One day remained until her birthday, and Zamira still hadn't returned to normal.
The book that opened by itself in the library…
the sentences that wrote themselves…
the echoes of that strange world with the grey sky…
Everything blurred together—
but one thing refused to leave her mind.
"The whispers had grown stronger."
That night, the wind howled outside her window.
She had left it open, hoping the cool air might clear her thoughts,
and simply sat there, letting the breeze touch her face.
She pulled her chair closer to her desk and opened her laptop.
She searched words like: jinn realms, seal symbols, energy gateways.
But nothing she found resembled what she had read in that book.
She exhaled shakily and whispered to herself,
"Why me?"
At that exact moment, her window slammed shut.
The curtain lifted sharply, and her desk lamp flickered once.
A whisper curled through the room—
soft, ghostlike, unmistakably real.
"Because your ears can hear."
Zamira's heart pounded.
In the same dark corner as before, something shifted.
Slowly… deliberately…
a figure took shape.
A man dressed entirely in black.
This time she saw him clearly.
His icy-blue eyes looked straight into hers.
His face was beautiful—almost too beautiful—
but beneath that beauty, a faint, trembling shadow pulsed.
Zamira's voice trembled.
"You… you're the one from my dream…"
Nayel bowed his head slightly.
"Your dreams were only a wall.
That wall is falling now, Zamira."
He stepped forward.
With each step, the air around him rippled like disturbed water.
The walls of her room flickered with a grey shimmer,
and the pages of the book on her desk began to turn on their own.
With every turn came the same whisper—
echoing, growing louder:
"Bond."
Zamira stepped back,
but stopped halfway.
"There's a bond between us… isn't there?"
Nayel's voice spread through the room like a vibration.
"A bond that shapes both past and future.
A bond that is ours."
Her eyes filled with tears.
Nayel's gaze darkened.
"Your birthday will lift the veil completely.
But to see me… truly see me…
you will have to make a choice."
The wind surged again.
Her lamp burst with a faint pop.
Everything went dark.
When she opened her eyes,
she was alone in her room.
She couldn't sleep.
Every breath, every heartbeat carried the same whisper:
"The bond is waking, Zamira."
In the morning, exhausted and shaken, she sat up in bed.
Today was her birthday.
Birthdays had never meant anything to her—
but today felt different.
Today, she felt the air itself shifting around her.
Something was about to change.
Something was calling her.