Armania

Chapter five: Blood and Choice

Salim sat on the glass floor, his breaths coming fast, his heart threatening to burst from his chest. The last words the figure had spoken still echoed in his head:

"Your blood is not human."

He reached to his chest as if searching for anything to disprove what he’d heard. When his fingers touched his skin, an unnatural warmth ran through his veins. Suddenly a small cut opened on his palm from the glass shards that had scattered around him.

He raised his hand—and trembled.

The blood that bled from him was not the red he had known all his life. It was a glowing blue liquid, shining like a living light flowing from inside him.

He gasped, whispering:

"Impossible… this isn’t blood… this is… light!"

Lyrin stepped back quickly, but she did not show the surprise he expected. Instead she looked at him with a sorrowful expression and said,

"I knew this moment would come… I just didn’t expect it to come so soon."

He stared at her, anger mixed with panic:

"You knew?! All this time and you knew I was… different?"

She approached slowly and sat before him, her voice soft but firm:

"Listen to me carefully, Salim. You are not just a human from your world. Your presence here is not an accident. Armania does not open its gates to the ordinary. Armania chooses."

She was silent for a moment, then added,

"Your true name… is Eyadno."

He leapt to his feet, shouting:

"No! Don’t call me that name! I’m Salim! I have a life, a past… I am not a character in some legend!"

She raised her hand to calm him:

"You are Salim… but at the same time you are Eyadno. This is not denial—it’s a union. You are both faces of the same coin."

He sank to his knees, feeling the ground give way beneath him.

"Okay… then why me? Why all this?"

---

Lyrin’s Confession

Lyrin sighed and closed her eyes as if gathering her courage.

"You need to know who I am first."

She opened her eyes and looked straight at him:

"I am not an ordinary warrior. I come from the line of the Guardians. An ancient people existed for thousands of years to protect Armania from law-tampering. Each of us holds an oath: to guard the Shifter if he appears, and to prevent the Shadows from seizing him."

Salim swallowed hard.

"The Shifter… you mean me?"

She nodded.

"Eyadno is the Shifter. Your seal is the proof. From the moment you entered Armania, it fell to me to protect you… even if it goes against my own will."

She paused, then added in a low voice,

"And the other reason… I owe a debt to your family."

He raised his eyebrows in surprise.

"What are you talking about?!"

She lowered her head.

"Long ago, before I was born, a gate opened. Humans entered Armania by accident. Most died… except one who saved my grandfather. His name was… the same as your family’s." (Kurd)

Salim inhaled sharply; the floor seemed to tremble beneath him.

"My grandfather… was here?!"

She nodded.

"Not only was he here—he saved the Guardians’ lineage. Without him, I would not be standing here today."

---

Who Is Salim?

Salim buried his face in his hands. A torrent of images flooded his mind: his family in his world, his childhood, the constant feeling that he never quite fit in. Now, everything made sense—terrifyingly so.

"So I’m… half human, half Armanian?" he whispered.

Lyrin answered,

"Exactly. Your blood is not entirely human. That’s why you always felt like an outsider. Armania planted a part of itself in your blood generations ago."

He gripped his head, his voice shaking:

"I’m strange in my world, and strange here too. So where do I belong?"

Lyrin placed a hand on his shoulder:

"Your place… is a choice. You are the only one who can rewrite Armania’s laws. The question is—will you use your power to protect… or to destroy?"

---

A New Shock

Before he could reply, the mirrors around them began to shake violently. A new image spread across half the city: his face—only with red eyes and a body stained with glowing blue blood.

The voice from the image was no longer strange. It was his own, but deeper and harsher:

"Eyadno… however much you deny it, your blood will expose you. The first secret is revealed… but greater secrets still remain."

The mirrors shattered suddenly; shards rained down like glass. Every falling shard transformed on the ground into a tiny eye, and all of them watched Salim.

He gasped and stumbled back:

"What… what is this?!"

For the first time, Lyrin’s voice trembled.

*"Elnor… has chosen you. That means the Shadows now know where you are. From here… the real war begins."*