MATURE FANTASY** slow burn* 🔥 He is a predator who thought he captured an ordinary girl... but her mind is sharper than any of his claws.
Ariana lives in the shadow of her monstrous father in a world barely held together by a treaty. Until her l...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
I felt so incredibly cold, yet strangely numb. It was as if death bound me in his icy embrace. Like iron bars, invisible arms wrapped around me so tightly that I did not know where my skin ended, and the cold began. My body vibrated as it uselessly tried to warm itself.
Along with the cold came an endless spinning. I could not decipher whether it was I or the room that spun. Nausea beckoned, threatening whatever remained in my stomach to come up. I forced it down, squeezing my eyes shut, but that only seemed to make it worse. When I opened them, things seemed to get worse yet again. There was no escaping the terrible feeling.
Then suddenly, the obscure spinning room stilled. The darkness turned gray, then light altogether. My body stopped shaking, and I no longer felt cold or alone. I sat on the stone I had been laid on in the temple, though I was no longer in that same room. I was in a white realm of nothingness. In the distance, a figure approached, coming into view. Its skin was as white as the place I sat in, evident by the visible long thin fingers. Its face and features were unknown, hidden by a dark hood. Without asking who they were, I understood. I felt their presence in my bones. It was the spirit.
I felt nothing at that moment. Fear vanished, along with caution and joy. A strangely simple peace surrounded me. I existed in that place to speak to the spirit. There was no need for fear or anything else. Yet, I was still myself. My emotions were still known and present, though it was as if they were behind a curtain, hidden away so that my mind was uninhibited by them.
The spirit stood several feet from me, motionless. No sound came from them. A moment passed, and I found myself breaking the silence with the question I burned to know the answer to.
"Are the Bavadrins cursed?" I asked, knowing that the spirit could answer such questions. That was the entire reason for the ascension ceremony. The leader superior was chosen by the spirit and thus had a chance to meet the spirit to be enlightened, so to better be equipped to lead their people.
The spirit appeared to shift without actually moving, its face still hidden. "No. Far from it." They answered, voice neither masculine nor feminine.
"How so?" I asked, my tone mirroring its own calm demeanor. Though I could not make out the features of the spirit, I knew it was peaceful. I also knew myself to be safe.
"Look in the mirror when you ponder that question." It replied, and I frowned. It seemed that the spirit answered questions in riddles similar to Edda's style whenever she answered about her visions.
"Are the Lysians to be trusted?" I asked instead.
"Do you trust the Lysians?" It asked in turn.
"I want to," I admitted.
"That was not the question." The spirit stated.
"Then yes, I suppose I do. Is that foolish of me?"
