Soul's Eye

Prologue (2) bows'raining

The day was drawing to a close.

The sky above Ahren was tinged with a deep blue, streaked with pink and orange filaments. The bells of the old temple rang in the distance, slow and clear, like an orchestra of ancient echoes.

I had trouble walking straight.

Everything seemed... off.

The streets I knew by heart seemed wider, emptier. People were talking, laughing, greeting each other... But their voices reached me blurred, muffled, as if an invisible veil were filtering the world.

Elya had offered to let me go home before her. I think she understood that something was wrong.

'But how could I explain it to her? How?!

Say something like, "A mirror smiled at me instead of me"? "The air around me is vibrating"? Or even, "My shadow didn't move when I did"?'

"She'll probably think I'm crazy," I muttered as I turned at the intersection.

My steps led me to a small stone staircase carved into the hillside, where the city gently sloped down toward the hanging gardens of the Temple of Naëra.

I stopped there. Alone.

The wind carried a song—distant, unreal. Like a voice... or a forgotten memory.

And high in the sky, a white shape cut through the clouds.

A bird? No. It was something else.

Its trajectory was too perfect. Too... deliberate.

Behind it, a thin glow like a silver thread traced an ascending line. Then it slowed down. Gently. It deviated from its vertical course, skimming the sky like a suspended feather, before being brutally pulled toward the ground.

The trail of light it left behind formed an inverted arc, a gigantic ᑎ in the twilight sky—as if drawn by a giant.

And then—BOOM.

The object crashed onto the roof of the tower. A deafening, devastating noise. A wave hit me — invisible, brutal. The ground shook beneath my feet.

I stood frozen. For a moment... everything went dark.

My mind was empty. No more thoughts. No more breath. No more me. Only fear. Pure. Raw.

Then it was like a flash of lightning.

A searing, burning chill swept through my legs.

I fell to my knees, hands on the ground, gasping for breath. My heart pounded like a war drum. My throat was dry. My limbs trembled.

But more than that... I felt something entering me.

Something had opened. A breach. And I was there, just below it.

I looked up, trembling.

The sky was still vibrating. And there—in the dying light—dozens of other shapes were cutting through the clouds, carried by huge silver furrows.

'Elya!'

My throat was tight, but I screamed.

And I started to run.

Through the streets of the city, my feet struck the stone, slipped, stumbled.

Around me, the silver streaks became arches, celestial arcs that plunged toward the earth like a rain of death.

Buildings exploded. One by one. Roofs collapsed. Screams erupted. Crowds gathered. People ran toward the exits, toward anywhere.

The sounds of morning—the market, the bells, the laughter—had disappeared.

Replaced by screams. By the crash. By the cries.

My eyes burned as I struggled not to be crushed by the crowd.

But I was looking for only one thing.

"Elya!"

"ELYA!!!"

I called her name over and over, but my voice was lost in the tumult.

Bodies brushed against me, jostled me, dragged me along in their panic. I tried to swim against the tide, to force my way through the human wave.

"Elya..."

My breath broke in my chest.

Everything was exploding around me. Silver arches crashed onto the rooftops like meteors, pulverizing stone and wood in a rain of pale flames. Each impact resonated in my bones, in my teeth. The ground vibrated beneath my bare feet.

I knew this neighborhood. I knew its alleys, its shortcuts, its flower-filled corners, and its old, cracked walls.

And yet, I didn't recognize anything anymore.

Everything was covered in dust, screams, and white light.

I rushed through a narrow passage between two houses, slipping on the wet cobblestones, my arms outstretched to keep from falling. Smoke rose in ghostly columns, and the sky seemed to be burning upside down.

"ELYA!"

I arrived at the market square.

All that remained was a field of rubble.

The overturned stalls were still burning. Silhouettes lay beneath raised sheets, baskets shattered, memories broken. My legs were shaking, but I kept running.

Finally, I saw her.

Her slender silhouette at the edge of the south alley, behind the large fountain.

She was holding a child in her arms—a little boy, sobbing, covered in dust.

"ELYA!"

She turned around. Her gaze met mine.

For a moment, the world seemed to stop. No more noise. No more light. No more breath. Just her eyes.

She motioned to me, her lips trembling. But before she could move, an arch descended.

Right between us.

In a deafening crash.

The sound was like lightning striking directly against my skull. I felt it pierce my eardrums, a shockwave throwing me backwards.

I flew. I bounced off the ruins, the stones, the torn walls. Each impact broke something inside me.

'It hurts... It hurts so much...'

I felt my skin and flesh tearing against the rubble. My ribs were screaming. With every cough, I felt blood rising from my lungs.

'It hurts... My eye... Elya...'

Warm liquid was running down my cheek. Everything was silent. My eye was hurting like never before.

It was as if red-hot iron needles were piercing my retina. So intense that even the pain of my broken bones no longer mattered.

I began to choke. Unable to control my chaotic breathing. I struggled not to break down in tears, so that I could return to my sister.

But I couldn't. My body refused to obey.

In one last moment, I screamed. I prayed. I begged that Elya had at least managed to escape.

And then, in the darkness, I thought… I heard her voice, once more.