The Itezista Forest no longer resembled the place they had once passed through. The air was cold, trembling, like an old sigh. The light shone through the branches like a wounded being, tired of fighting.
Vlad and Alexandra were moving forward. Their steps made no sound. Not even their breathing was visible. They were just shadows, elongated silhouettes, but... not aggressive. Quite sad. Almost recognizable.
Sofia felt her heart tremble.
It wasn't just Shadows.
They were... something that had once been alive.
Her medallion pulsed restlessly, in the same rhythm as the earth. Dragoș approached, whispering:
— "Do you remember what Codrion told us?"
Sofia closed her eyes. Yes. The voice from the dream.
"The Light and the Moon will be one again... and from their union a new ray of sunshine will be born."
The words fell between them like a luminous arrow.
Sofia's eyes turned, involuntarily, to Nicolae.
The boy had stopped. He was staring into space, as if listening to a voice they could not hear.
Then the pause vibrated.
A vivid green light flared up before them. The trees moved aside like servants. The roots moved. The earth rose. And from their midst grew the Tree of Lights, immense, splendid, with leaves like drops of gold.
But the voice that spoke was not the Tree's.
It was the voice of his Codrion.
— "You have come, at last. The time has come for you to see your beginning."
The Tree's light trembled, then parted like a curtain.
And time to open.
A village. Simple houses, laughter, people living in peace. The river sparkled like a thread of melted sun. Children ran through the grass.
— "That was Itezista," Codrion said.
"Before the darkness whispered her name."
Sofia put a hand to her mouth. Everything seemed real. Too real.
The vision approached four children:
A blond boy, with playful blue eyes and a girl with shiny black hair, lively eyes
-they are Vlad and Alexandra when they were humans
There was also a girl with warm brown eyes and shiny hair. She looked exactly like Sofia. She was like a living copy.
Sofia felt her knees weaken.
— "No... she is not my mother."
— "No," Codrion answered.
"She is your ancestor. The first bearer of the Light."
A boy with the same intense gaze as Dragoș, with the same short laugh.
Dragoș was barely breathing.
— "He looks like me..."
— "He is your ancestor," Codrion said, in a voice that flowed like an ancient river.
"The first bearer of the Moon."
Nicolae squeezed his sister's hand.
— "Sofi… is this our beginning?"
— "Yes."
The sky of the vision suddenly bowed.
Black shadows began to gather.
A tall silhouette formed from them, with thin horns and blood-red eyes.
Codrion whispered her name, and Sofia felt her skin tingle:
"Evil"
The Creator of Shadows.
The one who feeds on souls.
The one who wished for immortality.
— "Give me the children!", Lerdox screamed in the vision.
"With their souls I will become eternal."
The village froze in horror.
But then, from among the people, a man emerged.
Young, with blue eyes. Determined.
Sofia felt her heart break.
— "This is Paul said Codrion.
"The first man who chose to fight for the Light."
Paul threw himself at Raul, while the children screamed.
Raul struck. Paul fell. Then he rose again. Even wounded, he gathered his strength and shouted:
— "You see nothing alive!"
And then the earth opened and light rose like an explosion.
The Sign of Light appeared on the hand of Sofia's ancestor.
The Sign of the Moon on the hand of Dragoș's ancestor.
The children screamed. Vlad and Alexandra, too close to the shadow, were touched by the black energy.
And their bodies were pulled between two worlds: human and shadow.
Alexandra began to cry.
Vlad fell to his knees.
— "Why does it hurt… so much? ..."
Codrion says to himself now:
— "That's why their memories were lost. To protect them."
Raul was wounded, but not defeated.
Before retreating, he shouted:
— "When the Moon and the Light appear… I will return!"
And he dissolved into the darkness.
Paul, barely breathing, fell to his knees. Sofia's and Dragoș's ancestors supported him.
Codrion looked like pure light.
— "Paul, you fought. But the world is not saved yet."
— "I will continue…" he whispered. "I know I can't die. Not yet..."
— "You won't die."
"You will be the first Guardian of the Forest."
And the light enveloped Paul.
His body dissolved.
His soul rose.
Pavel became the forest itself. The first protector.
And he said before he disappeared:
— "When Raul returns… I will be reincarnated again."
Light compressed into a shape.
A familiar face.
Miracles.
Paul's reincarnation.
The vision crumbled.
The forest fell silent.
Vlad and Alexandra – the shadows – seemed colder. But also more… alive.
As if a part of them remembered now.
Sofia leaned against Dragoş, trembling.
— "These… are we?"
Codrion replied:
— "You are not just descendants. You are the continuation of the light they lit."
Nicholas approached and a warm wind surrounded him.
— "Will our time also come?"
Codrion:
— "Yes… and it has already begun."
The Tree's light faded slowly, like a sunset.
And the chapter ended with the same old words:
"Shadows are only wounded light."