Chapter 101 You Are Ready

Chapter 101 You Are Ready
"No." I fell to my knees, my hands scrabbling at the empty ground. "No, please, not him. Take anyone else, but not him. Please, I'll do anything,"

"Sylvia."

I looked up, and the White Witch was standing over me. Her expression had changed. The smile was gone, replaced by something that looked almost like grief.

"This isn't what I wanted," she said softly. "This was never what I wanted."

"Then why?" I demanded, my voice breaking. "Why are you doing this? Why are you showing me this?"

"Because you need to understand." She knelt beside me, her silver eyes meeting mine. "You need to understand what's at stake, what you're fighting for."

"I don't understand anything!" I sobbed. "I don't know who I am, I don't know what I'm supposed to do. I don't know why any of this is happening!"

The White Witch reached out, her pale fingers brushing against my cheek. Her touch was cold, but not unkind.

"You are the key, Sylvia," she said softly. "You are the one who can end this, you are the one who can bring peace."

"I can't." I shook my head, the tears falling freely. "I can't do this. I'm not strong enough."

"Yes, you are." Her voice was firm, certain. "You've always been strong enough. You just haven't realized it yet."

"Who are you?" I asked, my voice barely above a whisper. "Who are you really?"

Her expression flickered, and for a moment, I saw something vulnerable beneath the mask.

"Once, I was someone," she said quietly. "Someone who believed in love. Someone who believed in peace, someone who believed that the world could be a better place." Her voice cracked slightly. "I was wrong."

"What happened to you?"

She was quiet for a long moment. Then, slowly, she said, "I made a choice, a choice that cost me everything. My family, my home, my very soul." She paused, her eyes meeting mine. "And now I'm trying to make it right."

I stared at her, my heart pounding. "What choice? What did you do?"

She shook her head slowly. "That's a story for another time. Right now, you need to focus. You need to find the answers you're looking for."

"How?" I demanded. "How do I find the answers when no one will tell me anything?"

She reached out, her hand closing around mine. Her grip was surprisingly strong, her fingers cool against my skin.

"The tree," she said. "Go to the tree. The one you have been seeing. The one where you saw me for the first time. There, you will find what you are looking for."

"The tree?" I blinked, confused. "But I have been there. I didn't find anything."

"You weren't ready before. But you're ready now." She squeezed my hand. "Go to the tree, Sylvia. And you will find the answers you seek."

I opened my mouth to ask more, to demand more, but the words wouldn't come.

And then the dream began to fade.

"No, wait," I reached for her, but she was already disappearing, her form dissolving into mist. "Wait, I need to know more! Who is Seraphina? What happened to her? Please…"

"Sylvia."

Her voice echoed through the darkness, soft and distant.

"Remember what I've told you. And don't let fear guide your choices. You are stronger than you know."

"Wait,"

But she was gone, and the darkness was closing in, and I was falling…

I woke up with a gasp.

My body was drenched in sweat, my heart pounding so hard I could hear it in my ears. I sat up, my hands shaking, my breath coming in ragged gasps.

The room was dark, the only light the pale glow of the moon filtering through the curtains. Everything was still, peaceful, and looked normal.

But I wasn't normal. 

I looked down at my hands, half expecting to see blood. But there was nothing. Just my pale skin and my trembling fingers.

I pressed my hands to my face, trying to steady my breathing.

The dream felt so real. So terrifyingly real.

Zarek on his knees, the silver knife, the blood, the White Witch's sad smile.

I closed my eyes, and the image of his face burned behind my eyelids. 

Zarek looked pale and he was dying, yet I could not do anything.

"No," I whispered into the darkness. "No, it's not real. It was just a dream."

But even as I said it, I knew it was more than a dream. It felt like a warning.

The White Witch had shown me something but what was that?

I thought about her words. The tree. Go to the tree, and you will find what you are looking for.

The tree. 

I had been there before. I had touched the bark, felt the strange warmth beneath my fingers. But I hadn't found anything. 

I remembered collapsing there.

I pressed a hand to my chest, feeling the frantic beat of my heart.

The White Witch said I was ready now. She said the answers were waiting for me.

I sat on the edge of the bed, my body still trembling from the nightmare, my heart slowly returning to a normal rhythm. 

I needed to calm down so I could think properly.

My eyes drifted to the dresser where I had hidden the ancient book, the one I had taken from the library. The one with the torn pages and the photograph of Seraphina. 

I crossed the room and pulled it out, my fingers brushing against the worn leather cover. The symbol on the front seemed to pulse in the dim light, those three branching lines that matched the mark on my palm.

I carried it back to the bed and settled against the headboard, the book heavy in my lap. The pages were yellowed with age, the ink faded but still legible. I had read parts of it before, but I had been too distracted, too overwhelmed by everything I had discovered.

Now, I need to focus. 

I opened the book and began to read.