Everything was too bright, I couldn't even open my eyes to see my surroundings.
"Daughter of the queen!" a voice croaked.
"Daughter of bloodshed!" said another voice, whispering and hissing like a snake.
I opened my eyes, but I could only make out the figures of about three women burning with furious flames of light. Their voices were chilling to the marrow.
"Daughter of the queen of death," they hissed.
"You must kill the abomination your mother made. You must destroy the Shadow King. He is your Nemesis. The archenemy to the universe."
I covered my eyes; the light was hot and blinding. I felt faint and weak, my legs wobbled.
"You must find your mother," they hissed like snakes. "Beg her to give you the Blade of Death. It is the only weapon that can destroy the wielder of shadows. Embrace your destiny."
"Open your eyes, Aerin," they said, hissing and whispering. Soon their voices became distant and their words turned to gibberish.
My eyes flew open, and I gasped, drawing in air as if I had been suffocating for hours.
"Good morning," a soft voice said.
I blinked, the blinding white light replaced by the soft glow of a real room. A girl named Lettuce stood over me, her curly brown hair tied into a neat bun. She was petite and smiling, looking about my age—though I knew enough from novels that, supernatural beings could be centuries old and yet look so young.
General Aerobin had assigned her to keep me company and watch over me.
"I've prepared your bath," she said.
I forced myself out of bed, my mind still thick with the fog of the dream. As I sank into the warm water, the chilling words of the three women echoed in my head "The abomination your mother made". It was ridiculous, yet I couldn't shake the fear.
It had been days, and I still hadn't spoken to Aerobin about my mother and sister. I was trying not to panic, trying to believe he had actually dispatched soldiers to find them, but the doubt was gnawing at me. Maybe he didn't really care. Maybe I was just a human girl he felt sorry for.
Everything is going to be fine, I told myself, but as I sat in the silence of the bath, the lie felt thinner than ever.
After breakfast, I found myself wandering down the endless, echoing corridors alone. Lettuce had vanished on some errand, leaving me to my own heavy thoughts.
My heart felt like lead, but a traitorous part of me kept hoping I might cross paths with Aerobin—even if I knew a General had better things to do than entertain a human girl.
I pushed open a heavy door and stepped into a room that stole my breath. The walls were covered in vivid portraits of mythical beasts and ancient heroes, but it was the ceiling that demanded my attention. In the center of a vast celestial mural stood a woman. A crown of burning stars rested upon her brow, and her robes seemed woven from captured sunlight.
As I watched, the colors began to swirl. The painting didn't just look real—it moved. Shifting like liquid ink, nine handsome young men materialized around the lady their expressions as enchanting as they were noble.
"Janette".
The voice was like velvet, making me spin around even though my heart already knew its owner.
Aerobin stood in the doorway, looking dangerously handsome in a crisp white tunic and fitted black pants. His dark violet eyes—the color of the deep twilight in my dreams—seemed to read every secret I was trying to hide.
"General Aerobin," I managed to say, my body tensing with a mix of nerves and something else I couldn't name.
"What are you doing here?" he asked softly, stepping into the room.
"Nothing," I lied, my voice small. "I was just... bored".
A ghost of a smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. "I see".
I looked back at the moving mural, desperate for a distraction. "What are those paintings? Who is she?"
Before I could blink, he was standing directly beside me. He didn't touch me, but I could feel the heat radiating from his body, a steady warmth that made my skin tingle in the cool air of the gallery.
"It's the story of creation," Aerobin said, his voice echoing slightly in the quiet gallery.
"Really?" I whispered, unable to look away from the glowing ceiling.
"Yes. That is the Mother of Souls," he said, pointing to the woman with the halo of stars resting upon her head.
"The Mother of Souls," I repeated, the name feeling heavy and ancient.
"In some ancient texts, she is also known as the Mother of Blood and Death," he added, his gaze turning serious.
I felt a chill at those words, but I was enchanted by the way the paintings continued to shift and change before my eyes. "What is the rest of the story?"
"In the beginning, the Mother of Souls created nine sons," Aerobin explained. "Each possessed distinct, formidable powers—except for the ninth one." He pointed toward the portrait of a boy standing in the shadows, farther away from his brothers than the rest.
"The nine brothers fought constantly," he continued. "Each one was obsessed with proving he was stronger than the others. They could not live in harmony. So, one day, the Mother of Souls decided to sunder them. She gave each son a realm of his own to rule, but she made those realms inaccessible to one another. No brother could ever visit the other again".
I watched the painted brothers pull apart, trapped in their own worlds.
"Those nine boys represent the nine realms," Aerobin said, a small smile playing on his lips as our eyes finally met. "Their descendants share their unique characteristics. I, for example, hail from the Fae Realm".
He reached up and brushed his dark hair back, exposing a long, abnormally extended ear. I tried not to gasp, my heart hammering against my ribs.
"Okay," I managed to say, quickly looking back up at the ceiling to hide my flustered face. Aerobin continued the story, as the paintings shifted again.
"Decades passed, and Arad—founder and ruler of the Witch Realm—decided he had waited long enough. He yearned to see his brothers. He began searching for a way to reunite with them, exhausting his magic and conjuring every spell in his arsenal, but nothing worked. After countless failures, he reached out to the Mother of Souls. During the night, she visited him in his dreams. She was a Dreamwalker."
"A Dreamwalker?" I asked.
"Yes. They are those who can slip into the minds of others while they sleep. They are incredibly dangerous, if they learn to harness their power, they can torture a person within their own subconscious, turning their nights into a living hell. Even the most ruthless villains fear them."
I nodded, absorbing the weight of his words.
"Dreamwalkers are rare now, though," he continued. "None have been heard of in over two centuries. So don't be afraid, no one is going to walk into your dreams and give you nightmares."
"Right," I said, forcing a smile . After a little while, i asked.
"General Aerobin," I began, my heart hammering against my ribs with trepidation. "Have you dispatched forces to look for my sister and mother?"
He faltered for a moment. "Yes, I have," he said, his voice flat. Then, he pivoted. "Do you like combat?"
My mind fell into a haze. "No."