Asher was locked in his room, surrounded by old grimoires, yellowed parchments, and vials of dubious contents. His eyes red from exhaustion, he frantically flipped through the pages, desperately searching for a cure for the infection ravaging Miria.
The door opened softly. Kira entered.
"Asher… what are you still doing?"
"I'm looking," he replied without lifting his head. "There has to be something. An ancient antidote, a forgotten plant, anything."
Kira approached, her voice gentle but urgent.
"Time is running out, Asher. Why not just turn her? She's agreed. She asked you to."
Asher stood up abruptly, fists clenched.
"Because it's too great a sacrifice! If she becomes a vampire, she'll have to watch everyone she loves die. Her mother, her friends… she'll carry that weight for eternity. I've lived it. I don't want her to go through that."
Kira remained silent for a moment, then murmured:
"And what if there is no solution? What if she dies while you search in vain?"
"It has to work, Kira. It has to."
Kira nodded sadly and left.
On the other side of the castle, in Miria's room, the atmosphere was suffocating. Katrina was at her daughter's bedside, wiping her burning forehead. Miria, drenched in sweat, tossed and turned in her sleep.
Suddenly, she stiffened. Images flooded her mind: herself as a little girl, eight or nine years old, hidden in a burlap sack that her father Darell carried while running through a dense forest. Despite the darkness of the sack, she could see threatening shadows chasing them, fast and silent.
Miria woke with a start, gasping.
"Miria!" Katrina exclaimed, taking her hand. "Are you okay? You're burning up…"
Miria looked at her with a pained, ironic smile.
"Do I look okay, Mom?"
Katrina lowered her head, tears in her eyes. Miria continued, her voice weak and breathless:
"I'm dying… and you're doing nothing. Yet you know what could save me."
"Asher says he'll find a solution soon…"
"He won't find anything, Mom. This disease is incurable and he knows it perfectly well."
Katrina went deathly pale.
"So you think he'd waste his time and put you in danger for nothing?"
Miria squeezed her mother's hand.
"It's the only solution… just for him. It's the same mistake he made before. He doesn't want to turn me because he thinks he's doing the right thing. If I become a vampire, I'll be eternal… and I'll have to watch all my loved ones die one by one, just like he did. He doesn't want to impose that suffering on me."
Katrina was deeply shaken.
"So… he's just trying to protect you?"
"Yes. But it's my choice. Death is part of life. We all leave eventually."
Miria gripped her mother's wrist with surprising strength despite her weakness.
"Mom… you're the only one who can convince him. Please… try."
Katrina placed her hand over her daughter's, a sad smile on her lips, and nodded before standing up.