Alina: Light & Shadows

Chapter 3

Despite my efforts to ignore that feeling of being different, that night in the woods had left an indelible mark on me.

The eyes I had seen gleaming in the shadows continued to haunt me in my dreams.

Every time I closed my eyes, I saw them again, fixed on me, as if they were searching for something. As if they were waiting for me to do something.

Days had passed, but the sense of unease wouldn’t leave me. Even at school, everything felt… heavier.

The air, the silence. Even my classmates looked at me with a strange mix of curiosity and fear. I didn’t know what had changed, but I sensed that something was about to happen.

It was during a history of magic lesson that everything took a turn. Master Arion was telling us about ancient wizards and their battles against dark forces that had threatened our world centuries ago.

It was a story I had heard a thousand times, but this time something struck me differently.

“Many of them,” Arion said, with her usual calm but authoritative voice, “didn’t fully understand the power they possessed until they were tested. It’s in the shadows that true power comes to light.”

Her words lingered with me. I couldn’t stop thinking about those shadows. Perhaps it was just a coincidence, but I felt a pang of terror shoot through me.

What if the shadows I had seen in the woods weren’t a figment of my imagination? What if there was something more?

After the lesson, I approached Master Arion. She looked at me with that same gaze she had cast during the incident with the stone.

“Master,” I began, feeling my heart pound, “are there stories… of shadows? Of creatures that… wait?”

She stared at me for a long moment in silence, as if she were weighing whether or not to answer.

Then, in a lower voice, she said, “Shadows are always present, Alina. Not everyone sees them, but some… some are destined to. If you saw them, perhaps your destiny is not what you believe.”

I felt a chill run through me. Destined to see them? What did that mean? But before I could ask more questions, Master Arion turned away, leaving me with more questions than answers.

I returned home that evening with a crowded mind. As I walked along the path through the woods, it felt as though I could still hear those whispers, as if the shadows themselves were calling me.

I tried to concentrate, to understand what was happening. But nothing occurred. Was it just my mind playing tricks on me?

That night, I tossed and turned in bed for hours, unable to find peace. Finally, overwhelmed by insomnia, I decided to go outside, hoping the cool night air would calm me.

Outside, the village was engulfed in silence. The only light came from the moon, filtering through the trees.

I took a deep breath and began to walk, with no specific direction, letting my steps guide me.

I was almost at the edge of the village when something caught my attention.

A faint light shone in the forest, right where I had seen the shadows days before. Fear gripped my chest, but there was also a strange attraction. I couldn’t look away.

I advanced slowly, the dry branches crunching beneath my feet. Every fiber of my being screamed at me to turn back, but I couldn’t stop.

That light… it called to me.

When I arrived at the source of the light, I saw something that made me hold my breath.

In the center of a clearing stood a tall figure cloaked in black, with a staff glowing with a blue light.

I hid behind a tree, watching intently.

The figure seemed to whisper words in a language I didn’t understand, and around him, the air shimmered as if reality itself were faltering.

The shadows moved around him as if they were alive.

Then, suddenly, he turned in my direction. His eyes, shining like the moon, locked onto mine, and a sensation of cold coursed through me.

I tried to run, but my feet were stuck, as if the very roots of the forest were holding me back.

The figure approached slowly, and in a deep, eerie voice, he said..

“At last, we meet.”