Chapter 16: "The Price of Freedom"

What just happened? Did I come back to reality? Why did Zenith disappear? Was it because of the fragment of Lumen I keep? Why did she help me?

I moved to dive into the water and rescue Zera, but the crush of bodies stopped me: they were still begging for mercy. I raised my sword in threat.

No, if I kill them, I’ll erase what little remains of them. There’s no other way through. I have to reach her, or she’ll soon be consumed.

“Zera! Zera!” I shouted from the edge of the treetop. “Let them go, they’ll drag you down with them! It’s a trap: the lagoon will swallow you!”

“Don’t wake her up.” “Don’t interrupt her.” “It’s for our own good.” “Then we’ll be free.”

The children twisted around one another with the disturbing rhythm of an ocean current. Their shifting shades of blue gleamed like an open chest brimming with gold and precious stones.

“What happened to you? Why will consuming Zera set you free?”

If I keep losing time, she will vanish from my life. I refused to accept it, not after all she did for me and how much she helped me.

“We attract.” “We attract people.” “People.” “Up to here.” “Here.” “To catch.” “Capture.” “Sentence.” “Their souls.” “And free.” “Us.” “Salvation.” “Salvation.” “Salvation.” they all responded in unison.

“Are you the mist? Are you the ones who kidnap the children of Edyndor?” I asked, indignant, as I watched Zera: the water reached her waist.

Please leave. I don’t want to be forced to kill you.

“Long ago.” “Years.” “Us.” “Innocents.” “Pure.” “We suffered.” “They hit us.” “They mistreated us.” “They tied us to the trees.” “We desired.” “We longed.” “Escape.” “So they.” “The cryptic.” “The bad.” “Intermediaries.” “They offered.” “Benefit.” “Leave.” “Escape.”

So they are here because of a Pact with the Intermediaries. In their desperation they broke the laws of this world, and now they are paying the price.

They stopped moving erratically and formed a wall of pleading faces: each one had imploring eyes and a frozen mouth in a silent shout before me. Grotesque tears streamed from their bodies as they stared.

They are chilling. Who would say that some poor children could end like this.

“We accepted.” “Glad.” “Happy.” “They took us out of town.” “They fulfilled his promise.” “But.” “They tricked us.” “Lies.” “The sacrifice.” “The payment.” “He locked us in here.” “Lagoon.” “Here.” “To leave.” “Take souls.” “People.” “Exchange places.” “With victims.”

As their voices fell silent, Zera woke. Determined, she struck at the figures she thought were her parents: they vanished on the wind.

Were… they false?

With difficulty, she climbed out of the water and walked toward me with a quiet smile. Clenching her fists, she drove away the tide of blue bodies that watched her with disappointed eyes.

“What just happened?” I asked, confused.

“They were not my parents — just hallucinations. I knew it when they hugged me: they had never really hugged me. That embrace was a wish I had carried since I was a child. They were projections of how I imagined them.” She explained with a serene expression, as if she had just returned from paradise.

So Zenith was also an illusion? What I had seen wasn’t real? Was the offer she made — to return to my world — only the product of my own deepest wishes?

“After hearing your conversation with the children, I understood,” Zera continued. “They used the mist to attract the children, trap them in their curse, and slowly save themselves.”

“Isn’t that an endless cycle? The new children, once trapped, will also want to break free and will trade places with others… like this, over and over again, for eternity.”

We looked toward the horizon: it had grown dark.

Damn! It seems like we spent hours inside the lagoon. Has the mist descended?

We ran back toward the lodge, hoping to protect the child. We knew that once the mist reached him, it would drive him to madness as it did with us, and carry him up to the treetops.

As soon as the foliage thinned, we realized how much of the forest the mist dominated—but it had not yet reached the houses.

“Maybe we have a chance, maybe it’s not too late.”

Zenith… I couldn’t get you out of my head. What you said might be a lie, but could it also be a way to return to my world?

We crossed the threshold of the house, agitated and sweaty. When we looked inside, our hearts sank: the mist had drifted in.

It can’t be true. After everything we endured, was it all for nothing? That child will be consumed like the others, and there’s nothing we can do?

We approached the only lit room in the inn: the parents’ bedroom. We paused at the door, afraid to discover Kui’s fate.

Please… I beg you, let the child be safe and sound.

Since I didn’t dare enter, Zera was the first to step inside. Both he and the couple were fine, the three of them hugging each other while the mist swirled around them.

No. Something is not right. The fear on their faces is unmistakable.

I looked up. Digging the claws of its multiple arms into the ceiling beams, a humanoid figure, dark as an abyss, watched us maliciously with thousands of eyes on its back.

“What… what the hell is that?” Zera asked, her voice trembling.

The creature moved in a circle, baring its fangs in countless cavities.

“It’s an Intermediary, an entity with the power to manipulate reality itself,” I replied. “I never thought I’d see one again in my life.”