Chapter 5: A Door Between Worlds

The moment Belinda stepped onto the hidden path, the air shifted. The night around her no longer felt like the one she had left behind in Veywyn. It was heavier, charged with an unseen energy that prickled against her skin. The trees whispered, their ancient voices brushing against her mind, and the deeper she walked, the more distant the world she knew became.

The stranger moved ahead of her, silent as a shadow. His presence was both a comfort and a warning, he was leading her somewhere, but whether it was toward the truth or a trap, she could not say.

Belinda glanced over her shoulder. The entrance to the path was gone. The village, the river, her home, it had all vanished into the night, swallowed by the twisting forest.

She swallowed the panic rising in her throat. There is no turning back now.

"Where are we going?" she asked, her voice steady despite the fear curling in her chest.

The stranger did not stop walking. "To the place where your story began."

His words sent a strange chill through her.

The path widened as they entered a clearing bathed in moonlight. At its center stood an ancient archway, weathered stone entwined with silver vines that pulsed with a soft, otherworldly glow. The runes carved into its surface shimmered, shifting as if alive.

Belinda's breath caught. She had seen this arch before.

Not in Veywyn. Not in reality.

But in her dreams.

"You remember, don't you?" the stranger murmured, watching her closely.

Her fingers trembled as she reached out, tracing one of the glowing symbols. The moment her skin met the stone, a pulse of energy surged through her. Visions flashed before her eyes, shadows moving in the moonlight, voices speaking in a language she did not understand, and a pair of silver eyes watching her from across time.

She gasped, stumbling back. The stranger caught her wrist, steadying her. His touch was warm despite the chill in the air.

"You were never meant to live an ordinary life," he said softly. "This world is not your only home."

Belinda's heart pounded. "Who am I?"

The stranger hesitated, then reached up and pulled back his hood.

Moonlight kissed his silver-streaked hair, his face carved with a sharp, regal beauty that was almost inhuman. And his eyes, those piercing silver eyes, held the weight of centuries.

Belinda's breath hitched.

She knew him.

Not from her dreams. Not from a forgotten past.

From a life before this one.

The archway pulsed, and the runes flared to life. A gust of wind rushed through the clearing as the space within the arch darkened, swirling with a depth that was not of this world. A doorway. A portal.

The stranger's gaze never left hers.

"Step through, Belinda," he said. "And remember who you truly are."