The mist rolled down the hills like silent waves, curling between ancient trees, softening the sound of the world. In the heart of Eldenwood, where no path was ever truly straight and even birds flew carefully, Aira moved like a whisper.
Her boots squelched in the wet earth as she scanned the base of the twisted oak she'd been tending for years. She came for moss samples, but today, something was wrong. The forest was too still.
And then she saw him.
Lying in the hollow between two blackened roots, curled on one side like a wounded animal, was a man—bare-chested, covered in blood and dirt, his skin glowing faintly under the grey light.
Aira froze.
His hair, dark and tangled, clung to his forehead. His lips were parted, gasping for breath, and a jagged gash ran down his side, pulsing with silvery light. This wasn't normal. No human bled light.
Her heart thundered in her chest. She should run. Call someone. But instead, she knelt beside him, her hands hovering, unsure.
"Hey… can you hear me?" Her voice was soft but steady.
The man's eyelids fluttered, revealing eyes the color of molten steel. His gaze found hers—and locked. Something flickered in his expression. Recognition?
"You're real…" he whispered, before collapsing again.
Aira stared, breath caught. What the hell?
Getting him back to her cottage had been a struggle. He was taller than he looked, and heavier, despite how frail he appeared. But she managed, dragging him in through the back door and onto her old clinic bed.
The glow had faded by the time she returned with her first aid kit. Now he looked… normal. Pale. Bleeding. Human
Almost.
She cleaned the wound. There was no metal, no bullet or blade she could identify—only the strange mark etched in his flesh like a brand: a spiral of fire curling inward, pulsing faintly.
When she touched it, a sharp jolt of emotion flooded her—like the echo of a scream.
She gasped and pulled her hand back.
"Whatthehellareyou?" she murmured.
As if on cue, his eyes snapped open again.
"Don'tbeafraid," he rasped.
Too late.
Over the next few days, he drifted in and out of consciousness. When he was awake, he barely spoke. He watched her quietly, warily, as if he expected her to vanish.
"Elyan," he finally said when she asked for his name. "Just… Elyan."
He wouldn't say more. But the way he looked at her—it was like he knew her.
"You keep staring at me like you've seen a ghost," Aira said once, trying to keep it light.
"Notaghost," he replied. "Adream."
On the fourth night, she woke to the sound of whispering. The room was dark, except for the flicker of moonlight through the curtains. She found Elyan standing by the window, shirtless, staring out at the forest.
" Youshouldn'tbeup," she said.
He didn't turn. "They'vefoundme."
Aira stiffened. "Who?"
He turned now, eyes glowing faintly again, like embers. "The ones who chased me across realms. The ones who punish love with death."
She took a step back. "You're not… joking, are you?"
"No," he said, voice low. "You asked what I am. I'll tell you soon. But it will change everything."
Later that night, as she lay awake listening to the wind shift outside, she couldn't shake the feeling that something ancient had walked into her life. Something she had once known… and lost.
And somehow, she was no longer afraid.
Only drawn in deeper.
Sometimes he kissed her like he'd waited a thousand years.
Sometimes he bled out in her arms.
And sometimes… she killed him.
When she woke, her hands were shaking.
She found Elyan already outside, standing barefoot in the dew-covered grass, eyes closed, arms outstretched as if feeling something only he could hear.
She approached carefully. "What are you doing?"
"Listening," he whispered. "The veil is thinning."
"What veil?"
He opened his eyes. "The one between your world and mine."
Back inside, he finally told her the truth. Or at least, more of it.
"There's a war in Halrieth," he said. "It started with the breaking of the Covenant of Emotion—the law that once protected love. It was you who created it. And it was broken the day you chose me."
Aira stared at him. "You said I gave you up."
"You did. To save your people." He looked down. "But by then, the covenant had already shattered. You loving me… was the crime."
She exhaled slowly, heart pounding. "And now?"
"Now the Hunters are here."
Aira's dreams had changed.
Where once she wandered empty corridors of half-forgotten places, she now saw fire-lit halls filled with music and shadows. Her hands bore silver rings she didn't own. Her lips spoke languages she didn't know.
And always, always—Elyan was there.