Chapter 117: "Go back to where it all began..."

Exhaustion won without me realizing it.

Sometime between old maps, open books, and theories about the keys, I ended up falling asleep in the library chair.

The last things I heard before passing out were the low voices of Conrad and Kael discussing forgotten territories of the north.

Then everything disappeared.

Darkness.

Not ordinary darkness.

It was alive.

It breathed.

I slowly opened my eyes within the dream and immediately felt that something was wrong.

There was no sky.

Above me, there was only a pulsating mass of liquid shadows moving like sick clouds.

The ground beneath my feet felt like stone… but it pulsed like living flesh.

My stomach churned.

The air was heavy.

Rotten.

And the silence…

The silence was worse than any scream.

I began to walk slowly.

The shadows around me moved with me.

Watching.

Waiting. Then I heard.

Whispers.

Hundreds of them.

Female voices.

Male voices.

Childlike voices.

Mixed.

Broken.

“Come back…”

“She weakens…”

“The prison bleeds…”

My heart raced.

“Who’s there?” my voice came out small in that impossible place.

The shadows trembled.

Then one of them slowly slid before me, taking a tall, distorted form.

It had no face.

Only eyes.

Many golden eyes watching me from the darkness.

“The heir awakens…”

The baby moved violently inside my belly.

A wave of pain coursed through my body.

I tried to recoil.

I couldn’t.

The shadows began to climb up my legs.

Cold.

Heavy.

Trapping. My despair intensified immediately.

“Conrad!”

No answer.

The void seemed to swallow my voice.

The shadows tightened their grip.

And then…

Images began to appear around me.

A young man walking through a dark forest.

Golden eyes.

Arrogant posture.

The former king.

Conrad's father.

He advanced through dead trees, holding a torch while symbols glowed on the ground beneath his feet.

There was no fear in him.

Only ambition.

Then he found something.

A torn opening in reality itself.

The rift.

Shadows pulsed within it like a monstrous heart.

And before the rupture…

A pregnant woman.

Golden light swirled around her body as shadows tried to cross the opening behind her.

She was crying.

Exhausted.

Trying to stop something. The king advanced nonetheless.

The shadows around me began to vibrate violently.

“He opened…”

“He wished…”

“He fell…”

The man reached out toward the crack.

Then something looked back at him.

My blood ran cold.

I couldn't see clearly.

Only enormous eyes emerging from the infinite darkness on the other side.

Ancient.

Hungry.

The king began to scream.

The shadows exploded around him as the woman tried to pull him back.

Too late.

The entire reality cracked.

The dream began to crumble along with it.

The shadows quickly climbed up my body now.

Trying to drag me.

Trapping my arms.

My throat.

I panicked.

I tried to wake up.

I couldn't.

The whispers grew louder.

More desperate.

“The second one sleeps…”

“She waits…”

“Come back…”

A shadow touched my belly.

The baby reacted immediately.

Golden light exploded violently from my womb.

The shadows recoiled in a horrible collective scream.

And then I heard the phrase.

Clear.

Directly inside my mind.

“The second key rests where the king lost everything.”

I woke up screaming.

The chair fell backward along with me.

Breath failing.

Hands trembling.

Liquid shadows still trickled through my fingers before disappearing into thin air.

“Maya!”

Conrad appeared in front of me immediately as Kael dropped several books in his hurried stand-up.

Conrad cupped my face.

“What happened?”

My heart still felt out of control.

But now I knew.

I knew exactly what the rift wanted to show.

I slowly raised my eyes to the two of them.

“I know where the second key is.”

Silence fell over the library.

Kael was the first to speak.

“Where?”

I swallowed hard.

“In the place where your father found the rift.”

Conrad’s expression hardened immediately.

And then another realization hit us all at once.

There was only one living person who knew that place.

Solange.

The silence in the library grew heavy after Solange’s name lingered among us.

Kael was the first to break it.

“She won’t tell easily.”

Conrad let out a low, humorless laugh.

“No. But you will tell me.”

The firmness in his voice sent a shiver down my spine.

Because I knew that tone.

It was the king speaking now.

Not the gentle companion who held me during nightmares.

Conrad carefully helped me up from the floor while Kael gathered the scattered books.

My legs were still trembling.

Part of me remained in that horrible dream.

In that living darkness.

In those eyes watching from inside the crack.

Conrad noticed immediately.

His hand tightened on mine.

“What did you see there?” he asked softly as we walked out of the library.

I hesitated.

Because I didn't fully understand myself.

“The shadows…” my voice faltered slightly. “They looked hungry.”

Kael looked up immediately.

“Hungry?”

I nodded slowly. “But that wasn’t all.” I took a deep breath. “It seemed like they were… trapped.”

Conrad exchanged a silent look with Kael.

“And the heiress?” Kael asked carefully. “Did you see her?”

My heart tightened.

“Yes.”

The images immediately returned to my mind.

The woman facing the breach.

Pregnant.

Exhausted.

Trying to stop something much bigger than herself.

“She was trying to close the opening.” My throat tightened. “Conrad… she was desperate.”

His jaw immediately tensed.

But before he could answer, we reached the main corridor.

Two guards stood alert as they saw us approaching at that hour of the morning.

“Is my mother awake?” Conrad asked.

One of the soldiers hesitated.

“Yes, my king. She is in her chambers.”

Conrad nodded once.

Then he turned his eyes to me.

“You don’t have to come.”

I let out a small, indignant breath.

“After that dream? I’m definitely going.”

Kael almost smiled discreetly behind us.

Conrad just ran a hand over his face, clearly too tired to argue.

We walked through the silent corridors of the castle as the morning wind made the torches flicker on the walls.

But as we approached the royal wing…

A strange feeling began to grow inside me.

Weight.

Pressure.

As if something was waiting.

I immediately put my hand to my belly.

The baby moved strongly.

Restless.

Conrad noticed immediately.

“What is it?”

I stopped walking.

My heart started racing again.

“She knows.”

Kael frowned.

“Solange?”

I shook my head slowly. “No.” My voice came out almost in a whisper. “The crack.”

The corridor seemed to grow colder.

The shadows near the walls began to move slowly.

Like living smoke sliding across the stone.

And then…

A voice crossed my mind again.

Lower.

Closer.

“Go back to where it all began…”