Above, suspended in the empty void, an unknown woman stood silently, watching Lyanna.
Her face could not be seen clearly. Long white hair had fallen over one side of it, veiling half her features. Only a single side remained visible from one pale eye down to the edge of her lips.
That visible eye held no life within it. The sclera was completely white, while the iris seemed caught between gray and ash, colorless and distant.
It was the gaze of something that observed without feeling, like the eyes of the dead.
Her lips were thin, small, and sharp, colored in a faint mixture of pale pink and white..
They curved into an unnatural smile , one that did not resemble joy, but hunger. It was the kind of smile that looked as though it wished to devour the living whole.
On the uncovered side of her forehead, intricate crystal-like markings were engraved across the skin.. Tiny circular and triangular shapes interlocked beautifully, forming something like an elegant ceremonial mask.
Resting upon her hair was a magnificent crown slender yet grand , crafted from gold and diamond.
From it hung delicate chain-like ornaments that swayed lightly in the air.
She wore a long white gown of layered silk, flowing softly like mist. Over her shoulders rested a short pale-yellow mantle, luminous and refined. Pearls circled her neck in thin chains, diamond bracelets adorned her wrists, and silver rings of elaborate design covered her fingers.
In the end, only one conclusion could be drawn.
She was breathtakingly beautiful.
Powerful.
And terrifying.
Eryndara Malveris…
Eryndara Malveris…
Eryndara Malveris...
Without realizing it, Lyanna kept repeating the name under her breath.
She stood frozen in place.
Only after several moments did she notice that everything around her had changed once again. She was no longer in the empty white chamber. Now she stood in the center of another room.
Its walls were formed entirely from black crystal, smooth and dark, reflecting distorted fragments of her figure.
Lyanna frowned.
When did this happen?
She had not moved. She had not walked. And yet somehow, she was here.
And why had she kept repeating that woman's name?
Suddenly,
A woman's laughter rang out.
It was loud, shrill, and disturbingly joyful. Not the laughter of warmth, but the laughter of something amused by suffering.
Lyanna spun around, searching every corner.
No one.
No figure.
No shadow.
Then realization struck her.
The laughter was not coming from the room.
It was coming from inside her head.
Lyanna immediately dropped to one knee and shut her eyes tightly. Her breathing steadied by force.
Who are you? she asked inwardly. Why are you laughing like this? And why am I here?
The moment the question formed, the laughter stopped.
Silence returned.
Lyanna waited.
One second. Five. Ten.
Nothing.
Slowly, she opened her eyes And froze.
The room had changed again.
On both sides of her stretched an endless corridor of prison cells, forged from enormous black bars thicker than tree trunks.
Inside each cage lurked a different kind of creature.
Some were twisted beyond recognition.
Some burned with living fire.
Some seemed half-human, half-something else entirely.
Lyanna's eyes landed on one creature whose body was engulfed in molten flame. It stared at her without blinking.
She immediately looked away.
Her gaze swept across the others.
One had a naked body covered in countless wounds and scars.
Another seemed as though strange organisms had fused into its flesh, reshaping it into something unnatural.
Others remained hidden deeper in the darkness, breathing slowly. Watching. Waiting..
Lyanna's pulse remained steady, but her thoughts sharpened.
This place… is not meant to frighten me.
It is meant to show me something.
"I know this place… I have seen all of this before. Yes… I have seen it before."
Lyanna spoke to herself in a low voice, her eyes sweeping across the endless corridor of cages.
"The first time I was torn away from my real world, I woke here. Back then, when I first saw these monstrous creatures, I could not understand anything. Vaelith was the one who took me away from this place…"
Her brows tightened.
"But now? How did I return here? I… I had fallen asleep. Then why am I here?"
"And before this… why did Naya and the others appear before me?"
She fell silent.
Then suddenly, as if a thread had connected itself inside her mind, she understood something.
"I searched for an answer…" she murmured. "And now I remember ...the answer was myself."
A strange laugh escaped her lips. It was neither joy nor madness, but the laughter of someone who had glimpsed a hidden mechanism.
She raised her gaze into the darkness before her.
"You want to play games with my own mind, don't you?" she said calmly. "Then let me see how far you can go."
She did not know to whom she was speaking.
Yet she felt it clearly ...someone was watching her. Someone was observing every breath, every thought, every hesitation. That instinct alone was enough for her to speak into the void.
And since she had once escaped this place with Vaelith… she still remembered fragments of the path.
Without another thought, Lyanna turned around. Ignoring every cage, every creature, every sound, she ran straight down the center of the corridor.
The moment she moved, the creatures erupted.
Some screamed with savage fury.
Some wept like broken children.
Some laughed with voices so distorted that even sound itself seemed to rot.
Lyanna did not look at them once.
Her purpose was forward.
Not to study illusions. Not to fear noise. Not to become distracted by meaningless horrors.
She ran.
And ran.
And ran.
Even after what felt like an immeasurable stretch of time, no end appeared.
Though confusion rose within her, she did not stop.
She cast aside the concept of time itself and continued forward.
"How much farther…?"
"How far does this go?"
"How much more?"
She shouted into the darkness, yet her feet never slowed.
Then Lyanna noticed something even stranger.
She had been running for what should have exhausted any human body… yet her breathing remained steady. Her limbs felt no fatigue. Her chest did not burn.
Before she could think deeper
Bang.
She crashed into something solid and fell backward onto the floor.
Startled, Lyanna lifted her head.
Before her stood a massive wall.
Beyond it, there was no path. No corridor. No continuation.
She stared in disbelief.
"That's impossible…"
"There was an open passage here before. Stairs above it… I remember them clearly. Where did they go? "
Her voice became firmer.
"I remember everything. I cannot be mistaken."
Then she inhaled slowly and steadied herself.
"No…" she whispered. "This is what whoever controls this place want. Fear . Doubt. Hesitation."
She turned and looked toward the creatures watching from their cages. Then a faint smile appeared on her lips.
She closed her eyes.
"If all of this exists inside my mind… then imagination should belong to me."
Lyanna focused inward, trying to shape thoughts into form, trying to force something new into the darkness of her consciousness.
But no matter what she sought, she found only blackness. Endless blackness.
Then
A single thought of Vaelith crossed her mind.
....
"Lyanna… Lyanna…"
"Huh… Vaelith?"
She did not understand how it happened.
Suddenly, light pierced through the dark. A warm radiance flooded her senses. At the same time, she heard someone calling her name..
Her eyes snapped open.
She was lying in bed.
Beside her, reclining near the edge of the bed, was Sylvara.
Yet without thinking, the first name that escaped Lyanna's lips was
"Vaelith…"
Sylvara gave a faint, amused smile.
"After regaining consciousness for the first time in ten years… the very first name you speak is Vaelith's."
Lyanna froze.
She stared at Sylvara with wide eyes, unable to understand anything she had just heard.
Her lips parted slowly.
"Ten… years?"
Her voice trembled with disbelief.
"But why…?"
"…Did I never return to my world?"
Sylvara was about to speak
But before a single word could leave her lips, Lyanna rose from the bed and ran straight toward the door.
"Lyanna, wait," Sylvara called out.
Lyanna did not stop.
She threw the door open and rushed into the next room... only to freeze the moment she saw what lay beyond.
There, near a sunlit window, stood Rosielle. She wore a graceful pale-pink dress that suited her strangely well, soft and elegant. In her arms rested a child.
Rosielle was singing quietly to the infant, her sweet voice gentle and warm.
And beside her stood Vaelith.
He leaned close, lightly touching the child's cheek with a finger, his movements careful and almost tender.
"Va… Vaelith…"
The name slipped from Lyanna's lips before she realized it.
At once, Rosielle and Vaelith looked at one another, then turned toward her together.
"Lyanna… you finally woke from your coma.."
Before either could say more, Lyanna had already crossed the distance and stood before Vaelith.
Her face held no emotion. Her voice sounded empty, like something stripped of life.
"Didn't you say you would help me?" she asked. "Didn't you promise to return me to the real world?"
Her eyes narrowed.
"Then what is this?"
"Why am I still here?"
Her gaze shifted instantly toward the child.
"And this child… is it yours?"
Vaelith opened his mouth to answer
But Rosielle shoved Lyanna backward first..
"You shameless girl!" Rosielle shouted. "Do you have no manners at all? Because of you, we've been trapped here for all these years, and the moment you wake, this is how you speak to us? "
Before she could continue, Varen rushed forward and restrained her, pulling her back.
Soon after, the others arrived one by one.
Sylvara.
Azerion.
Ignara.
They all stood in silence, each casting a single long look toward Lyanna.
Then Vaelith stepped forward.
He stared down at her and spoke coldly.
"What exactly do you expect now, Lyanna?"
"You hid your power from all of us. Even so, we allowed you to remain with us for ten years. That alone was more kindness than you deserved.."
Lyanna lowered her gaze and said nothing.
Inside her mind, thoughts moved sharply.
I do not know whether these people before me are real… or merely another illusion shown to me.
But I have already reached a road where silence is no longer useful.
If I wish to move forward now… then even my voice must become sharper.
With that thought in mind, Lyanna slowly rose to her feet.
She looked directly at Vaelith, then gave him a strange smile before speaking.
"So if I were to say this now…" she began calmly, "you never made me feel comfort, nor did any of you make yourselves trustworthy enough for me to place faith in you. Then wouldn't that simply be your weakness? Your failure?"
Her smile deepened slightly.
"And blaming me now… is that not merely a way to hide your own shortcomings?"
Her gaze swept across everyone in the room.
"Besides… judging from the expressions on all your faces, it seems less like anger… and more like jealousy."
"That my strength is greater than yours.."
The room fell silent.
Then Lyanna casually reached forward and touched Vaelith's arm.
The instant her fingers made contact
Vaelith cried out in pain.
Lyanna immediately withdrew her hand, startled.
On Vaelith's arm, where she had touched him, the flesh had sunk inward as if crushed under tremendous pressure. It looked as though she had gripped him with brutal force..
But she knew she had not.
Vaelith collapsed to one knee, breathing sharply.
Everyone turned toward Lyanna with eyes full of disgust and fear.
Lyanna herself could not understand what had happened.
Suddenly, her chest tightened.
Breath became difficult.
She began inhaling rapidly, desperately, as if the air itself had become too thin. Her vision blurred little by little. Faces smeared into shadows. Voices drowned into distant echoes.
Before she could grasp anything
Everything went black.
Lyanna closed her eyes.
Or perhaps… they had already closed on their own.
After some time, she opened them again.
And found herself somewhere else.
Her body stiffened.
She stood in the middle of a narrow path. On both sides lay human skeletons scattered in heaps. Between them crawled grotesque insects and twisted creatures, feeding on rotting corpses. Flesh hung from bones in places, torn and half-devoured.
So far, none of them had noticed her.
But if they did
She would likely join the corpses soon enough.
Lyanna remained perfectly still, making no sound.
Then, from within her own mind, a woman's voice echoed once more.
"Move forward. Walk the path before you."
Without fully understanding why, Lyanna obeyed.
She stepped ahead slowly and silently.
After walking some distance, she saw a staircase rising upward through the darkness.
At once, the same voice spoke again inside her mind.
"Climb. Go upward."
Lyanna immediately began ascending the stairs.
As she climbed, thoughts stirred within her.
I do not even know why I am doing this.
Ever since hearing that woman's voice… my body moves as though it belongs to someone else.
Is it because I have no other path left but to follow her?
Or… is she controlling me already?
Lyanna continued upward, each step heavier than the last, while the answer remained hidden in silence.
The moment Lyanna reached the top, she saw the silhouette of a woman standing in the distance.
As she stepped closer, the figure became clearer. Yet the woman's face still could not be seen, for she stood with her back turned.
Long white hair flowed down to her waist like pale mist.
Seeing that hair, Lyanna asked at once,
"Are you the one who said your name was Eryndara Malveris?"
The woman burst into laughter the moment she heard it.
Then she lifted a strange object from the ground beside her.
It was long, thin, and straight like a staff, yet elegant in design. At its top curved a crescent shape like a newborn moon, lined with sharp protruding edges. In the center of that crescent rested a circular crystal that shimmered faintly.
"So your memory is quite sharp after all, Lyanna," the woman said with amusement. "You remembered my name. That pleases me."
Her tone softened into something colder.
"And since your memory is so good… tell me, why must I remind you of certain things?"
Lyanna frowned, unable to understand her meaning.
Before she could ask further, she noticed the woman quietly murmuring something beneath her breath.
At once, the empty air before them rippled with light.
A scene began to form in the sky itself.
Lyanna's eyes widened.
It was her family.
A house appeared. Three rooms within it.
In one room, a woman sat laughing and chatting warmly with her sister over the phone.
In the front room, Lyanna's brother was speaking happily with his friends, making plans to go out somewhere.
But in the room at the back
There sat a girl alone.
Quiet. Still. Burdened by thoughts no one could see.
For reasons even she did not understand, tears began slipping from her eyes. The girl herself looked confused by them.
Then her mother entered the room.
Without noticing the tears even once, she began scolding loudly , angry that the girl had been sitting there all day.
When she finished, she left immediately.
And just like that, she returned to her cheerful call with her sister as though nothing had happened.
"These children nowadays are so rude," the mother said casually. "They've given up hope. If she won't study, let her suffer later and understand on her own."
The scene shifted.
Another voice.
An aunt speaking to the girl one day:
"You always get whatever you want anyway."
The girl lowered her head.
"Whatever I want…?" she whispered. "I spent my whole life not thinking of myself first. From studies to everything else… I always calculated for others."
. ....
"Stop."
Lyanna's voice rang out sharply.
The word carried more force than anger. It was the sound of someone refusing to watch their own wounds reopened.
…
Yet the scene continued..
Everyone was speaking about the girl in the front room, while the girl herself sat alone in the room behind them, hearing every word.
What had been the cause?
Someone had asked the girl to eat.
She had only replied that she did not feel well, that she would eat later.
Perhaps she had not understood that something so small could be treated as a crime.
In the next room, her brother, her mother, her grandmother, her cousin..every one of them had something to say.
"How rude."
"What kind of behavior is this?"
"She has no manners."
Word after word.
Each sentence like a strand of red thread tightening around her.
Slowly. Quietly.
Until the girl seemed to be crushed beneath them.
…
"Stop this!" Lyanna shouted.
At once, Eryndara lightly moved the strange object in her hand, and the luminous reflection before them shattered into darkness.
Silence returned.
Then Eryndara laughed softly.
"Why do you wish to stop it, Lyanna?" she asked. "Is this not the truth you claim to desire?"
Her pale gaze settled upon Lyanna like cold frost.
"You who praise truth above dreams… why turn your face away now?"
She tilted her head slightly, her smile deepening into something cruel and elegant.
"Unfortunate child."