Chapter 45: The Girl Who Dreams
The sealed corridor breathed a silence that felt ancient, like a library forgotten by time. Cold vapors curled along the stone floor that somehow felt like marsh. At the end of the hall, the final threshold loomed - no door, no handle, just a seamless wall of shimmering black surface.
Elune stepped forward, taking in a deep breath - preparing her encounter with a past she hadn’t known still existed. Sealed away.
Beyond it lay a door. Slightly open. As if the one inside was expecting someone to come. Just as it had been when Lin visited.
She stepped into a chamber bathed in refracted silver. The ceiling was nowhere to be seen. The walls arched endlessly into mirrored twilight. And in the center of the room, barefoot and motionless, sat a girl.
Her back was to Elune. Her dress hung like it was stitched from ash and woven air, and her hair shimmered with a faint blue sheen under the strange light.
"Why you?" the girl said, without turning.
Elune’s breath caught in her throat. She stepped forward, voice soft, aching.
"...Because I loved you, too."
The girl turned her head slightly. Just enough to catch Elune’s reflection in a nearby pane. Her gaze was unreadable - not cold, but distant, clinical. Her lips tugged into something halfway between recognition and reproach.
"You haven’t changed at all. I bet you still trip over all the time."
For a moment, Elune almost smiled.