Chapter 2- Arjuna Undoing
1181 Words
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The sky never changed in our realm.
No sunrise.
No sunset.
Only endless silver twilight stretching across the horizon.
The kind of sky that made humans uneasy.
The kind I once called home.
Most outsiders imagined our realm as a place of darkness.
They were wrong.
Life flourished here.
Ancient forests covered much of the land, their towering trees older than recorded history. Crystal rivers wound through valleys untouched by time. Moonflowers bloomed beneath the eternal twilight, illuminating hidden pathways with their soft silver glow.
Some plants existed nowhere else in the universe.
Rare herbs.
Healing blossoms.
Ancient roots capable of extending life itself.
Many had been hunted to near extinction by travellers from other realms.
Including humans.
My family's mansion stood within the castle compound, overlooking the Silver Gardens. Though the monarchy had long fallen, the royal bloodlines remained.
Symbols of a forgotten age.
The throne itself still existed.
Empty.
Untouched.
A reminder of a past nobody wished to repeat.
These days, the Council of Elders ruled instead.
And they watched everything.
Especially families like mine.
It's been three years.
Three years since I first noticed her.
At first, she was merely another human moving through the endless currents of fate.
Then something changed.
I felt her.
A pulse.
A frequency.
An energy unlike anything I had encountered before.
Curiosity became interest.
Interest became fascination.
And fascination slowly became something far more dangerous.
Yes...
I've been watching her from afar.
I watched her sitting alone on the porch with a cup of coffee she had forgotten to drink.
I watched her laugh at something on her glowing human device.
I watched her stare at the sky for reasons even she didn't understand.
I witnessed everything.
Her laughter.
Her stubbornness.
Her moments of quiet happiness.
I witnessed her tears.
Her battles.
Her silent screams when nobody was listening.
And then...
Her greatest loss.
I remember that night.
The grief surrounding her was so heavy that even from another realm, I could feel it.
Most humans would have broken beneath such pain.
She didn't.
She bent.
But she never truly broke.
That was the night I realized she was different.
That perhaps the universe had placed her within my path for a reason.
From that moment onward, I found myself returning again and again.
Watching.
Observing.
Waiting.
Like a moon trapped within the orbit of a distant star.
I told myself it was curiosity.
I told myself it was research.
I told myself many things.
None of them were true.
I was drawn to her.
And the more I learned about her, the stronger that pull became.
I began nudging small currents of energy toward her.
Nothing harmful. Nothing obvious.
Just enough to make her pause.
To look over her shoulder.
To wonder.
To become aware that something beyond her world was watching.
And eventually...The Elders noticed. Of course they did. Nothing escaped them for long.
The summons arrived before dawn.
I found them waiting within the Hall of Echoes.
The hall thar stood at the heart of the old palace.
A place few nobles enjoyed visiting.
The walls were carved from moonstone older than memory itself.
Every word spoken within those halls lingered.
Whispering.
Repeating.
Refusing to die.
Twelve figures seated in silence.
Twelve pairs of ancient eyes studying me.
Judging me.
One of them spoke first.
"Stop this, Arjuna."
The command echoed throughout the chamber.
"She is not one of us."
Another Elder leaned forward.
"She belongs to the human realm."
A third added quietly,
"And you cannot remain there."
I clenched my jaw.
For a moment, I considered remaining silent.
Then I answered.
"She's special."
The Elders exchanged glances.
"A human with that kind of energy is rare."
Silence.
"I haven't seen anything like it in hundreds of years."
The chamber grew colder.
One Elder's gaze sharpened.
"Her gift belongs to her people."
Another nodded.
"It was never meant for us."
"You were not meant to touch it."
Not touch it.
As though she were some f*******n relic.
Some dangerous artifact.
Some object to be catalogued and forgotten.
They didn't understand.
Or perhaps they understood far too well.
Because what called to me wasn't merely her gift.
It was her. Her energy.
That aura shifting between blue and white.
Sometimes touched by hints of green.
A color so alive it seemed impossible within a human soul.
The first time I saw it, I couldn't look away.
The second time, I tried.
The third time...
I stopped trying.
It felt familiar.
Like a forgotten melody.
Like a home I had lost long ago.
Yet no matter how much the Elders warned me...I couldn't stay away.
So when the veil between our worlds grew thin beneath the silver moon...
I made my choice. I crossed it.
To her.
The memory still burned fresh within me.
Her garden. The mulberry tree. The moment she sensed my presence. The moment she looked toward the veil.
Toward me.
And for the first time in three years...
She noticed.
Now she speaks to me. Now she hears me.
And that should have been enough.
It should have satisfied the curiosity that had consumed me for years.
Instead...
It only made me want more. More conversations. More answers. More of her.
And that... That is my undoing.
The meeting ended shortly after. The Elders had said enough. And I had heard enough.
Without another word, I left the Hall of Echoes and made my way through the castle grounds.
The silver twilight remained unchanged, casting long shadows across the stone pathways.
My family's mansion stood at the far end of the compound, overlooking the Silver Gardens.
Home.
Or at least, what used to feel like home. My thoughts drifted back to her. To the garden.
To the mulberry tree.
To the moment she finally noticed me.
A faint smile threatened to appear. Then I saw him.
Ravynn.
Standing beneath the ancient moonwood tree.
Watching.
Waiting.
His silver eyes locked onto mine.
Sharp.
Unforgiving.
The smile vanished immediately. I knew that look. His jaw tightened.
The muscles along his neck visibly tensed.
He looked angry.
Very angry.
Ravynn was my oldest friend. Older than me by centuries. Ancient, by human standards.Yet time touched him differently.
He carried the pure blood of the First Line.
The closest living descendant of the old royal house.
While the rest of us aged slowly...Ravynn barely seemed to age at all.Some said it was his bloodline.
Others believed it was something else entirely.
I never cared enough to ask.
Not until this moment.
Because right now...
His age wasn't what concerned me. His expression was. I lowered my gaze and quickened my pace. Pretending not to notice him.Pretending I had somewhere else to be.
A foolish attempt.
Ravynn missed very little. And he already knew me too well. Deep inside, a small knot of unease tightened within my chest.
Not because I feared him.
Because I feared what he was about to say.
And judging by the way he was staring at me...
He knew exactly what I had done.
- Writer
