Germaine drifted.
Not through darkness, nor through light—through something in between, like a place without shape, without sound, without direction. Her body felt weightless, suspended in a vast emptiness where even her thoughts echoed faintly.
She tried to inhale, and the air felt thick, almost too heavy to pull into her lungs.
"Where… am I…?"
Her voice didn't travel. It simply folded into the space around her, absorbed by the strange silence.
She lifted her hand—it moved sluggishly, as if pushing through water. When she looked at her fingers, they were outlined in faint gold, shimmering with tiny particles of mana drifting away from her skin.
Her breath caught.
This wasn't a dream. It wasn't unconsciousness. It wasn't even a vision.
She was inside her mana core.
Germaine spun slowly in the weightless void. Golden lines pulsed in the far distance, circular patterns repeating endlessly around her. Mana currents flowed like lazy rivers, soft and luminous, weaving through the emptiness in rhythms she didn't understand.
Her core had brought her here.
But why?
A distant sound—like a chime underwater—echoed across the space. Germaine turned sharply.
A tear in the golden void appeared, small at first, then slowly widening. Threads of dim blue light seeped from it, curling outward in thin spirals that moved too deliberately to be random.
The same color as the Rift Echo.
Germaine's chest tightened. She backed away, but the void did not allow distance. The tear followed her, expanding until it formed a perfect oval of swirling energy.
And then—
A shape stepped through.
Her heart stopped.
It wasn't a beast. It wasn't human. It wasn't anything she recognized.
It was small—barely larger than her spirit-fae—but its form was unclear, constantly shifting between silhouettes. One moment it looked like a tiny winged creature, the next like a floating wisp, then like a tiny beast with long horns.
It was made entirely of light. Pure, concentrated essence. And its glow matched the energy that had struck her—soft, pulsing, otherworldly.
It drifted closer.
Germaine froze.
She felt no hostility, no threat. But she felt something else—connection. Recognition, the same unsettling sensation as if this… being… had known her long before she knew it.
It stopped directly in front of her, shimmering faintly. Though it had no eyes, she felt it watching her.
She swallowed. "What are you?"
The creature tilted slightly, then extended a small, shimmering tendril. It touched her forehead gently.
A wave of warmth spread through her body—a warmth that wasn't hers. Energy flowed through her, thick and soothing, settling deep into her mana core.
Her vision blurred.
Images flashed across her mind.
A colossal fragment of crystal—shaped like a broken crescent. A sky torn in half by light. A hand—not hers—reaching toward a floating shard. A voice whispering, not in words, but in meaning: Chosen.
Germaine tried to breathe, but the images hit too quickly, too deeply. Her knees buckled, though she didn't hit ground. The void caught her, holding her suspended.
The creature hovered closer.
"You… chose me?" she whispered.
The being flickered—an affirmation.
Germaine's pulse quickened. "Why? I don't even know what you are. Or what you want from me."
A ripple of energy brushed her cheek, soft like a breeze. Another meaning whispered into her: Not what I want. What must be done.
Her heart pounded louder.
"The book… is this because of the book? Because I opened it?"
The creature pulsed again—but not with confirmation this time. With something else. Something heavier.
Germaine sensed the answer before it reached her.
No.
You opened the book because you were chosen first.
Her blood ran cold.
She wasn't chosen by the book.
The book responded to her because something else chose her before ever awakening.
She stepped back—or tried to—but the void held her in place.
"This doesn't make sense," she whispered. "I'm not supposed to be someone special. I wasn't even awakened until a few days ago. I can barely form a proper light orb."
The creature drifted closer again, brushing her hands with its tiny tendrils. The touch sent another wave of meaning through her:
Power does not begin with skill.
It begins with compatibility.
And your core… is not ordinary.
Germaine's chest tightened. Her breathing came shallow. "If my core was different… someone would have noticed before."
Another pulse.
They could not see what had not awakened.
She stared at the being, light reflecting off her wide eyes. Its presence was calm—too calm, too ancient, too knowing. As if everything she struggled to understand was simply obvious to it.
The void shuddered slightly around them.
Germaine froze. "What was that?"
The creature's form dimmed—uneasiness.
Your physical body is unstable.
Her heart dropped. "Unstable? But you—something—hit my core. Did you do it?"
The creature pulsed faintly. Yes.
"Why?! You could have—"
You would have been taken.
Germaine's breath stopped.
The void trembled again, heavier this time, a faint echo of a voice reaching across the space—Elric's voice, muffled, distant: Germaine—stay with me—!
Her body was being shaken somewhere beyond the void.
The creature floated closer, its light pressing gently against her chest.
I protected your core. But your body is calling you back.
"I don't understand—protected me from what?"
The creature flickered again—
But this time the meaning it sent was not clear. Not simple. It was fragmented, heavy, clouded with urgency:
A presence. A watcher. Searching.
Not of this world.
Drawn by the Shard within you.
You were marked before your birth.
You cannot be seen yet.
Germaine staggered. "Marked? Shard? No—no, that can't—"
The creature pushed closer, its light enveloping her hands as if holding them.
Awaken slowly. Hide your light. Strengthen before you seek.
The void trembled violently.
Elric's voice grew louder—panicked.
"GERMAINE—!"
The creature's glow intensified, wrapping her in warmth.
Until next resonance.
And before she could say another word—
The creature dissolved into a trail of shimmering dust.
The void collapsed.
---
Germaine's eyes flew open.
Cold air slammed into her lungs. Her chest burned as she gasped violently, coughing hard enough to make her vision blur. She felt hands supporting her back, lifting her upright.
"Germaine! Look at me—focus!"
Elric's voice. Close. Urgent.
She blinked rapidly until the estate's training grounds came back into view. The grass was flattened around her. Mana still flickered faintly in the air. The Rift Echo had vanished entirely, leaving only Elric's pale, strained face above her.
Germaine clutched her chest, lungs still fighting for breath.
"Elric…" Her voice cracked. "Something—something went into my core."
"I know," he said tightly. "I saw the light hit you. You collapsed instantly. Your pulse nearly disappeared."
She swallowed, forcing her breath to slow.
Elric looked at her with a kind of fear she had never seen on his face—not fear of her, but fear for her.
"We're going to the Inner Library," he said, voice firm, leaving no room for argument. "Today. Now. You're not safe with an unstable core."
Germaine stiffened.
She couldn't go there.
Not after what she just learned.
The book. The creature. The choice. The mark.
Elric stood up, helping her to her feet. "We move before anything else happens."
Germaine's fingers tightened around her satchel.
Because deep inside her core—beneath the fear, beneath the confusion—a faint pulse echoed.
A resonance.
A reminder.
Something ancient had awakened inside her.
Something that others could not detect—not yet.
Something that she must hide.
But Elric was looking at her with such fierce determination that she couldn't bring herself to speak.
Step by step, she followed him toward the mansion.
But in the back of her mind, the creature's final message replayed like a distant whisper:
Hide your light. Strengthen before you seek.
And Germaine knew—
No matter what waited in the Inner Library…
It would change everything.