The forest seed to hold its breath.
Evelyn was crossing the last living trail of the ancient elven road, the roots intertwined as if they had been shaped by careful hands in forgotten centuries. But now, the path that led to the Abode of the Spirits was dry. The mist hung heavy over the ground and the branches above her seed bowed not out of reverence, but out of mourning.
She stopped in front of the natural arch that marked the entrance to the sanctuary. The moss-covered stone - once vibrant with pulsating inscriptions of living magic - was now faded. Dead.
She took a step. Another.
His heart beat loudly in his chest.
The Abode of the Spirits was one of the oldest and most sacred places in Sylvandor, where the elves sought wisdom, where pacts with the forest itself were renewed, where the Queen communicated with the elental guardians. There, the whispers of the world were always heard. There, silence never existed.
But now...
Nothing.
Not even the rustle of enchanted leaves. Not even the faint glow of plant souls. Not even the murmurs of the veil between the planes.
The life that inhabited that place was gone.
Evelyn knelt in the center of the stone circle, the veil fluttering behind her, her eyes wide with the pain of confirmation.
"This place looks worse and worse... " she whispered, as if saying it out loud was an affront to the place.
She ran her fingers over the ancient symbol carved into the ground - the rune that represented Seryalis, the spirit of rebirth - now cracked, gray, cold to the touch.
"The forest no longer speaks," she said to herself. "The spirits have gone... or been taken away."
A gust of wind suddenly blew through the trees. Cold. Unnatural. Evelyn raised her face, eyes watering, feeling the vastness of the emptiness around her. It was as if ti itself had ceased to exist there.
She clenched her fists.
The pain in her chest turned to fury.
"What the fuck happened here for us to be like this?" Her voice echoed between the trunks - but no answer ca. No owl responded. No lights flashed. No shadow moved.
Evelyn stood up slowly, determination growing inside her like a fire in the ashes.
"If there's no life here anymore... then what is my mother trying to protect?" She looked up among the black, curving branches.
"And what, in the na of the forest, has stolen all this from us?"
Then, with her eyes turned towards the path back, she felt the decision forming sharply inside her. If the spirits were no longer there, if the forest was dying in silence... then what she was facing was greater than a kingdom in crisis...
Evelyn stood there for a mont, looking around as if she expected sothing - anything - to erge from the gloom and respond to her despair. But all she found was the oppressive weight of emptiness.
Without thinking, she went back to kneeling in the center of the old circle. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes and placed her hands on the cold floor. Ancient words ca to mind, like a forgotten reflection of childhood: prayers her mother had taught her, soft chants that awakened the spirits of the earth, the guardians of essence.
"Seryalis... El'miriel... Luthien-Tar... listen to my voice... listen..." Her voice wavered.
She tried again, more firmly, pulling the air between her teeth.
"I am Evelyn of Gal'Shanai. Blood of the royal line. Protector of the Abode of Spirits. I call you! For my mother. For the forest. For life!"
Nothing.
Not even a breeze.
She frowned, squeezing her eyes tightly shut, trying to find the connection she used to feel even as a child - a warm feeling, as if the whole world was breathing with her. But now, all she felt was a hard chill under her knees. A suffocating silence that refused to budge.
"I'm trying, damn it," she whispered, more to herself than to the spirits. "I'm not like her. I know that. But I'm trying."
She repeated the ritual. Again and again. And again. She sang. She begged. She called out the old nas. He used the words his mother muttered in rituals of renewal. He beat his hands on the floor. He shouted.
"Co in!"
But emptiness was all that remained. And he didn't answer.
Tears began to flow before she could stop them. First, a silent drop. Then another, hotter, heavier. Her shoulders began to shake. Her hands, still resting on the cracked symbol, were stone cold.
"I... I don't know what to do..." His voice ca out choked, almost a whisper lost in the darkness.
"She's dying... and I... I just wish I understood why..." The cry ca like a wave trapped for too long. Evelyn's chest rose and fell in uncontrollable sobs as she clutched the ground with her fingers, as if she could pull answers from the dry earth.
The forest remained silent. Evelyn's wail seed to have rged with the very essence of that forgotten place, as if ti had frozen there to watch in silence the raw pain of a lost daughter.
She was on her knees, her shoulders shaking under the weight of sothing far greater than any crown. The veil fell like a mourning cloak, and the faded rune under her forehead seed too cold, too final.
"She is alone... my mother is alone... and I... I have failed..."
The words escaped like broken sighs, more fragile than the dry branches around them. There was no one to hear them.
Or so she thought.
A slight displacent of air.
The soft sound of footsteps that shouldn't echo in a sacred place - and yet, they didn't sound like an invasion. It was familiar. Warm, sohow.
Evelyn barely had ti to react when a firm, warm and strangely comforting hand landed on her shoulder.
"Did you know you look really cute crying?"
The voice ca low, almost playful, but with a hidden tenderness that made each word vibrate in her as if they were part of a forgotten song.
Evelyn froze.
She knew that voice.
Slowly, she turned her face, her watery eyes rising to et Strax's intense golden gaze. He was crouched beside her, smiling mischievously.
"Strax..." she whispered, as if uttering the na was fear and relief at the sa ti.
He smiled - that crooked smile, half cheeky, half delighted. "I thought you might be in need of... an old friend. And a shoulder."
Evelyn tried to speak, but her tight throat only allowed a silent sob. Before she could think, Strax pulled her close, wrapping his strong arms around her. She sank against him, her fists closed against his chest, as the tears ca harder - now, not from loneliness, but from reunion.
"You ca..." she managed to say between sobs, her voice choked.
"Of course I ca," he replied, his fingers gently tangling in her hair. "Did you think I was going to let you carry all this alone?"
She squeezed her eyes shut, her face still pressed against his chest. "My mother is dying and I... I can't do anything."
Strax rested his chin on the top of her head, his voice now deeper, more serious.
Strax held her carefully, as if she were made of crystal - not because he thought she was weak, but because he knew that, at that mont, she was broken. And yet, his voice ca firm, gentle, like an anchor in the midst of a storm:
"Calm down, okay? We have to talk... understand all this. But now, just... allow yourself to feel. Cry. I'll stay here with you. And in the anti..." - he ran his fingers gently over her shoulders, his voice lower - "...I'll try to help your mother."
Evelyn took a deep breath, still oscillating between pain and his comforting presence. She pulled away just enough to stare into his face - her eyes still shining with barely contained tears, but with sothing new burning deep inside. Sothing that reminded her of who she was before the pain, before the war.
"Do you... do you really believe that?"
Strax arched an eyebrow, and a smile ford on his lips - slow, laden with that familiar malice that only he could bring out even in the worst of tis.
"You're doubting my ability, are you?" He tilted his head, teasing. "Funny... weren't you the one who used my beautiful Ouroboros as a ssenger to send the most blatant hint in elven history? 'Oh, what a pity you're not here... maybe soone with big wings and a bigger ego could help'."
Evelyn froze instantly. Her blush rose so quickly that not even the cold of the dead forest could quench it. She widened her eyes, then looked away in despair and, not knowing where to hide, shoved her face back against his chest, stifling a groan of sha.
"I-idiot..." she muttered, her voice muffled by her tunic.
Strax laughed, the low sound vibrating in his chest - a laugh that seed to bring a fragnt of life back to that dead clearing.
"Yeah, you can call whatever you want, Evelyn..." he said, wrapping his arms around her more firmly, his tone now softer. "But you called . And I ca."
"Besides..." Strax said and glanced over his shoulder. "Those people over there are really interested in knowing what's going on." He said and Evelyn's gaze went to...
Four Humans.
Four Vampires.
Two Dragons.
One Demi-Human.
"Co on, get your hands off my husband," Scarlet said with a glint in his eye, looking like he was going to attack her at the first false move.
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