Chapter 6: Apparently, I Was Never Normal
629 Words
"I think,” I said slowly, “it’s my turn.”
Rayan looked up from the fire. “You don’t have to.”
“I really do,” I replied. “Because if one more person tells me I’m chosen without explanation, I will personally choose violence.”
That earned a weak laugh.
I took a breath. Funny how memories wait for permission.
“Back in my world,” I began, “I was aggressively average.”
Rayan raised an eyebrow.
“I mean it,” I insisted. “No magic. No drama. My biggest enemy was Mondays.”
I stared into the flames.
“But weird things kept happening.”
Like:
clocks stopping when I panicked
lights flickering when I cried
dreams that felt more like memories
“I used to dream of this place,” I admitted.
Rayan went still.
“Not exactly,” I added quickly. “Not clearly. Just… moons. Stone towers. A voice calling my name like it already knew me.”
The bond warmed.
“When I was a child,” I continued, “I found a symbol burned into my wrist.”
I turned my arm.
The same mark as the ring—older, faded, but unmistakable.
Rayan inhaled sharply. “That’s a seal.”
“Everyone told me it was a birthmark,” I said. “But it used to glow when I was scared.”
He stood, pacing now. “Why didn’t you ever tell anyone?”
“I did,” I said dryly. “Doctors suggested stress. Relatives suggested prayer. I suggested ignoring it.”
I smiled faintly. “Worked great. Until I got spirited away.”
I swallowed.
“There’s more.”
The fire dimmed, as if listening.
“My parents weren’t my parents,” I said.
Rayan stopped.
“They loved me. Raised me. Protected me. But before my mother died… she told me I was found.”
Silence fell hard.
“She said I appeared during a storm. No records. No hospital. Just a crying baby wrapped in cloth covered in symbols.”
I laughed under my breath. “I thought it was a story. Something to make me feel special.”
The ring pulsed—soft, steady.
“She made me promise something,” I whispered.
“If the magic ever came for me… I wasn’t to run.”
Rayan’s voice was barely audible. “Because running delays the bond.”
I nodded.
“That book,” I said, “the one that opened the portal? I’d owned it for years. Bought it from a street vendor who disappeared the next day.”
Rayan cursed quietly.
“It never opened before,” I finished. “Not until the day I touched the mark and said—out loud—that I felt like I didn’t belong anywhere.”
The fire flared.
Magic hummed.
Rayan knelt in front of me, eyes searching my face—not fear, not suspicion.
Understanding.
“You weren’t summoned randomly,” he said. “You were hidden between worlds.”
“So I wasn’t kidn*pped,” I muttered.
“No,” he said softly. “You were preserved.”
I groaned. “That’s worse.”
He smiled despite himself.
For a moment, neither of us spoke.
Then Rayan reached out—slowly, giving me time to pull away.
I didn’t.
“Our stories were broken apart,” he said. “But the bond is trying to put them back together.”
I exhaled shakily. “So basically… destiny has been stalking me since birth.”
“Yes.”
“Rude.”
He laughed—real this time.
The ruins felt warmer. Safer.
But somewhere far away, something ancient shifted—
because secrets had been spoken aloud.
And magic hates being ignored.
- Writer
