The clearing was caught between two breaths of the world: a warm one and a reception.
The air vibrated like a string stretched to its maximum.
The leaves moved without wind, as if the forest itself were holding its breath.
The roots that had descended from the Tree of Lights gathered around Miral like thick, living bars of organic steel.
It was not a cocoon.
It offered no protection.
It was a prison.
A prison built from his own energy.
Sofia remained motionless, as if someone had pressed a palm to her soul. The medallion around her neck vibrated faintly, not like a cry, but like a small frightened animal – ready to run, but not knowing where.
Dragoș, on the other hand, was trembling.
The Moon sign on his arm rhythmed in a tight, interrupted rhythm, like a heart trying to remember how to beat. The blue lines undulated and receded, the light waxed and waned like an angry firefly.
Vlad and Alexandra had stopped a few meters behind.
They didn't speak, they didn't breathe loudly—they just watched.
Their eyes, still strange and slightly luminous, followed Miral's movements with a kind of cold sadness.
They felt what the others couldn't feel.
Nicolae was the most affected.
He put his fists to his mouth, his eyes wide, wet.
— "No… no… no…" he whispered. "Don't let him die… please… please…"
But Miral wasn't dead.
His body sometimes spasmed violently, as if something were pulling him from inside, then pushing him back with force.
Like a reverse wave of the world.
Dragoş felt the change first.
— "Sofia… I'm pulling him towards me. Not towards me…"
He took a deep breath.
"… the sign."
His voice was broken, almost broken, but firm.
They moved closer to each other.
In the dim light, Miral was terrifyingly clear:
his skin was pale as wax, and the veins in his neck pulsed with a violet, almost electric light.
One side of his face was still human—the other was covered in solid shadows, as if darkness had been carved there.
— "Don't let…" he managed to say, before the roots tensed again and ripped the air from his head.
Sofia flinched.
— "What? Cinema?!"
The answer didn't come from Miral.
But from the forest.
A murmur ceased.
A step.
A cold steam sliding down the back of his neck, like a blade of ice.
Raul's shadow slowly detached itself from the trees, dripping like a melted black sheet.
It was no longer just an outline – it had an almost human form, but unstable, like a man drawn on water. Its edges vibrated, changing constantly.
He took a step forward with frightening elegance.
— "Do not be afraid...", he said.
But not with one voice — with several, overlapping, like a broken choir.
"Not yet."
Nicolae immediately took a step back, almost falling.
Vlad and Alexandra's faces darkened, a reflection of the Shadow that was following them.
Sofia, although trembling, remained where she was.
Dragoş raised his arm to protect her, and the Sign of the Moon flared brighter than before—a cold, intense light.
Raul's shadow rose suddenly.
— "Interesting. The broken Light… and the sleeping Light… in the same place."
His eyes—two red spirals—stopped on Sofia's medallion.
— "And you… little great-granddaughter… you still don't know what you're capable of."
The medallion vibrated louder, almost painfully.
— "Miral is not for you!" Sofia cried, her voice trembling under the pressure.
Raul tilted his head, smiling with a mouth that was not human.
— "Oh, but I don't want him for myself."
He raised a long finger, like a nail.
"I want him for you."
The roots closed violently over Miral, making him scream. A loud, torn scream, from which both air, light, and shadow burst forth.
Every fiber of the poana vibrated with him.
— "Don't let yourself… to…" he tried again.
But the shadows clung to his mouth and suffocated him.
Dragoş put his arm in front of Sofia, his eyes burning with blue flames.
— "Don't look at him. Don't listen. Raul is trying to…"
— "I'm not trying. I can do it."
Shadow smiled.
"But please… don't run. It would ruin the whole game."
Dragoş took a step forward.
— "If you touch us, I'll break whatever you have instead of a neck."
Vlad and Alexandra moved suddenly left and right, trying to surround Raul. The shadows at their feet stretched like puffs of black smoke.
Raul is a giggle.
— "Oh, children… you try too hard. But come on. Show me what your Light can do."
His shadows opened like two wings.
Dragoș raised his arm —
The Lunar Sign exploded into a cold, clear, intense light.
Sofia pressed her palm to the medallion —
The Light woke up for a second, a pure, golden spark.
The two lights attracted each other.
The lightning that united them shook the ground.
Nicolae was thrown back a few steps.
Vlad and Alexandra fell to their knees.
And Miral cried out — a torn, but alive cry.
Raul's shadow took a step back, surprised.
— "Oh… OH. That… wasn't in my calculations."
The ground between Sofia and Miral opened up into a luminous crack.
The shadows detached themselves from Miral's body, crawling like scorched snakes.
Vlad and Alexandra leaped forward, stretching their arms. Their shadows caught Miral's shadows, pulling them with force. With a shared, almost inhuman cry.
Sofia:
— "DRAGOŞ! NOW!"
Dragoş pressed his palm into the air —
and the broken moon on his arm was completed for a few moments, through light and pain.
Sofia's medallion glowed in golden-white—
The light and the moon touched the roots at the same time.
The glade stopped "screaming."
She roared.
The shadows evaporated.
The river broke into pieces.
Miral collapsed face down, free but unconscious, with half of his human face and half still in shadow.
The Moon sign on Dragoş's arm suddenly faded.
Sofia's medallion closed completely, as if she had entered a deep sleep.
And Raul…
what was left of him…
collected in a black puddle, trembling.
— "Don't… finish..."
his voice trembled.
"The game… is just… beginning..."
And the disappearance.
Silence followed.
An ugly silence.
A silence that knew.