The cottage felt heavier than usual.
Maybe it was the silence. Maybe it was the fact that Elijah was sowhere out there bleeding, running, hiding, while I stood inside the four wooden walls. But the truth was simpler: this place was no longer mine to linger in. My path was already set the mont he said her na.
Marcella Luminaries.
Alive.
I needed to awaken. Everything else was noise.
I stood near the small table where Elijah probably used to polish his weapons, my fingers tracing a shallow cut in the wood. The room still slled—oil, tal, a hint of damp leather—and under it all, the faint sweetness of whatever herbs he used to rub on Sylveon’s fur. The air humd with mories I didn’t want to carry, and I tried to shake the weight off my shoulders.
Behind , the soft click of claws echoed on the wooden floor.
[You’re leaving. Aren’t you?]
Sylveon’s voice was small. He stood in the doorway, ears tilted down, tail barely moving—not the energetic little creature that usually hopped around like excitent in fur.
"Yes," I said, keeping my voice steady. "I don’t have a choice anymore. I need to awaken."
I didn’t turn around, not at first. Saying it aloud made sothing inside feel carved open. But running from it wouldn’t help either. I finally looked over my shoulder.
He was still staring at , but now his ears twitched and he shuffled closer. [It’s because of that woman you ntioned, isn’t it? The one you asked Elijah about. You want to get stronger so you can find her.]
I didn’t answer that directly. His intuition was sharper than most humans, and it wasn’t worth lying.
Instead, I walked to the small cot where I’d been sleeping and tightened the straps on the simple bag I’d put together. A few dried rations, a flask, the training sword, and the white bead.
"I’m heading to Starhollow," I said instead. "That’s the only place I can realistically enter the awakening trial. And if I want my soul weapon, if I want domain mastery, if I want...then that’s where I need to go."
Sylveon was quiet for a second too long.
Then his small paws padded quickly across the floor until he stood right in front of .
[Then I’m going with you.]
It didn’t sound like a suggestion. It didn’t even sound like bravery. It was soft. Honest. Almost scared, as if he worried I would say no.
I blinked, caught off guard. "Sylveon—"
[No.] He lifted a paw, as if shutting up. [Listen. The week we spent together... it was fun. I liked it. I like being with you. And I don’t want to go back to waiting alone in this cottage for soone who never cos ho.]
His voice cracked for a mont, and I felt sothing sharp and strange inside my chest. The little creature stared hard at the floor.
[Elijah always left. Always.]
A small pause.
[But you didn’t. You talked to . You trained outside with watching. You laughed. Even when your mories hurt, you never pushed away. I don’t want to be anywhere else. I want to stay with you.]
He took a step closer and pressed his head lightly against my leg.
[So let co. Please.]
I froze where I stood.
Sylveon.
The truth was... I didn’t want to walk alone either. Not through wilderness. Not through cities. Not through whatever waited beyond awakening.
I crouched down until we were eye level.
"You really want to follow ? Even knowing I’m going to fight? Even knowing I’m not chasing so heroic path or noble cause?"
He nodded so fast his ears flopped, as a laugh slipped out before I could stop it.
I pulled him into a small embrace, brushing my hand through the soft fur on the back of his head. He purred—actually purred—and nuzzled deeper into the crook of my arm.
"Alright," I murmured. "Stay with , then. I won’t push you away."
His ears perked up instantly.
[Really?]
"Really."
He jumped up and spun once on the floor, tail wagging so wildly he almost toppled over. Then he ran in a tiny excited circle as if his body couldn’t contain the joy.
I shook my head, smiling despite myself.
This world had taken so much from already, but sohow it still allowed him to exist. To care. To choose of all people. It was almost enough to make the bitterness in my chest loosen.
Almost.
My gaze drifted to the bead lying on the table.
The Inverted Bead Realm.
A world without ti. A realm where gravity bent and twisted, turning every breath into effort. A place Elijah had used to carve strength into himself.
All of that weight in sothing that fit in the palm of my hand.
I walked over and picked it up.
It was smooth and cool, almost unnaturally so, like holding polished ice that never lted. Light bled through it in soft, faint swirls—tiny clouds drifting inside glass.
Sylveon trotted over and sat beside my foot. [Elijah used that to get stronger. A whole place inside a bead... Can you really enter sothing so small?]
"Apparently," I said. "It’s a pocket world. No ti passes inside. No aging. No rest. Just gravity and space."
[That sounds awful.]
"It does," I admitted.
The bead pulsed lightly in my hand. I turned it over, studying the shape, the way the faint white mist shifted inside. Elijah said anyone with enough soul presence could enter it, awakened or not.
His exact words echoed in my head.
Anyone who can form a mana domain at your age... a year inside the bead, after awakening... you’d be strong enough.
Strong enough to kill a queen.
Strong enough to tear apart the person that once crushed Arthur.
That crushed .
Strong enough to silence the nightmares that weren’t even mine but now lived inside .
The thought squeezed my lungs tighter than it should have.
Beside , Sylveon watched quietly.
[You’re going to use it now, aren’t you?]
I nodded. "If I’m going to make it to Starhollow in one piece, I need to understand what this thing really does. And if I can train even a little before we move... then I should."
He tilted his head. [Should I... wait outside?]
"If you want," I said. "I don’t know how long I’ll be gone. Or if you’ll see anything from your side."
[Then I’ll guard the door.]
He raised his chest a little. [I’m your companion now. I should do sothing.]
Another soft laugh slipped out. "Yeah. You’re doing plenty."
I held the bead up level with my eyes.
The swirling mist inside thickened, spiraling faster the closer I brought it. A tugging sensation crept at the edges of my thoughts—subtle but unmistakable, like invisible threads pulling at my consciousness.
My vision fuzzed around the edges.
The cottage dulled into muted colors.
The weight of my body shifted, light at first... then strangely heavy, like the air itself thickened.
Sylveon’s voice echoed faintly, as if drifting through water.
[Leon...? Leon, your eyes—]
I blinked, and the cottage flickered.
Not vanished. Flickered.
Like a candle fla struggling to stay lit against the wind.
The bead pulsed again, harder this ti. Sothing inside it opened—an unseen door, or maybe a sensation closer to falling through a thin sheet of existence.
The world bent.
My stomach dropped in a sudden lurch.
And then everything snapped.
Vision fractured. The floor vanished. The air thinned. My ears rang sharply, and for a breathless mont, I couldn’t feel my own body.
Then gravity hit.
Not the gentle pull of the cottage floor.
A crushing force, heavy and absolute, slamd into from every direction, dragging downward even though I had no idea where down was anymore.
The last thing I heard was Sylveon’s faint, fading cry.
[Leon!]
Light swallowed everything whole.
And I fell into the Inverted Bead Realm.
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