"They don't understand. Love isn't about mercy. For you, I'd stain the earth with blood and sleep soundly at night. I'd kill a thousand times over if it meant keeping you safe." - Erevin Frostell
Erevin Frostell is no stranger to solitude. A reclusi...
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Here's the scene woven with dreamy surrealism, building Erevin's moment of strange connection and the ghost of memory bleeding through time:
Ruoxi's voice echoed gently off the stone, slicing through the hush like a rehearsed stage line delivered at the perfect moment. "This pillar-see the carvings here? They represent the founding-"
But Erevin didn't hear the rest.
His eyes drifted across the structure's face, catching on cracks like veins, feeling the breath of history in the spaces between stones. He took a step forward, then another. His hand reached out, brushing the wall.
It felt warm.
It felt like home.
A soft ache formed behind his eyes, an unspoken nostalgia curling around his heart like a whisper. He didn't know why, but his vision blurred, his throat tightened-like something in his soul was remembering what his mind could not.
Then, the shrine wasn't broken anymore.
Before him stood a vision-whole and grand, bathed in soft golden light. The walls gleamed, free of vines and moss. Silken banners rippled gently in a wind that no longer existed. Brass bowls flickered with candlelight. He was no longer standing in the present. He was somewhere... else.
He felt her before he saw her.
A gentle hand on his shoulder-warm, grounding.
He turned.
And standing there, cloaked in light, was not Dawn.
It was her.
Zaraya.
Ethereal. Regal. Her dark hair spilled in waves down her back, threaded with gold. Her eyes glowed like moonlight through mist, deep and ancient. She wore a flowing gown of silk and scales, white and silver, the kind worn by lost queens and goddesses forgotten by time. A shimmering veil crowned her brow, and light clung to her skin like the kiss of stars. She was beauty untouched by time.
Erevin whispered, confused, awed-"When did you change into this?"
Zaraya's lips parted into a soft smile. "But I've been like this all day."
And as she spoke, the world dissolved.
The shrine cracked. The golden light dimmed. The moss returned. The wind stilled.
And before him stood Dawn.
Looking at him with worried eyes.
"Are you okay?" she asked gently, her fingers still resting on his shoulder.
Erevin blinked, once, then again. "Yeah... I'm okay."
"We were calling you," she said. "You weren't answering."
"I..." He looked back at the wall, now just cold and cracked stone. "I got a bit distracted."
Dawn nodded, her expression unreadable for a moment. Then, without a word, they turned and followed Ruoxi through the vine-covered archway, deeper into the forgotten shrine.
