Chapter 206: The Fading Seal (I)

Elara:

It had been a while since I had last returned to this endless white place. Or, more precisely, since I had last dreamed of it.

The first time I found myself here, I was lying unconscious in the academy infirmary after falling from a cliff. Back then, this place had been nothing but endless white. No ground beneath my feet, no sky above my head, no horizon to distinguish where one ended and the other began. There had been no warmth, no cold, no sound, and certainly no explanation for why I had ended up in a place that seemed to exist beyond the boundaries of reality itself.

I had visited it only a handful of times since then, and every visit had left me with more questions than answers. Yet something had changed. Not just here, but within me.

The endless white had transformed into an endless field of snow, stretching in every direction beneath a pale, indistinguishable sky. And today, there was another new presence - wind. It was soft and cool as it brushed against my face, lifting the loose strands of my hair and fluttering the hem of my dress.

I stopped for a moment, watching the delicate snowflakes swirling around my fingers. They felt real. Everything felt real. And somehow, that unsettled me more than the emptiness ever had.

I had no idea how long I walked. Time had never behaved normally in this place, and I had stopped trying to measure it during my earlier visits.

There was only one destination I ever seemed to reach, regardless of how far I walked or how long I wandered through the endless snow. The cage.

I had always been able to find it, surrounded by ancient runes that rotated in intricate circles, their magical light binding whatever lay inside.

I had never understood what those symbols meant as I had found nothing similar in the runes book I looked through, not like I remembered much in the first place after waking up. No matter how much I tried to memorize those runes, I ended up forgetting after waking up.

As I crossed another stretch of untouched snow, I noticed something that made my steps slow. The runes were fewer than I remembered. Another layer had disappeared, leaving gaps in the elaborate patterns that had once formed an almost impenetrable barrier around the cage.

My heart gave a strange, inexplicable flutter as I approached, the wind growing softer until the silence settled around me like a blanket. There it was, just as it had been during my previous dreams, and yet somehow different.

The cage seemed less solid, its magical boundaries thinner, as though something had been patiently wearing away at the enchantment holding it together. I stopped a few steps away, staring at the gaps between the glowing symbols.

What exactly was happening here? And why did I have the unsettling feeling that whatever was inside had been waiting for me?

I cautiously leaned forward, peering through the spaces between the fading runes, hoping that perhaps this time I would finally see more than the same mysterious glimpse that haunted my dreams. But no matter how carefully I looked, the darkness inside refused to surrender its secrets.

As always, two glowing silver eyes stared back at me, bright and unmistakable against the shadows, accompanied by a glimpse of snow-white fur. That was all.

I had been unable to determine the creature’s size, distinguish the shape of its face, or identify anything that might tell me what kind of being I was looking at. I didn’t even know whether it was standing, sitting, or lying somewhere beyond the reach of my vision. The only reason I knew it was a creature at all was because of that fur. Everything else remained hidden, concealed behind the strange darkness and the magical barrier that continued to hold it captive.

The silver eyes followed my movements as I shifted from one side to the other, and I had the distinct impression that the creature was watching me with the same curiosity I felt toward it.

A quiet sigh escaped me. "Well, here we are again," I murmured, as though I had accidentally met an acquaintance in the middle of nowhere instead of visiting a mysterious prison in my own dreams. "You and me. Another lovely reunion in this ridiculously dramatic snowfield."

The creature didn’t respond, and I wasn’t entirely sure why I had expected it to.

Giving up on trying to see through the cage, I lowered myself onto the snowy ground with my back against its outer barrier. Surprisingly, the snow didn’t soak through my clothes, and the cold never seeped into my skin. It was as though the temperature of this place had no authority over me, another peculiar detail to add to the growing collection of things I couldn’t explain.

I stretched my legs in front of me and stared into the endless distance, allowing my thoughts to wander wherever they pleased.

"You know what’s really annoying about you?" I asked after a while, directing my words toward the creature behind me. "Every time I wake up, I forget some things. I remember the snow, the cage, your ridiculous glowing eyes... but not the runes. It’s like someone has taken an eraser to my memories."

I paused, glancing over my shoulder. The silver eyes remained fixed on me. "So when exactly am I supposed to figure out who you are? Or what you are? And why do you keep appearing in my dreams in the first place?"

I waited, almost expecting an answer, but silence was the only response. I huffed and turned back toward the horizon. "Of course. Why would you make this easy for me?"

My gaze drifted back to the runes circling the cage, and I studied the gaps with renewed interest. "I have noticed something, though. These runes are disappearing. Slowly, but they are disappearing."

I watched one luminous symbol rotate past the others, its edges flickering faintly before it vanished behind another ring of light.

"I don’t know why it’s happening, and I certainly don’t know how to make it happen faster. But if this continues, maybe I’ll finally get to see you properly when the last one disappears."

The thought should have excited me. Instead, a strange uneasiness settled in my stomach, as though some part of me understood the significance of that possibility long before my conscious mind could catch up.

I rubbed my palms against my knees and tilted my head back against the cage. "Although, at this rate, that could take probably a few years. And I really don’t have the patience for that."

My words faded into the quiet landscape, carried away by a gentle breeze. For a moment, I allowed myself to imagine what would happen when the cage finally opened. Would the creature come out? Would it speak? Would it attack me? Or would it simply disappear, leaving me with nothing but another half-remembered dream?

I couldn’t answer any of those questions, and somehow that bothered me more than the possibility that the creature might be dangerous.