Chapter 207: The Fading Seal (II)

Elara:

I turned my head again, studying those silver eyes through the fading magical barrier.

There was something about them that made my chest ache in a way I couldn’t explain. They weren’t merely familiar. They felt like something I should recognize, something I had forgotten despite it being an inseparable part of me.

"Sometimes," I admitted quietly, "I feel like I know you. Or maybe I feel like I should know you." My fingers curled against the snow. "I don’t know if that makes any sense, but there’s something about you that feels... connected to me. And I can’t figure out why."

The creature remained still, its eyes glowing softly in the darkness. I frowned, then shook my head. "You are not my familiar, obviously. I already have Crazy, and I have never heard of anyone having two familiars. Besides, if you were my familiar, I imagine that sarcastic furball would have found a way to complain about it by now."

I could practically picture Crazy’s offended expression, and the thought brought a faint smile to my lips. But the smile faded as my gaze returned to the creature.

"So, if you are not my familiar, then maybe you are..." The words died before I could finish them. I stared at the silver eyes for another long moment before shaking my head firmly. "No. Impossible. I’m losing my mind. That’s the only reasonable explanation."

Except, was it really impossible?

The question crept into my thoughts before I could stop it, and once it appeared, I couldn’t seem to push it away. Starfall had a prophecy attached to my identity, one that spoke of the return of the wolves who had vanished from this world centuries ago.

People whispered about the Moon Goddess and her child, about a promise that had been made and a destiny that was supposed to change everything. Yet no one could tell me how I was meant to fulfill that prophecy, and the few people who knew its details seemed just as uncertain as everyone else.

The Regents hadn’t spoken a single word about it as theirnonky concern seemed to be the politics surrounding my name and identity. The nobles too appeared far more interested in my crown, my inheritance, and the political consequences of my existence than in some ancient promise involving creatures most people had never seen. Even those who claimed to understand Starfall’s history couldn’t tell me what the prophecy truly required of me.

If I was supposed to bring back the wolves, shouldn’t I have a wolf of my own? Shouldn’t there be something within me that connected me to them, something more than a mysterious prophecy and Reign Valemont’s inexplicable existence as the first person born with a wolf in five centuries?

I stared at the creature, my thoughts tumbling over one another until I could barely distinguish a reasonable question from an impossible theory.

What if the prophecy wasn’t simply about bringing the wolves back? What if it was about awakening something that had been hidden all along? What if this creature was connected to that hidden part of me? And what if the cage wasn’t imprisoning a stranger, but holding back something I had lost before I was old enough to remember it?

The possibilities were so absurd that I almost laughed. Almost. Instead, I lowered my gaze and pressed my fingertips against the snow, trying to steady the restless thoughts gathering inside my head.

I had enough problems in the waking world without adding mysterious dream creatures and ancient prophecies to the list.

I had a Crown Princess title waiting for me, Regents who thought they could lecture me into obedience, a dangerous investigation surrounding the accidents that nearly killed me, and five powerful men who seemed determined to complicate my life in entirely different ways. I didn’t need another mystery.

Perhaps the creature was simply a creation of my mind, an unusual manifestation of the magic sealed inside me. Perhaps the changing landscape was a reflection of my awakening powers, and the disappearing runes were nothing more than my imagination giving shape to emotions I didn’t understand.

After all, my nightmares had taught me that the mind could turn grief, fear, and buried pain into something vivid enough to feel real. Why should this dream be any different?

"That’s all you are," I whispered, more to convince myself than anything else. "A dream. A strange, persistent, slightly unsettling dream. Nothing more."

I drew a breath and turned away from the cage, determined to stop thinking about the creature before I drove myself completely insane.

But then I looked back.

Those silver eyes were still there, fixed on me with an intensity that made the air seem to vanish from my lungs. Something about their glow had changed. The light seemed brighter now, almost painfully so, and the remaining runes trembled in their endless rotation.

I froze, every instinct inside me suddenly became alert. The creature had never moved before. It had never done anything except watch me from behind its magical prison.

Yet now, as I stared into those luminous eyes, I felt something brush against my consciousness - something ancient, vast, and achingly familiar, like a voice calling across a distance too great for time itself to measure.

My lips parted, but no sound emerged. Then the voice came, filling my mind completely, not as an echo in the snowy field but as a presence that seemed to rise from somewhere deep within my very soul.

It was feminine, unlike any voice I had ever heard, yet there was something about it that made me feel as though I had been listening to it long before I was born. It carried a power that words could never fully describe, a quiet authority that made the endless snowfield seem insignificant, as though the world itself had fallen silent to hear her speak. And she said only one thing.

"Eleanora."

... and then my eyes flew open.

I lurched upright with a sharp gasp, my heart hammering against my ribs as I stared into the darkness of my bedroom, the dream dissolving around me like snow beneath sunlight.

For several seconds, I couldn’t move. I could still hear that voice inside my head, ancient and powerful, whispering my name as though it had been waiting an eternity to find me. And suddenly, I wasn’t certain I wanted to dismiss it as just my mind’s creation anymore.