Soul's Eye

Prologue (1) The bright morning

There was nothing around me. No sky, no earth—only a gray void.

An unfathomable void, both dense and light, where the horizon twisted under the effect of an invisible wind.

It was a calm place. Frozen. A world without fluctuation.

Sickening.

The thought crossed my mind in a flash, like a foreign echo. Before me, the abyss stretched out. Turning around, I saw thousands of shards drifting slowly, like dust in water.

Some contained images—a smile, a hand, a burning city. Others showed nothing, but weighed heavily. As if I had known them. As if I had forgotten them.

Then, without warning, a cacophony of voices erupted in space.

My blood seemed to boil beneath my skin. My temples throbbed so hard that I thought they would burst.

The calm of the void was shattered. The wind, hitherto intangible, became a blade that struck me with full force. It rejected me—as if the world itself refused my presence.

The cries grew louder.

The shards slowly came together, taking the shape of a silhouette.

It moved toward me, without a word. Motionless. Majestic.

Then it reached out its hand.

My arm rose without my commanding it.

My body burned from within. An excruciating heat passed through my chest, like a red-hot blade.

Just before our fingers touched, the cries became words, distinct but in an unknown dialect.

A light tore through the world.

The sharp sound of breaking glass.

And... and I woke up.

========================================

My breath was short and labored. My heart was pounding, beating against my ribs like a trapped animal. My eyes, wide and wet, were bathed in the light of dawn, filtered through the curtains of my window.

I was hot. Much too hot. My skin stuck to the sheets, and I lay there, frozen, unable to move.

For a moment, I didn't understand anything. Then, little by little, air entered my lungs again. A long sigh escaped my lips, broken—and the tears came.

I was at home. In my room. Was it just... a dream?

The silence of dawn seemed almost unreal after the commotion. The wind played softly with the leaves, birds sang somewhere in the distance, and clouds drifted slowly across the sky.

Everything seemed... suffocating. As if this peaceful world wanted to remind me of what I had seen—the flashes, the voices, the light—only to immediately assure me that they had never existed.

And yet...

My right hand hurt. I raised it slowly, as if it weighed more than usual. No burns. No marks. But the heat lingered there, ghostly, as if an ember had been smoldering there.

A shiver ran down my spine.

"Abel!"

The voice was soft, laughing.

"Elya!?" I whispered, almost in tears.

She had just opened the door, hands on her hips, eyes sparkling. Her long brown hair floated in the breeze and her amber eyes seemed to sparkle in the light.

"You'll miss the market again if you stay... oh!"

I threw myself into her arms without thinking, burying my head in her stomach. I was small. Barely over a meter tall. But at that moment, I just wanted to disappear.

"Are you okay?" she asked softly before letting out a little laugh.

"Did my adorable little brother have a little... accident?"

She stroked my hair and glanced at the sheets. White. Stained with a yellowish liquid.

I froze. My face flushed instantly. I pulled away from her embrace, ashamed.

"It's okay, it's okay..." she sighed, teasingly. "Just go take a quick shower. It'll be our little secret, okay?"

She gave me a mischievous wink and added,

"And be careful. If Dad sees you... the whole neighborhood will know."

I nodded silently, then slipped out of the room, holding my breath, praying that no one else was awake.

=========================================

After showering, I went straight to the dining room near the kitchen, where the air was filled with the delicious smell of warm bread, dried herbs, and a wood fire that had just been extinguished.

Pale rays of light streamed through the skylights and reflected off the earthenware dishes.

Elya hummed softly as she set a plate on the table. Her smile caught me like a ray of sunshine. She wore a simple amber-colored dress and an apron still stained with flour.

Nael, my father, was already there, sitting at the table, its creaking wood accompanying his every movement. He drank slowly from a cup, his gaze lost in the steam.

He looked up, a big smile on his lips despite his tired eyes.

"Ah, there you are," he said in a soft voice when he saw me come in, still damp from my hurried shower. "Did you sleep well, little man?"

I hesitated for a moment. An image from the dream—that outstretched hand, that warmth in my chest—tried to surface.

"I... I had a nightmare." 

My father's smile grew even wider as he ruffled my hair with one of his huge hands.

"That's a good sign," he said, serving me a slice of bread. "It means your mind is learning to defend itself."

"You always say weird things, Dad," Elya said as she sat down. "You're going to end up scaring him more than the dream itself."

I smiled shyly. The bread was still warm and crispy. The citrus jam stung my tongue a little, but it brought me back to reality. Back to here.

"So, are you coming with me today?" Elya asked between bites. "The market is waiting, and I'm not carrying three bags by myself."

"Do I have a choice?"

"No."

I tried to hide my laughter with a pretend pout, which made my father laugh as much as my sister, who was enjoying pinching my cheeks.

After a brief silence, my father spoke calmly.

"You know, Abel..." he said slowly, without looking at me. "There are some things that we feel... before we understand them."

He stared at his cup.

"When you don't know what to do, just find the willpower for those you need to protect."

Elya looked at him askance.

" There he goes again."

I frowned slightly. Nael wasn't the type to say things like that. Or not like that.

"Are you sure you're okay, Dad?"

He looked up and smiled at me. A slightly sad smile, but sincere.

"Perfectly fine, son. Go on, get going before old Galar sells all his honey. "

"Okay, see you later," said Elya, before adding,

"And good luck with the meeting."

Only then did I remember that he was supposed to meet with an emissary from a neighboring city. That must be why he was acting so strange; he was probably just stressed out. 

"See you later," I finally said, closing the door.

==============================================

The sun was already high in the sky when we made our way through the crowded city.

The streets of Ahren, wide and paved with light-colored slabs, echoed with the sound of footsteps, laughter, shouts, and the music of a few wandering artists.

The walls were painted in every color, a rainbow of frescoes, some childlike, some sacred, sometimes covered by climbing plants that danced in the pleasant breeze.

The wind carried with it a mixture of smells: warm bread, spices, wax, flowers—a sweet, almost enveloping scent.

The city vibrated with a thousand overlapping lives.

"Keep your eyes open, Abel," Elya said, pulling me away from staring too long at the heights.

A white tower dominated the city, its golden reflections shining like fire. Its summit dissolved into the light, as if piercing a sky that could not be seen.

"I was just looking at the tower," I muttered.

"The tower has always been there, and it will still be there when we'll be at home, after finding tomatoes. Okay?"

I followed her through the crowded stalls.

Nymphs in translucent dresses sold water fruits. Their pale skin, slightly tinged with blue, glistened with a subtle moisture, punctuated by fine scales on their arms and legs.

Not far away, an old Éritt with ash-colored skin and embers for hair offered vials of orange essence. A masked man sang at the top of his lungs while juggling shards of luminous stone.

The city seemed peaceful, teeming with life.

And yet...

Perhaps because of the dream I had had the night before, a feeling of unease gnawed at me beneath my skin. A cold dampness crept up my back, and—

I stopped dead in my tracks.

My vision blurred. Everything around me became hazy, as if an invisible wall had risen between me and the crowd.

The sounds were muffled. The world became distant.

My breath grew shorter. I was suffocating.

Strange sounds echoed in my ears.

Screams, songs, cries?

A myriad of unknown voices pierced my eardrums.

I fell to my knees.

My heart was pounding. My head was about to explode.

"Abel!?"

I jumped.

It was Elya. She held me in her arms, her worried gaze fixed on mine. Her eyes were teary.

"Are you okay? You're pale..."

I took a deep breath, gathering my strength, then smiled at her as best I could.

"Yes, I'm fine... Just a headache. Maybe it's the heat."

"This is happening more and more often. We should see a doctor."

She hesitated, then sighed as she placed the bags in my arms.

"In the meantime, rest in the shade. I'll be back in two minutes, just long enough to talk to old Mina."

"Okay... but do we really have to see a doctor?"

"Yes! And no arguments."

She winked at me and handed me a honey candy before disappearing into the crowd.

I ate it quickly, then collapsed onto a stone bench.

Everything seemed to be back to normal.

I closed my eyes.

And in the sudden silence, a soft, muffled voice reached my ear.

"𝕸𝖆𝖞 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝕬𝖗𝖈𝖘' 𝖇𝖊𝖓𝖊𝖉𝖎𝖈𝖙𝖎𝖔𝖓 𝖋𝖔𝖑𝖑𝖔𝖜𝖘 𝖞𝖔𝖚"

I opened my eyes suddenly, my heart pounding, but there was nothing there but a few birds.

The whisper had vanished, as if it had never existed.