Becoming A God In Another World With My Crush

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The afternoon sunlight stretched across the wooden floorboards of the small cottage. Outside, the wind rustled gently through the trees, stirring the dry brown grass.

Inside, it was quiet.

Iris sat at the dining table, reading the ancient book Eli had shown then earlier , half a page turned before she lost focus again. The book was full of old maps, sigils, and entries about places and creatures she barely understood. She kept flipping back and forth, rereading the same sections.

"Soultethered beasts are rare, typically born of the Abyss. Feeds on memory, not flesh."

"What," she whispered flatly. "What does that even mean?"

She groaned, pressing the book against her forehead as if it would make the knowledge easier to understand.

Across the room, Xander lay curled in one of the spare beds. Eli’s medicine had knocked him out nearly an hour ago, whatever it was, it worked fast.

He hadn’t even gotten the chance to make a sarcastic comment about how herbal tea shouldn’t taste like tree bark.

Eli had left shortly after, something about gathering a few things from town before their journey to Iasora.

Now the cottage felt... empty and calm. Like the calm before a storm they hadn’t even seen on the horizon yet.

Iris glanced over at Xander, chest rising and falling in a slow, easy rhythm.