Talia sank back into her chair, exhausted, while Mathias untied the ribbon and peeled open the brittle documents.
His eyes began darting rapidly across the words... once, twice... then, his breathing stopped entirely.
"...This..." His entire expression shifted. "...is impossible."
"It is not impossible," Talia said, pouring herself a glass of wine. "Our family has carried this curse for generations, and every generation met the exact same end... we murder the person we love most."
She took a small sip from her glass and continued. "But my father refused to accept that fate. He spent years of his life searching for another way out... and these papers are the culmination of that search."
Mathias stared at her, paralyzed. She went on with a pale, chilling detachment: "He found a solution... but by then, he was already an old man. He knew the curse would awaken in me one day, so he sacrificed his entire life to ensure I would never endure what he did after losing my mother."
