“What…” My voice trembled. “What just happened to me?”Sophia knelt beside us. “You awakened fully,” she said.My lips parted, but I couldn’t speak.Sophia reached forward, gently brushing hair from my face.I swallowed, hard. “But why me?” My voice cracked. “I didn’t ask for this. I just want my ba
And then she appeared.A woman clothed in glowing robes stood before me. she was suspended in an endless void of stars and flame.“Elise.”I stared, my lips trembling. “Who… are you?”“I am Maelis,” she said. “The guardian of balance. And you, child, are the last dreamkeeper.”I couldn’t speak. My h
ELISE’S POVThe steps beneath the earth felt older than time.We descended into the underground chambers. It was cold at first, but not the kind of cold that bites the skin—it was the kind that creeps into your bones and whispers that you’re being watched.The stone walls around us glowed with sigil
I stood there, panting. My hands shook.“Elise… what was that?” Sophia asked in shock.I didn’t know. I didn’t understand it.The fight went on. We didn’t have time to talk.My palms glowed with radiant blue light as I cast another spell, pushing my power outward in a shockwave that knocked three sh
ELISE’S POVWe stood at the edge of Vaelven, and for a long moment, no one moved.It was nothing like I imagined.They said Vaelven had once been a city of light and silver towers. Now, all I saw were shattered stone and collapsed arches buried beneath years of crawling ivy. Here, the sky was red. I
“You cry again, I’ll break your jaw,” he’d said once, after I’d collapsed mid-run.I was fourteen. I hadn’t shifted in time during a test. He locked me in the woods overnight with wolves from another pack to teach me “fear.”“You call that strength?” he hissed now, stepping closer. “You lost your Pa