Alex woke to the scent of damp soil and the bite of cold air.
She found herself lying on a rough straw mat inside a small wooden hut, its roof sagging, its walls thin, as though the world had abandoned it long before she existed.
She touched her face—slender fingers, rough skin.
A young woman's body… perhaps early twenties.
She remembered nothing.
But something deep inside her whispered:
You've been here before. Too many times.
Outside, a quiet village nestled between mountains.
People looked at Alex with unease, then quickly turned away.
Their silence felt heavy… like they knew something about her that she did not know
Days passed in that strange, tense peace.
Until the night everything changed.
She was gathering firewood in the forest when a creature leapt from the darkness—gray skin, feral eyes, fangs like daggers.
It slashed her arm before fleeing back into the shadows.
Just a scratch.
But it was enough.
Her body changed. Fever devoured her.
Her heartbeat stopped for hours, only to return stronger… hungrier.
A burning ache bloomed in her throat—violent, unnatural.
And then she heard a whisper in her mind:
"Don't resist… blood is the beginning of truth."
She bolted upright, gasping, trembling.
She didn't know the voice.
But she wasn't afraid of it.
By morning, the village knew.
The stares turned sharp, filled with terror.
People ran. Doors slammed.
Within minutes, Alex was dragged into an abandoned shack on the edge of the village, bound, surrounded by stacks of wood.
Someone shouted outside:
"She's a blood-tainted monster! Burn her before she turns on us!"
Flames ignited.
Smoke clawed into her lungs.
Her skin cracked and blistered under the rising heat.
She screamed—raw, ragged—her voice tearing itself apart.
"Seraphielle!!
Show yourself!
I ganna kill you , i'm ganna fucking kill you !"
But the goddess did not come.
Her flesh burned slowly… cruelly… as if the world wanted her to feel every second.
And with each moment, something else grew stronger inside her.
Then—through the smoke, as her vision warped—she heard the whisper again, clear as a blade:
"Do not cry for a goddess who never saved you."
Fire exploded around her.
Her body collapsed into ash.
And then,
Darkness
The void was silent—too silent.
Alex sucked in a shaking breath, her throat still tasting of smoke and ash.
A soft voice drifted around her, warm like velvet… yet sharp as a blade:
Morrivayne:
"You burn beautifully, little soul."
Alex's hands curled into fists.
She didn't stand—she couldn't—but her voice cut through the darkness:
Alex:
Who are you?
And why are you inside me?"
A low, amused hum echoed.
Morrivayne:
"Inside you? Oh, Alexandra… I have been with you since your first death.
Each time you fall, my roots grow deeper."
Alex's breathing quickened.
She felt the truth of that—felt the presence that had always lurked at the edges of her agony.
Alex:
"You're the one who whispered to me… in the fire."
Morrivayne:
"I whispered to save what remained of your sanity."
A pause.
"Seraphielle lets you die.
I do not."
Alex snarled, anger rising like poison.
Alex:
"I don't need saving.
I need freedom."
The shadowed silhouette stepped closer, her outline forming more clearly.
Morrivayne:
"Freedom? You had it, and you used it to drown, burn, bleed, and suffer."
A faint chuckle.
"Now you are mine…"
She leaned in, her voice brushing Alex's ear like cold smoke.
"…and I am yours."
Alex flinched, teeth gritted.
Alex:
"If you're trying to scare me, you're wasting your time."
Morrivayne:
"Oh no, my dear.
I'm trying to prepare you."
Alex lifted her head, eyes narrowing.
Alex:
"For what?"
A smile, unseen but unmistakably felt, curved through the void.
Morrivayne:
"For the moment when you stop hating Seraphielle…
and start hating the entire system that trapped you."
A pulse of dark magic coiled in Alex's chest—familiar, comforting in a way she wished it wasn't.
Alex:
"…What exactly do you want from me?"
Morrivayne:
"Nothing."
Then, softly—
"I want you to become yourself."
Alex's breath hitched.
Alex:
"And what am I?"
The shadow's voice deepened—rich, ancient, dangerous.
Morrivayne:
"A weapon the gods should fear."
Silence fell—heavy, electric.
Then the void cracked open beneath Alex's feet, pulling her toward her next life.
Morrivayne (whispering):
"I'll be waiting."