Chương 182: Chapter 42: Dazzling and Terrifying

The scribe smiled, looking down at the little creature with a warmth that was almost maternal, a tenderness that had never before shone in her eyes. Then, her expression turned more thoughtful. —Corren said you would arrive on one of the days this week. We were going to leave last week, toward the southwest, but he... has a gift for such things. Sometimes I have asked him how he knows, and he says that only a few humans can see the future in dreams. True magic, even if invisible.

—Halom —Selena said before she could think, the word slipping from her lips with the natural ease of someone who had experienced it in her own flesh. Kaela looked at her, surprised. —That is what it is called —Selena confirmed, recovering quickly— I read about it long ago in one of the books he lent me. Though I dismissed it as false at the time. She lied smoothly, concealing the visceral knowledge she possessed of that power.

—But if he has already seen me at least twice in his dreams, it means our fates are bound together at specific points. Quite curiosity, isn't it? Selena sighed, a mix of fascination and fatality. Her mind churned over the implications of appearing repeatedly in the master's dreams; to her, only one thing was possible. They were deeply linked. —Is he still here? —the countess asked her friend.

The tanner, who until then seemed to be formulating her own answers, replied immediately, though her tone carried a confession. —Yes, though I don't understand it... Run won't go near him. In fact, I've noticed it with insects, or with any animal, if I am honest. —She fell thoughtful, observing the anurhy now snoring softly at Selena's feet— Around Corren, they all move away. They hide. It is as if... they are afraid of him. Selena already knew what it was. She did not need Kaela to explain it.

It was one of the three curses of every Resonant: animals feared them instinctively. They fled whenever possible, and if they had no escape, they cowered, trembled, and paralyzed in terror, a constant reminder that their power was unnatural, that they bore an invisible mark that simple life rejected. I suppose it doesn't apply to me, Selena thought, stroking Run, because I am transmigrated or whatever happened that day. My essence perhaps arrived wrapped in something that confuses that curse, or perhaps...

the way I arrived altered the rules. —May I go see him? —Selena asked. Curiosity and an urgency to clarify things that had been spinning in her head for a long time surged to the surface. —Yes. In fact, he told me that when I found you, I should take you to see him. There's no problem. —Kaela leaned down and gently picked up Run, who croaked in sleepy protest— Though I must leave Run here. I don't want him to be frightened for no reason. By the way... She raised an eyebrow, a playful, familiar gesture.

—Do you still like tanner's soup? Selena nodded immediately, an automatic response that brought a wave of warm memories. —That's today's lunch —Kaela announced, smiling— Come by after you speak with Corren. I will be waiting for you. She then guided her through the circle of seated people, who observed them with silent curiosity but without intrusion, heading toward one of the side passages that went deeper into the mountain. The air grew even stiller, the sound of their footsteps muffled by the compacted earth.

They reached a room that, judging by its dimensions and the remnants of old wooden supports on the walls, must have been used in the mine as a storeroom or office. Now, however, it was transformed; it had been filled with books. It was no metaphor rough but sturdy shelves covered every available wall, packed with scrolls, leather-bound codices, and stacks of loose leaves. The smell was of old paper, ink, beeswax, and the mineral dampness of the rock.

There, sitting at a worn zintel desk illuminated by the dim light of an oil lamp, was Corren. This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. She noted his skin was paper-white, a stark contrast to the rocky gloom of the surroundings. Deep, purple dark circles were carved like fire into his bony face, adding years of sleeplessness and constant thought to his figure, giving him an air of premature old age.

With her refined observation, Selena knew one thing: the man before her, thin to the point of emaciation, spoke of someone consuming himself from within. Perhaps it was a backlash, she thought immediately, now able to assign weight to her perceptions. Yet, when Corren looked up upon sensing her presence, his gaze was intense and lucid, a beacon of intelligence and perception amid obvious physical exhaustion.

He dressed with austere simplicity: heavy wool trousers, leather shoes worn to softness, and a shirt of coarse cloth, all in the same dark, earthy brown tone, as if he wished to blend into the earth itself. Then Selena spoke, forcing a light tone to break the solemnity of the moment. —Corren, you haven't changed at all. In fact, I think you look older. —She joked, though the smile did not quite reach her eyes.

Then, she grew more serious, the weight of the months and revelations settling upon her shoulders— I wonder if... my philosophy is still useful to you. The master set down the quill he held and looked at her. A tired yet genuine smile touched his thin lips. —It always will be Selena. Always. —He paused, the air filling with warmth— It is true, I look older. I know I look thirty-something... but I turned twenty-nine recently. He corrected her without gravity, like someone mentioning a weather report.

Then, he addressed Kaela, who remained at the door. —Scribe Kaela, could you leave Selena and me alone? I promise to return her to you as soon as I can. Kaela nodded, shooting a final look of complicity at Selena, and stepped out, closing the wooden door with a soft but definitive thud. Silence settled into the book-filled room, dense and expectant. Corren leaned back in his chair, which creaked beneath his light weight, and looked at Selena once more.

Now his tone was different; it was the tone Selena remembered from their conversations in the cave at Terracanto direct, penetrating, laden with a knowledge that went beyond words. —Isabella Elizabeth Selena de Solendra —he began, pronouncing her full name as though it were a ceremonial title— Now that you know, you know my secret. He raised his right arm and pointed to his wrist, though nothing visible lay there. —The resonant object I gave you... protected you.

Just as I saw in my halom so long ago, along with your arrival. You recur in my gift, Selena, ever since you arrived in Terracanto, in the cave, that first time... I knew you were a Resonant. You had a strange presence about you, a signature in the Void that only another sensitive, someone of Arcanum rank or higher, could perceive. —He paused, his tired eyes scrutinizing her with an intensity that seemed to look right through her skin, her titles, her masks— But today...

today you could pass even for a human without the power of the echo, an ordinary person. You have learned to conceal it, to integrate it. You are dazzling and terrifying, because the power hidden by someone who appears to have none... is the most dangerous of all. And because I know of no other Resonant who can do that. Selena took a deep breath, the cavern air heavy with book dust and half-truths.

—Thank you for the object —she said, her voice lower now, more intimate within this chamber of secrets and shadows— It saved my life. It brought me back to the world when my mind shattered under the weight of... everything. She sighed, a sound that seemed to bring forth the echo of that pain. —When I came to you for the first time, in the cave, to be honest... I wanted answers. Answers I didn't know existed. Questions about magic, about whether I was capable of certain things.

—She sat in the simple wooden chair opposite Corren's cluttered desk, as if the weight of the confession forced her to seek support— I read your books of myths to learn if there was anything real behind the legends. Eldra... she was the one who opened my eyes the most. The myth of the little girl was clear, pure. A girl who saved with listening, not with power. She made a gesture of resignation, a slight shrug on her shoulders.

—At the royal university, I learned to detect those romanticized myths about magic, where only the beautiful, the redeeming aspects are shown, hiding the price paid in blood and time. Eldra, to me, was the clearest example of that. A pretty bedtime story to put slaves to sleep, I thought. He looked at her at length for a few seconds, weighing the impact of her words, then sighed. —Eldra —Corren repeated, savoring the name as if it were an aged, bitter liquor— She exists.

The words fell into the silence like stones into a still pond. —Her myth is known only among slaves and those living on the margins. The author who wrote it down... was executed by the Crown. His book, censored by the Church of the Eternal Sap. —He paused, his dark-circled eyes fixed on a distant point beyond the stone walls— They claimed he had committed high treason. That under the guise of compiling tales, he was plotting a rebellion with the merchant who sold them.

They even forced slaves, under torture, to testify against him. He looked back at Selena, his face reflecting the weariness of one who had seen truth strangled by power far too many times. —However, Eldra, my master, is real. Furthermore, just as the myth says... the Path guided her, and I learned from her. —He adopted a serious, almost severe expression, a gesture of contained pain— We are the only two Resonants in the entire Path of the Inner Voice. She... and I.