The Princess of Shadows

The morning felt normal. That was the first lie of the day. I woke up slowly, like I always did, and sat by the window for a few minutes before moving. It was a habit I never questioned — just me, the quiet air, and the pale light slipping through the trees outside. From my room, the world looked peaceful. Too peaceful.I had lived like this all my life, in a small town hidden inside a kingdom whose name I never thought mattered. It was far from the capital, far from anything that felt important or dangerous. People here lived simple lives — farmers, traders, students like me.I was no different, at least, that’s what I believed. I was twenty-two years old, in my final year of studying law. My dream was simple: to become a judge one day. To understand justice. To be someone who made sense of the world instead of just living inside it I had no royal titles, no grand family stories, no hidden destiny — or so I thought, my life was ordinary in every way that mattered. Two close friends I sometimes met after class. A small group of classmates. A quiet routine that repeated itself like a soft, predictable rhythm. And yes, my nanny. The only person who had been with me for as long as I could remember. She raised me like I was her own. She never told me much about my past, and I never asked too many questions. That was the unspoken rule between us: I lived in the present, and she protected it. “Liana, dear!” her voice called from downstairs. “Come on, you’re late! Go for your run and come back quickly — you have school!” I sighed softly, already standing up. “Yes, Nanny! I’m coming!” I quickly changed into my sportswear — simple, dark leggings and a fitted top. Nothing special. Just something comfortable enough for running. Running was the one thing that made me feel free. I started doing it when I was fifteen. Back then, I didn’t even know why I liked it so much. I just knew that when I ran through the forest near my home, my thoughts finally became quiet, the forest was always there, tall trees, long paths, silence that never felt empty, it felt like it belonged to me, or maybe I belonged to it,I lived at the edge of it, in a small house that always seemed too far from everything else, but too close to the wild world behind it.I never thought that was strange. Until that morning. I left the house and stepped into the cool air. The sky was still soft, not fully awake yet. The world felt like it was holding its breath. I started walking toward the forest path at first, everything felt normal, the same trees, the same quiet wind, the same familiar sounds of birds and distant movement, but something was wrong. I just didn’t know what it was yet. The deeper I went, the heavier the air became not physically or emotionally, like the forest itself was different, watching me more carefully than usual. I tried to ignore it. I started running, faster than usual. My footsteps hit the ground in a steady rhythm, my breath falling into sync with my movement. This was supposed to be my escape — my clarity, but today, the forest didn’t feel like it was letting me go inside it. It felt like it was pulling me in, and then I heard it,a sound that didn’t belong in my quiet routine. A wolf. It was distant, but sharp enough to cut through everything else. My steps slowed before I even realized I was reacting. Wolves weren’t unusual in these woods, but something about this sound made my chest tighten. It wasn’t just noise. It was urgency, danger. I turned my head slightly, trying to locate the direction of the sound. That was my mistake. I should have kept running. But I didn’t. Another sound followed, the footsteps of a human, and then I saw a man running through the forest. At the moment, I thought it was a hunter. He moved with purpose, chasing something I couldn’t fully see yet, but I didn’t need to. My body froze for half a second, confusion taking over instinct, and then his voice cut through the air. “Stay where you are!” — It wasn’t loud in a panicked way. It was controlled. Sharp and Commanding. “Don’t run!” Something about the tone made my heart jump. But I did the exact opposite of what he said.I ran.I don’t know why I ran. Maybe it was fear, maybe it was instinct, or maybe it was the feeling that I had just stepped into something I didn’t understand. My legs moved faster than my thoughts. Branches scratched my skin as I pushed through the trees. The forest that had always felt familiar now felt like a maze. I didn’t know how to escape. Behind me, I could still hear movement, the hunter ,or something else. I didn’t know anymore. My breathing became uneven, and my vision blurred slightly as I pushed myself harder, faster, deeper into the forest. And then everything changed. My foot caught on something. A root or a stone, I didn’t see it. My body tilted forward, and suddenly there was nothing beneath me but air and panic. I tried to catch myself, but the world spun. The last thing I felt was my heartbeat exploding in my chest, then everything went black. When I woke up, I didn’t immediately understand where I was. The world was too quiet, too still. I opened my eyes slowly. The stone walls were tall, old, unfamiliar with a dim light filtering through narrow windows that didn’t look like anything from my town. I was lying on a cold surface, not soft ground or forest soil. Something inside me immediately tightened, I sat up slowly. My body hurt slightly, but nothing serious. Confusion hit me harder than pain. Where was I? . I looked around. This wasn’t a house.this wasn’t a hospital, this wasn’t anything I recognized, it was a castle, small, but still a castle with ancient stone and heavy silence, a feeling in the air that made my skin feel aware of every breath I took, and then it hit me fully.I didn’t belong here. But somehow…I was brought here. My heart began to beat faster again, but this time it was not because I had been running. It was something deeper than fear or exhaustion. It was understanding, slow and heavy, like my mind was finally beginning to accept that something important had happened in the forest. Something I had not seen clearly at the time. Something I could not explain no matter how hard I tried. The memory of it kept repeating in my head, like fragments I could not put together properly. The sound of the wolf echoing through the trees. The sharp, controlled voice of the hunter telling me not to run. The way the air had changed the moment I stopped and looked in his direction. Everything felt connected now, even if I did not yet understand how. And yet, the strongest feeling was not confusion. It was awareness. For the first time in my life, I felt like I was being watched in a way that went beyond anything I had ever experienced before. It was not the feeling of someone simply observing me from a distance.