Corin's breathing was shallow. His whole body felt heavy, as if the air around him had become denser. His knees gave way, and before he could fight it, he sank to the cold floor of the hall.
Viviana came closer. Her step was slow, deliberate, not like a predatory cat, but like someone who already knew their prey had nowhere to go.
"You will learn to resist from now on."
Her voice was soft, almost gentle, but it carried an unmistakable gravity.
Corin tried to move, but it was as if his own body was betraying him. Every muscle was frozen, his thoughts became sluggish, as if something was penetrating him, breaking him open from the inside.
And then he felt her touch.
Viviana's hands were on his cheeks, cool and flawless. Her fingers were gentle, but her grip was unwavering, as if she wanted to make sure he couldn't escape.
And then he looked into her eyes.
Two crystals, pink and deep like an endless ocean. They didn't just sparkle, they drew him in, swallowed him up.
Something in them reflected him, but not just his face. His thoughts, his feelings, his fears. Everything he had hidden over his life, everything he didn't even want to admit to himself, it was there, visible, tangible.
And it was getting stronger.
A maelstrom gripped him, pulling him deeper, tearing at the edges of his existence. His heart beat faster, but not out of fear, but out of a strange, repulsive desire.
He wanted to look away. He had to look away.
But his body did not obey him. It was as if his soul was expanding, as if something was trying to cross the boundaries of his self. His thoughts were no longer just his own, they were everywhere, in the colors of her eyes, in the resonance of the room, in the unnatural pulse that coursed through the air.
She tried to break it.
"Interesting," Viviana murmured as her gaze continued to pierce him.
Corin gritted his teeth. He couldn't even clench his fist, every command he gave his body seemed to go nowhere.
"You're more sensitive than you let on."
A tremor ran through his limbs, but not from cold. His mind screamed, his instincts raged, but he couldn't do anything.
Not yet.
He couldn't break.
He would not break.
A searing pain drilled through Corin's skull, hot and cold at the same time. A dull throbbing in his head that intensified with every second. Then there was a new sensation, something wet running down his cheeks, warm and strange.
Black blood.
It dripped onto the floor, onto his hands, onto the cold emptiness beneath him. A scream tried to break free from his throat, but it didn't come, smothered in the darkness that settled over him.
And then everything went black.
When he regained consciousness, it was as if an invisible fist had hurled him into the void. His body landed hard on the frosty ground and when he lifted his head, he saw it again.
The destroyed obsidian castle.
Towers, shattered, torn down by a power that outlasted time itself. Its walls, once unshakeable, lay in ruins, buried by ice and snow. A monument to oblivion.
But Corin knew, this was no place of rest.
He sensed it long before he saw it.
The roses.
They burst out of the untouched ice as if they had been waiting for him. Black tendrils, spiked with thorns that made even the snow bleed. The flowers were beautiful, deep red like coagulated blood, but they were not harmless.
They were moving. They came towards him.
Like living shadows, an endless web of darkness and desire that wanted to grab him, devour him. He started to move, his legs burning, his breath steaming in the cold air.
The castle was close.
He had to reach it.
But he wasn't fast enough.
Even before he could reach the first destroyed pillar, a tendril snapped at his leg. Freezing cold. Unyielding. It wrapped itself around his calf, digging its thorns into his skin.
"No-!"
A jolt. He stumbled, fell, his hands clawed at the frozen ground. But the roses gave him no time. More tendrils sprang forward, wrapping themselves around his arms, his chest, his neck.
They wanted to pull him with them. Under the ice.
Corin gasped. His heart was racing. Panic. A feeling he had long forgotten flared up inside him.
Desperation.
He knew it well. Too well.
The cold, merciless uncertainty. The fear of losing everything without being able to stop it. He had lain in her grip so often, back then, in a life that now seemed alien to him.
But these last few days...
These last few days had been different.
He was no longer that boy who knew nothing, who wandered in the darkness, who waited for a redemption that never came.
Not anymore.
The tendrils pulled him deeper. He could feel the ice giving way beneath him, the abyss opening up to swallow him.
But this time he would not fall. Not without a fight.
Corin was gasping for breath. His heart beat like a hammer against his ribs, as if it were trying to break out of his chest. The pressure that had just gripped his body was gone, but the memories burned themselves into his consciousness.
The castle. The roses. The ravens.
The tremor that had gone through the ruined walls, as if something had awakened in the depths of this forgotten place. The deafening sound of wings that drowned out everything. The dark silhouettes racing through the castle like a storm of shadows.
And then, nothing.
His eyes opened slowly. Not the dark ice. Not the roses.
But Viviana.
Her gaze was the first thing he saw. Crystal clear eyes, deep as an infinite ocean, full of knowledge and something he couldn't quite interpret.
Fascination? Satisfaction? Anticipation?
She still held his face in her hands, her fingertips cool against his skin. The contrast with the burning reverberations of what he had just lived through made him think for a moment that he was still trapped in a dream.
But no. This was real.
He was no longer in the underground hall. No roses, no vines, no relentless presence that wanted to devour him. Instead, there was a soft pillow under his head, the dim light of a fireplace bathing the room in warm shadows.
Viviana's lips curled into a slight smile.
"Interesting," she said quietly.
Corin blinked. His throat was dry, his voice raspy. "What... was that?"
She let go of him, straightened up and folded her hands in her lap.
"A test," she replied, "Or rather... a first step."
Corin sat up slowly, his head pounding. His body felt heavy, as if he had actually fought something real.
"The castle... the roses..."
Viviana scrutinized him, her eyes shining like polished gemstones.
"A memory it seems," she finally said. "Something old. Something that rests deep within you. It seems like it's been waiting for an opportunity to show itself."
Corin felt goose bumps run down his arms.
"And the ravens?" he asked quietly.
Viviana's smile deepened.
"You should tell me."
He looked at her, then dropped his gaze to his hands. He could still feel it, the echo of flapping wings, the cold wind that had passed through the castle.
Something had changed. He just didn't know what yet.