield stretched endlessly before her, a sea of crimson mud glinting under a dead moon. Spears jutted from the ground like bones. Broken banners fluttered in a wind that smelled of iron and despair. The earth was slick and wet beneath her boots, as though the land itself still bled.
Hulking beasts prowled the distant ridges, their forms half-shadow, half-memory. The Veil's reconstruction of them wasn't perfect — more echo than flesh — but that didn't make them any less lethal.
Her classmates began to scatter, forming small groups, each seeking their own challenge. Silver light shimmered as spells ignited, steel flashing in the murk.
Elaine lingered.
She could feel the hum of the Veil beneath her skin, the pulse of dreamstuff whispering like a heartbeat. It would have been easy to lose herself in it, to wander too deep, too fast.
"Hey, you!"
A voice called out from behind.
Elaine turned to see a girl with onyx hair that shimmered faintly like liquid night and silver eyes that gleamed mischievously.
Beside her stood a boy with the opposite palette; silver hair, dark eyes calm, reserved, but with a quiet strength in his gaze.
"I'm Nora," the girl said with a grin. "And this brooding statue next to me is Naeem. My twin."
Naeem gave a short nod, saying nothing.
"We've seen you training," Nora continued, brushing her hair aside. "You looked kinda cool and alone. So we figured, why not team up?"
Elaine blinked, a faint smile tugging at her lips. For a heartbeat, Kaelith's face flashed in her mind, his calm eyes, the half-smirk when he offered her his hand that first day in the Veil. The memory almost hurt.
"Sure," she said, her voice soft but steady. "Let's do this."
They walked together through the ruins of history. Occasionally, faded silhouettes, echoes of long-dead soldiers, flickered at the edge of sight, replaying their final moments before dissolving back into dust.
When the first nightmare-beast lunged from the fog , a skeletal hound with rusted armor fused into its ribs, Elaine reacted instantly. She drew her bow, the silver string glowing with soul-light, and loosed an arrow. It flew straight through the creature's skull, scattering it into shards of black smoke.
Nora blinked, impressed despite herself. "Damn, nice shot."
Elaine exhaled, lowering her bow. "I've been… feeling my soul stir lately," she said quietly. "All that training, it's finally starting to show."
"Careful," Naeem murmured, his lunar eyes scanning the fog. "The Viel hears things like that."
The air trembled as if agreeing.
From the mist, a shape began to take form — massive, lumbering, wrong.
Before they could react, moonlight rippled across the battlefield, and another figure stepped through the haze, a girl clad in shimmering silver robes, her presence serene and suffocating all at once.
"… Aysu Valmorra," Nora muttered.
Elaine had heard the name whispered in the temple halls, the Chosen of the Eternal Ocean of Silver, favored by the goddess herself. Her aura radiated power: moonlight and tide intertwined, heavy with grace and command.
Aysu didn't look at them at first. Her gaze was fixed on the horizon, where the ground itself began to quake.
"You're making a mess," she said, voice smooth but edged. "The Viel is delicate. Draw too much attention, and it draws back."
Elaine opened her mouth to respond but the world shook.
From the crimson fog rose the Ebon Colossus — a towering abomination stitched together from armor, bone, and the screaming remnants of slain soldiers. Its breath was molten smoke; its eyes burned with hate older than language.
The twins immediately moved, Nora darted into shadow, blades of illusion multiplying around her, while Naeem summoned radiant crescents of lunar light to shield them.
Elaine loosed arrow after arrow, each one bursting with silver radiance, but the creature's hide turned them aside. It swatted the air, and the shockwave sent her sprawling. She barely rolled away in time to avoid being crushed.
Aysu sighed. "Pathetic."
Her hand rose, tracing a gesture in the air. The world bent.
Behind her, a spectral image shimmered into being, a crescent moon haloed by cascading silver tides. Her soul image. The air thrummed like a song of waves colliding with the stars.
"Return to the depths," she whispered.
The battlefield was drowned in moonlight. Silver waters erupted from the soil, crashing into the Colossus with impossible force. The titan screamed — a guttural, endless roar — before dissolving into mist and memory.
Silence followed, broken only by the faint echo of waves receding.
Aysu turned toward them at last, expression unreadable. "You're welcome," she said, as if swatting a fly. "Try not to attract attention next time. The Viel doesn't forgive mistakes."
Then she brushed a lock of hair behind her ear and walked past them, silver light fading in her wake.
Nora exhaled loudly. "What a saint."
Elaine, still catching her breath, found herself smiling faintly. There was arrogance in Aysu's every step but also mastery. Grace born of discipline.
For the first time, standing amidst the blood-red mist of the Viel, Elaine didn't feel like a timid observer anymore.
She felt like someone on the path to standing among them.
Someone whose soul, however faintly, was beginning to shine.