...𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐎𝐍𝐄...

...𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝙻𝚊𝚜𝚝 𝚁𝚎𝚖𝚗𝚊𝚗𝚝𝚜...

ᴵᵐᵃᵍᵉ ¹• ᴬⁱ ᴳᵉⁿᵉʳᵃᵗᵉᵈ•

꒷꒦︶꒷꒦︶ ๋ ࣭ ⭑꒷꒦꒷꒦︶꒷꒦︶ ๋ ࣭ ⭑꒷꒦꒷꒦︶꒷꒦︶ ๋ ࣭

A long, long time ago, a war of legendary proportions stirred the very foundations of the world.

It was a time when the hidden forces, which were meant to remain dormant and untouched, erupted in chaos, sending tremors across the entire continent.

A millennium has passed since that fateful conflict, and yet, the true cause of it remains a tale shrouded in mystery. At its heart lay the bitter tension between two ancient and sacred families: the Therheschrialze and the Celestianse.

The story begins with two young lovers from opposing clans—enemies by birth, yet drawn together by a love that defied every law of their kind. History tells us that it was strictly forbidden for any member of these two clans to bear a child together, just as it was forbidden for gods and humans to fall in love. But, as is the way in many old tales, love found a way.

The young lovers defied their fate, and from their union, a child was born. The most unexpected twist, however, was that instead of the child being cast out or despised, it became the center of an all-consuming conflict. Both clans, each believing the child possessed an unimaginable power, fought for its possession—though the nature of this power remained elusive and unknown.

What followed was a six-day, five-night war—its battles fought in shadows and whispers. But now, the story lives only in the murmurs of the elders. Few believe it anymore.

My grandmother once told me that during the war, soldiers from both sides moved through villages unnoticed, their presence unacknowledged by the common folk. The villagers stared at them blankly, unable to comprehend what was happening. When the soldiers tried to explain the war, the villagers laughed and dismissed them as mad, calling them possessed or cursed.

And in that moment, the Celestianse Clan, as though vanishing into thin air, was erased from history. Its name was forgotten, as fleeting and fragile as a soap bubble.

˚ ༘ ೀ⋆.˚

“Cool, so we’re just… unknown entities now, huh?” Chugar's voice broke the silence, the rain pattering on the muddy road beneath their feet. She had just learned the bitter truth.

Lisn, walking beside her through the storm, didn’t respond right away. The road stretched out in front of them, endless and uncertain. She was lost in thought. Finally, she spoke in a cold, detached tone, "It doesn't matter anymore."

Her words hung in the air, thick and heavy. But before they could settle, both Chugar and Junaia stopped in their tracks. Lisn could feel the weight of their gazes on her, sharp and piercing as daggers.

“Listen, that doesn’t sound like you.”

Junaia’s voice was softer than expected, but the reproach was clear. After a moment, she continued. “You’re the one who always used to say we should restore the reputation and name of our clan. What happened to that?”

Lisn sighed deeply, as though trying to rid herself of a heavy burden. She paused, turning around slowly to face them. Her smile was strained, almost hollow.

“It’s normal for kids to have fantasies, I guess.”

She glanced at Junaia. “We’re just kids, six years old,” she emphasized. “And right now, we're even homeless.”

Her voice hardened as she spoke again, her eyes colder than ever. “The clan I once adored isn’t what I imagined. It’s rotten to the core. Don’t you think?” Her gaze swept over them, challenging them to deny it.

Lisn noticed the subtle tightening of Chugar's lips, the flicker of hurt in her eyes. She knew that Chugar would react, but not like this.

To Lisn’s surprise, Chugar let out a soft laugh, her emerald eyes gleaming with a light that was both defiant and broken. She smiled, but it was the kind of smile that held no warmth.

“Right. Only the three of us are the last ancestors of that ghost clan, not insane like the others.”

A bitter smile twisted Chugar's lips, her body trembling slightly as memories seemed to choke her. “Restoring it? What a waste of time. Those geezers…” She shuddered, biting her lip.

Lisn could see the terror in Chugar’s eyes. She was fighting something dark from the past, something that still haunted her.

“Are you alright?”

Junaia’s voice was filled with concern as she reached out, gently placing a hand on Chugar’s shoulder and pressing her forehead against hers to check her temperature.

Junaia’s face darkened as she looked at Lisn. “Not good. The symptoms are back again. We need to find shelter—now.”

Lisn nodded, feeling a cold unease settle in her chest. As she helped them move, her gaze lingered on Chugar. The sickness that ravaged her body was only the tip of the iceberg. The blood that ran through Chugar’s veins, the blood of their ancestors, was the poison that had brought them here.

They were cursed—not by fate, but by the hands of the very people they had once called family.

‘Rather than restoring the clan,’ Lisn thought bitterly, ‘maybe tearing it apart was the only way to end the suffering.’

𝓣𝓸 𝓫𝓮 𝓬𝓸𝓷𝓽𝓲𝓷𝓾𝓮𝓭...

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...𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐖𝐎...

...𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝙶𝚒𝚛𝚕 𝙱𝚎𝚗𝚎𝚊𝚝𝚑 𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚁𝚊𝚒𝚗...

ᴵᵐᵃᵍᵉ ²• ᴬᴵ ᴳᵉⁿᵉʳᵃᵗᵉᵈ•

꒷꒦︶꒷꒦︶ ๋ ࣭ ⭑꒷꒦꒷꒦︶꒷꒦︶ ๋ ࣭ ⭑꒷꒦꒷꒦︶꒷꒦︶ ๋ ࣭

Somehow, as they searched for shelter in the unfamiliar landscape, a small, abandoned hut suddenly appeared before them, as if the rain itself had guided them to it. It was here that Lisn injected Chugar with her antidote, her hands trembling slightly as the cold rain continued to soak them. The three of them were completely drenched, the chill sinking deep into their bones—a feeling that only added to their growing unease.

"Hachoo!" Junaia sneezed, her small frame shivering as she sat beside Chugar, the sound sharp against the steady drum of rain.

"You good?" Lisn asked, her voice filled with concern, but Junaia merely turned away, offering a bitter smirk instead of a reply.

Lisn, her gaze drifting beyond the hut, watched the rain splatter against the ground in a mesmerizing dance. The droplets sparkled like tiny diamonds under the faint light of the moon, and it was then that something—or rather, someone—caught her attention.

A little girl, about their age, stood in the middle of the downpour, dancing joyfully under the moonlit night. She was alone, her movements fluid and carefree, as though she didn’t even notice the storm. The girl wore a simple white silk nightdress that shimmered in the rain, sticking to her skin but not seeming to bother her in the slightest.

“What is she doing?”

“...” The three of them spoke in unison, their words trailing off as they looked at each other, then shared a soft, surprised laugh.

"While we’re hiding from the cold, some people are out here embracing it. Ah, life," Chugar said, her voice tinged with a quiet amusement.

It wasn’t long before the little girl noticed them. The reflection of the moon on the wet ground illuminated her path, and despite their cloaks, it was impossible to remain unnoticed.

She stepped toward them with purpose, her gaze locked firmly on them. Lisn felt a shiver of curiosity run through her as the girl drew closer.

"How bold. Isn’t she afraid of strangers at her age?" Junaia murmured under her breath, her brow furrowing.

"Stop talking like you’re an adult," Chugar replied with a grin. "From my intuition, she’s even younger than us."

"You mean, she’s five years old? Nah... stop bluffing," Junaia scoffed, shaking her head.

"It’s intuition, Miss Third. Alright?" Chugar shot back playfully.

"Right, right. Look, she’s coming closer now," Junaia said, her attention fully on the girl.

When the girl finally stood before them, she said nothing at first. She simply stared, her large eyes wide and unblinking, as though studying them. Lisn couldn’t help but feel a strange unease. ‘What’s with this girl?’ she wondered, an odd feeling stirring in her chest.

"..."

"Good evening," the girl said softly, her voice a gentle melody that blended with the sound of the rain. "Are you tourists? You seem all wet. You might catch a cold." Her words echoed in the air, calm and soothing, like a lullaby in the midst of the storm.

Lisn blinked, momentarily mesmerized by the softness of the girl’s voice. How should she describe it? ‘It was... calm, almost ethereal, and undeniably beautiful.’

As Lisn opened her mouth to respond, the girl cut her off, her voice as clear as ever. "Would you like to come to my place? It’s not that big, but it’s much more comfortable than sitting here."

Lisn felt a chill run down her spine. ‘What is she, some kind of blessing?’ The girl's words left her momentarily speechless, her mind racing.

Lisn spoke to herself in her thoughts, still trying to process the strange encounter. ‘Why would she offer us shelter like this?’

‘How strange...’

𝓣𝓸 𝓫𝓮 𝓬𝓸𝓷𝓽𝓲𝓷𝓾𝓮𝓭...

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...𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 3...

...𝙰 𝙵𝚛𝚊𝚐𝚒𝚕𝚎 𝙷𝚊𝚟𝚎𝚗...

ᴵᵐᵃᵍᵉ ³• ᴬᴵ ᴳᵉⁿᵉʳᵃᵗᵉᵈ•

꒷꒦︶꒷꒦︶ ๋ ࣭ ⭑꒷꒦꒷꒦︶꒷꒦︶ ๋ ࣭ ⭑꒷꒦꒷꒦︶꒷꒦︶ ๋ ࣭

In the blink of an eye, they had arrived at her home. The little girl was right: it was small, cozy, a world apart from the place they had once called home. The three of them could already feel the warmth radiating from the place, the kind of warmth that seemed to embrace you.

‘It’s so different,’ Lisn thought, her mind drifting back to the home they had escaped from. ‘So different from that place... the one that gave us nothing but trauma and terror.’

‘It was huge...’

‘Expensive...’

‘Massive...’

‘But empty.’ The thought of it sent a shiver crawling down her spine, a coldness that refused to leave her.

As Lisn sat on the small couch, lost in her thoughts, she felt something soft fall over her head. A towel. Her eyes flicked up in surprise, and she saw the girl who had helped them earlier, standing behind her.

The girl offered a modest smile, one that didn’t quite reach her eyes. Her gaze was empty, as hollow as the barren land outside, a dullness that made Lisn’s heart ache in a way she couldn’t fully understand.

Lisn turned away for a moment, focusing on the towel draped over her head. It smelled nice—comforting, like fresh linen, with a subtle scent that seemed to soothe something deep inside her.

“Are you alright?” The girl’s voice, soft and melodic, filled the small living room. There was a calmness to it that brought a strange peace to Lisn’s frayed nerves.

Lisn watched the girl move toward the kitchen, just a few steps away in the corner of the room. “You look rather pale,” the girl added, her voice still gentle, almost caring.

Lisn couldn’t quite bring herself to say that she was worried too, but there was something reassuring about hearing those words from someone else.

“Do you want some medicine?” The girl paused at the threshold of the kitchen, glancing back over her shoulder. “I can make something for you.”

“Make something?” Lisn’s voice was laced with a hint of disbelief. “Do you know how to make it? Like they do in a laboratory?” She couldn’t help the tiny flicker of hope in her voice, a hope that the girl might know how to create the antidote, the one that could lift the curse that had followed them from the moment they were born—a curse born from those twisted experiments of the wicked old man.

The girl’s hands stilled as she stirred something in a pot, her eyes briefly meeting Lisn’s before dropping again. “Oh... that?” she said, her voice distant. “As you can see, I’m just a child, living alone now.”

She added a few more ingredients to the pot, her movements slow and deliberate. “I’m not rich enough to afford a laboratory medicine or the education to make it with science... but my grandmother, who just passed away, knew a lot about herbs. She used them to heal people’s colds. So, I guess I could make something for you. It won’t be a cure, but it might help.”

Lisn felt her hope deflate, like a balloon slowly losing its air. “Oh...” she whispered, her shoulders slumping slightly.

The girl’s gaze remained empty, her words carrying a quiet finality that left Lisn with nothing more to say.

𝓣𝓸 𝓫𝓮 𝓬𝓸𝓷𝓽𝓲𝓷𝓾𝓮𝓭...

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