Anna sat in the cold cell, arms wrapped tight around herself, listening. The torch by the wall burned lower, the shadows stretching wider until the room felt like it was breathing.
Then it came again.
Her name. Soft. Whispered, yet everywhere at once.
*Anna…*
Her chest tightened. "Who's there?" Her voice cracked, but she forced it out anyway.
The air shivered. The shadows seemed to lean closer, folding in on themselves until they almost looked like a figure.
*You are not meant to be here,* the voice said, low, curling through her like smoke. *But you were chosen.*
Her hands dug into her knees. "Chosen for what?"
The shadow seemed to pulse against the far wall, its edges shifting.
"I can show you," it whispered. "I can tell you why you fell."
No answer. Only a sound like faint laughter, empty and cold.
"Tell me!" she snapped, anger breaking through her fear.
The shadows bent, almost forming a face ...but just as she leaned forward, just as her lips parted to demand more...
The iron door scraped open.
Anna jerked back, heart hammering. And there he was. Daniel.
His broad frame filled the doorway, torchlight glinting off his hair. His eyes locked on her, sharp, guarded.
"You're talking to the dark now?" Daniel smirked, His voice calm, but there was something underneath it suspicion, maybe even fear.
Anna's pulse spiked, but she steadied her breath. "why am I locked in a cell like a criminal? Why won't anyone explain what's happening or even give me a chance to be heard? I didn't ask to fall here. I didn't ask for your sword at my throat."
His jaw tightened. He stepped inside, the torchlight chasing the shadows back. "
Daniel's voice dropped, low and rough, though a flicker of unease crossed his face.
"You don't belong here,and whatever you are… it's only a matter of time before you tear this world apart." he said,
Her throat tightened, but she didn't look away. She leaned forward, voice steady and sharp.
"You know nothing about me or what I can do. Don't act like you can see the future, because if you could, you would've known of my arrival. Just… let me go."
The words landed like a blade. His smirk vanished. Curiosity crept into his eyes first, then something else….fear, or maybe the beginnings of it. For a moment, he seemed to search her face as if the truth might be written there.
"You know nothing about me or what I can do."
The line echoed in his mind, louder than he wanted it to, pressing against the fragile wall he kept around his own doubts. What if she was right?
He stayed silent, but his jaw clenched hard before he finally turned away, leaving her words heavy in the air long after he'd gone.
Daniel hadn't wanted to see her.
From the moment they rode back from the battle, something inside him had been unsettled. He told himself it was exhaustion, but deep down he knew better. It was the dream he has been having since that day.
And his brothers hadn't helped.
They had cornered him earlier that evening, voices low but sharp with tension. Caden was the first, always bold. "She fell for a reason, Daniel. Maybe she's the sign we've been waiting for."
Darius, dark-eyed and colder, cut back immediately. "Or maybe she's the reason everything falls apart. Don't you see it? A stranger from nowhere, dragging trouble the moment she lands. It's a curse, not a gift."
Even Aric, usually the quiet one, had murmured, "Father will decide. But if it were up to me, I'd watch her closer. Not kill her. Not yet. We need to know what she is."
They had argued, their words clashing until Daniel finally walked away, their voices still ringing in his ears. Some saw hope. Others saw ruin. None of it gave him peace.
Daniel did the only thing that had ever brought him peace,he went into the forest.The forest seemed to go on forever, but Daniel always walked the same trail, a path beaten down by his own steps over the years. It led to a stream, clear and cold, curling between stones covered in moss.
He had been coming here since he was a boy, training where no one could see him. Away from his father's strict eyes. Away from his brothers' arguments and expectations.
Here, in the shelter of the trees, the noise of the world fell quiet. The air smelled of damp earth, the water whispered over smooth stones, and for a while, he could almost hear his own thoughts without everyone else's voices pressing down on him.
But tonight, the silence didn't calm him. It only made Anna's words echo louder in his head:
*You know nothing about me or what I can do.*
The forest, usually a refuge, suddenly felt like it was listening too.
He stripped off his coat and drew his sword, stepping into the water. The cold bit his legs, but he welcomed it. He swung again and again, each strike heavier, sharper, as though he could cut his way through the dream.
But it clung to him. Anna's face. The torn sky. His father's voice demanding her death.
He roared and struck the water so hard it sprayed like glass around him. His chest heaved. His arms shook. And then…..
The forest shifted.
No wind, yet the trees groaned. The stream slowed, like time itself was holding its breath. Mist curled thicker along the ground.
And in that mist, a figure took shape.
It wasn't solid …. not man, not woman ….. just a form outlined in light and shadow.
"You will break your bloodline," the figure said. Its voice echoed in his skull, filling him with ice. "And the world will break with it."
Daniel staggered back, clutching his sword. "What does that mean? Speak!"
The figure lifted a hand, pointing straight at him.
*"The one you shielded will either save you… or destroy you."*
Then the mist ripped away, the forest snapping back to itself. The stream rushed on as if nothing had happened.
Daniel stood in the water, chest pounding, the figure's words clawing at his mind.
By the time he returned to the mansion, the moon was high. His boots dripped on the stone floor as he climbed the stairs, heading to the one person he trusted less than anyone else ...…but needed more than ever.
His mother.
She was waiting, seated in her chamber by the fire, her hands folded as if she had known he would come.
"You've seen it," she said without looking up.
Daniel froze, his body tense, shoulders sagging like the weight of days without rest had finally caught him. His face showed it all .....the lines of fatigue, the shadows under his eyes, the kind of tiredness that no sleep could fix. His throat went dry as he forced the words out.
"…The dream. The figure. The voice. It's the same every night."
Silence hung between them, thick enough to smother.
Finally, she lifted her gaze. Her eyes locked on his...cold, sharp as steel, steady where he was unraveling.
"Then it has begun."
Her words cut deeper than any blade, and for a breath Daniel couldn't move. Couldn't even breathe. The weight in his chest pressed harder, as if some part of him already knew she was right.
Daniel stepped closer, his words rough. "Mother, what is happening to me? To her? Why do I feel like I'm being pulled into something I can't fight?"
For a long time, she said nothing. Then she rose slowly, crossing the room until she stood before him. Her hand came up to rest against his chest, fingers pressing hard enough to sting.
"You are standing on the edge of ruin and rebirth, Daniel. The rift marked you both. It is a bond you cannot sever, no matter what your father decrees."
Her voice dropped, sharp as a blade.
"The girl is not just a stranger. She is the key. And keys open…" Her eyes glinted with something almost like fear. "…or they destroy."
Daniel's heart thundered. "So what am I supposed to do?"
Her gaze didn't waver. If anything, her eyes only grew sharper, the kind that seemed to see through bone and soul alike.
"My son," she said slowly, "prophecies are cruel things. They never lie. But they never speak plainly, either."
Then His mother leaned in, her whisper colder than the forest mist "If she is the key, then we must hold her close. Close enough to turn the lock… or close enough to break her before she breaks us." as she walked away from Daniel she said…
"Pray, my son, that when the choice comes you are not too weak to choose ."
Daniel's stomach twisted. He wanted to protest, but the weight of her words pressed down too heavy.
The night outside deepened, and somewhere in the mansion below, Anna lay awake in the dark....unaware that both the shadow and prophecy had already tied her fate to his.