The mist swallowed me whole.
Cold.
Wet.
Alive.
It curled around my wrists and throat like a curious hand, tasting the air around me. The pull inside my chest tightened, guiding me forward even when I couldn’t see the ground beneath my feet.
My shadow stretched ahead of me, long and thin, its edges flickering like a candle flame in a storm.
“Show yourself,” I whispered.
The mist didn’t answer.
But the pull did, a sharp tug beneath my ribs, so sudden I stumbled. My palms scraped against the stone, and the taste of salt filled my mouth.
The sea roared somewhere below, but the sound felt distant, muffled, as if the world were wrapped in wool.
I pushed myself upright, breath shaking.
“Where are you?”
The mist shifted.
A silhouette flickered at the edge of my vision, tall, slender, hair whipping in the wind. My heart lurched. I spun toward it;
Nothing.
Just fog.
Just cliffs.
Just the echo of a presence that felt like a memory I had never lived.
My shadow curled around my ankle, trembling.
“Don’t,” I murmured. “Don’t be afraid.”
It wasn’t fear.
It was recognition.
The same impossible recognition thrumming in my bones.
I stepped forward.
The cliffs groaned beneath my boots, a deep, resonant sound, like stone remembering something ancient. The sea below surged upward, waves rising higher than they should, bending toward the rocks as if reaching for someone who was no longer there.
Her.
The woman who moved the sea.
The woman who called my name.
The woman my shadow knew.
I swallowed hard. “Show yourself.”
The wind shifted.
A whisper brushed my ear, faint, distant, unmistakable.
“Not yet.”
I jerked toward the sound;
Nothing.
Just the cliffs.
Just the sea.
Just the mist curling around my ankles like a living thing.
My heart hammered. “Why are you hiding?”
The whisper came again, softer this time.
“I’m not hiding.”
The mist thickened at the cliff’s edge, swirling upward in a slow, spiraling column. My shadow recoiled, then surged forward, stretching toward the mist like a hand reaching for another.
The pull inside my chest tightened until it hurt.
The mist shimmered.
A shape flickered within it, tall, slender, hair like stormlight.
My breath caught.
“Come to me,” I whispered.
The shape tilted its head.
“You’re not ready.”
Anger flared in my chest. “I crossed half the Empire for you.”
“I know.”
“Then show yourself!”
The mist pulsed, once, twice, like a heartbeat.
Then the voice came again, closer than before, soft enough to break me.
“Carlosa… you don’t understand what you’re asking for.”
My throat tightened. “Then explain it.”
Silence.
The mist thinned.
The shape faded.
“No—” I lunged forward, reaching for her, for the presence, for the impossible warmth—
My foot hit empty air.
The cliff crumbled beneath me.
I fell.
The world spun.
The sea roared upward.
My shadow screamed, stretching, clawing, reaching—
And then—
A hand closed around my wrist.
A shock ran through my body.
Strong.
Impossible.
I jerked upward, breath torn from my lungs. The world blurred. The mist surged around me, wrapping me in a cocoon of cold and salt and light.
A voice whispered in my ear.
“I said not yet.”
I was lifted, weightless, breathless, back onto solid stone. My knees buckled. I collapsed, gasping, the world spinning around me.
The mist parted.
And she stood before me.
Not a silhouette.
Not a flicker.
Not a whisper.
Her.
Barefoot.
Hair like stormlight.
Eyes glowing with something older than the sea.
She looked at me, truly looked, and the pull inside my chest snapped into place like a lock finding its key.
My shadow collapsed at her feet.
My breath hitched.
She smiled, soft, sad, knowing.
“You came,” she said again.
I forced myself to speak. “Who are you?”
She stepped closer.
The sea bowed behind her.
The cliffs hummed beneath us.
The mist curled around her like a crown.
“My name,” she whispered, “is Giovanna.”
The world tilted.
My vision blurred.
My shadow trembled violently.
Giovanna reached out, not touching me, but close enough that the air between us crackled.
“And you,” she said softly, “are the one I’ve been waiting for.”
The cliffs shook.
The sea surged.
The mist exploded outward.
And everything went dark.