Chapter Two: Awakening
The first thing I noticed was the smell.
Old wood, candle wax, and a trace of burned herbs — not the wet iron stink of the city streets. I opened my eyes to darkness threaded with flickering gold. Candles lined the walls in uneven rows, their flames bending toward me like curious eyes. Symbols were chalked onto the stone floor, looping and intersecting, glowing faintly blue.
I tried to sit up. Pain rippled through my body — but it wasn't like before. It was deeper, stranger, as if my blood had thickened into fire. When I glanced at my hands, faint silver lines pulsed under my skin, moving like veins of living light.
"Don't move too quickly."
The voice came from the corner, low and steady. A figure stepped into the candlelight — a woman draped in a cloak stitched with sigils. Her hair was white, her eyes dark, and she leaned on a crooked staff tipped with crystal.
I froze. "Where am I?" My voice sounded rough, alien, like it belonged to someone else.
"Beneath the old chapel," she said. "No one dares come here anymore. Not after last night."
Memories returned in fragments: Alan's face turned away from me. Rain on stone. A witch's spell flashing green. Pain. Then — the light. My light.
"What happened?" I whispered.
She tilted her head, studying me as though I were an animal in a cage. "You changed the sky. Every witch and vampire in Duskvale felt it. They're looking for you now."
I tried to stand, but my legs folded under me. She didn't move to help.
"Who are you?" I managed.
"My name isn't important. Call me Mara." She raised an eyebrow. "And you — you're supposed to be dead. That spell would have torn an ordinary human apart."
"I'm not…" The word stuck in my throat. "I'm not ordinary."
Mara's lips curved in something between a smirk and a frown. "No. You're not."
She set a small basin of water in front of me. The surface trembled even though the air was still. "Look," she said.
I leaned over it. My reflection stared back — but my eyes glowed faintly white, like embers hidden under ash. The skin along my neck and arms shimmered with silver lines that pulsed like a heartbeat.
"What… what is this?" I asked.
"A question better left for another time," she murmured. "What matters is that you've been marked. The Ashborn is no longer a story to frighten children. It's standing in my chapel."
"Ashborn?" The word tasted strange.
Mara crouched so her eyes were level with mine. "There's a prophecy," she said softly. "When the line between monsters and men fades, one will rise from the ashes of the old world — neither vampire, nor witch, nor human — and change everything. They say this child will burn the old orders to the ground."
I stared at her. "And you think that's me?"
Her smirk faded. "I don't think. I know. The power you unleashed last night… it's been sleeping for centuries. And now the predators who rule this city will come hunting for it."
A distant boom rattled the chapel — like thunder muffled by stone. Mara's eyes flicked to the ceiling. "They're searching already."
Fear prickled down my spine. "So what happens now?"
"That depends." She rose, leaning on her staff. "You can stay here and wait for them to tear you apart. Or you can get up, learn what you are, and maybe survive long enough to make a choice."
I forced myself to my knees, the silver light in my veins pulsing brighter. "I'm not going to wait for them," I said. "I'm done waiting."
Mara gave a slow, thin smile. "Good. Then our work begins."
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