When the ruthless current of the ice-cold river threw Devranna's battered body onto a muddy and shallow shore, she expelled the water filling her lungs with violent and muffled coughs. The marks of that deadly clash she had with Rrnaun ached in every corner of this new and rather weak body. That damned "ket" curse upon her was still coursing through her veins, blocking her access to her special power like a wall. Jumping off the cliff into the foaming waters in that state was sheer madness, but it was her only chance to avoid being torn apart at the hands of the Luxaris knight.
With her soaked hair plastered to her face, she knew she did not have the luxury of wasting time. She struggled to her feet, trying not to put weight on her right leg that was throbbing with pain. With trembling steps, she began to limp away from the shore and toward the depths of the forest. While her mind tried to suppress the pain, it was working feverishly to locate one of the hidden sanctuaries she had built with her own hands centuries ago during that bloody Final Supplication war. She had to find her bearings and recover.
After a journey that lasted for hours, with every step turning into torture, the familiar, roaring sound of water reached her ears.
When she reached the waterfall, she passed through that freezing and pressurized curtain of water without any hesitation. Just behind the water, there was a long, dark, and narrow stone hole hidden among the rocks. Scraping her shoulders against the hard rocks, Devranna began to crawl into that tiny hole with her wounded body.
However, before she even reached the end of the hole and stepped into the actual sanctuary, she noticed that the air inside had changed. Something was terribly wrong.
Her lips twitched with nerves. That scent of ancient magic in the air had been completely erased. The invisible seals meant to protect the sanctuary and the deadly trap spells that would turn intruders to ash had been rendered completely ineffective, almost savagely torn away. She realized this the moment she stepped inside.
The sight she encountered upon entering the dark sanctuary crushed her last remaining crumbs of hope. The inside was a complete ruin. The hidden compartments in the walls were smashed, centuries-old parchments were torn, and the weapons, potions, and whatever valuables she had stashed were plundered. There was nothing on the floor but broken glass and crushed pieces of wood.
Devranna clenched her fists. In fact, she shouldn't have been surprised by this sight; it was perfectly normal. It was impossible for Valerith, who was once one of the Elders, not to know about this sanctuary and how to disable the traps here. Her own former ally had gutted her sanctuary.
That exhaustion and despair inside her turned into an unbridled, savage hatred within seconds. Digging her nails into her palms until they bled, she raised her head toward that ruined stone ceiling. With an anger-filled voice loud enough to shake the sanctuary's walls and tear her throat, she screamed:
"Bitch... You damn bitchhhhhh!"
As Devranna scanned the plundered floor of the sanctuary, she saw a black robe tossed into a corner, covered in dust and dirt. She quickly picked the worn fabric off the ground and threw it on. The robe was so large for this weak and young body she currently inhabited that its skirts dragged on the ground. Wrapping the fabric tightly around her body, she darted out of the sanctuary like a shadow.
She could not stop and rest. Valerith was not a foolish woman. She knew very well that if Valerith found out Devranna had somehow survived and returned, these would be the first places she would look.
She gritted her teeth as she blended into the damp darkness of the forest. "That bitch knows everything..." she whispered to herself, her breath vaporizing in the cold air. She tried to quicken her steps, but her leg throbbed terribly. "If Yuria is alive... I must find her. Only she can help me."
The two days that passed were absolute torture. Devranna was pushing the limits of this mortal body, advancing through the depths of the forest without a single bite passing her throat and without getting proper sleep. There was no trace of her old, godlike power; she was now trapped in a cage of flesh disciplined only by hunger, thirst, and exhaustion.
Towards the evening of the second day, she saw a feeble campfire in a clearing where the trees thinned out. There was an old man sitting alone by the fire; right behind him lay an old dog curled up on the dirt, its nose buried between its paws.
Devranna approached the firelight with cautious steps. When the man's head turned toward her, Devranna asked briefly, with that harsh and weary expression on her face, "Where is the nearest settlement?"
The old man looked in astonishment at this young girl illuminated by the fire. It was impossible for him not to notice how violently Devranna was shivering beneath that massive robe, or the pale desperation on her face. Before answering the question, he reached out and offered her the cooked fish on a small branch he had been turning over the fire.
Despite the centuries-old pride within her, Devranna could not silence her body's screams of hunger. She did not refuse this offer. Snatching the fish from the man's hand, she sat down on a dry log a little further away, without getting too close to the fire. Tearing the fish apart with her worn hands, she began to eat it ravenously, swallowing it with almost no chewing.
Following the quickly finished fish, the old man handed her another one without saying anything. Devranna took that one silently as well and downed it into her stomach with the same speed.
As the man poked the fire with the stick in his hand, he spoke in a soft voice. "A young and beautiful girl like you... who are you running from at this time of night?"
Devranna's mind was filled with the intrigues of centuries, but right now she was too tired even to invent a lie. To throw him off track, she simply said in a dull voice without thinking, "I ran away from home." She didn't utter a single other word.
The old man seemed to believe her. His eyes drifted to Devranna's face shining in the firelight. Although this face looked as if it belonged to an ordinary peasant girl, it created a bizarre contrast with the ancient, dark gaze she carried within it.
The hair cascading over Devranna's shoulders was a light copper color, just like Lysera's. Her eyes, on the other hand, had a strange and piercing color that resembled orange more than brown due to the reflection of the fire.
This resemblance was not a coincidence. Devranna's own original body had been completely destroyed hundreds of years ago. However, that dark, powerful soul had never been erased, and after wandering in purgatory for years, it had found itself a new vessel: an innocent newborn baby. Devranna had opened her eyes to life again in that body with her hundreds of years of memories, hatred, and intelligence.
That body... belonged to the eldest sister of Kaelrin, Lysera, and Auren.
As the fire crackled, Devranna snuggled a little closer to the hearth's warmth. While the bloody memories of the past and the exhaustion of this young mortal body mingled, only a single purpose echoed in her mind: to find Yuria and tear out Valerith's throat with her own hands.