Olivia sat on the stone floor of the basent apothecary. She’d swept the space clean, scattered salt in the pattern drawn in the book, then used a coal fragnt to complete the circle. Ash from the burned edge of the ritual page completed the seal.
Her heart pounded as she pulled out a small needle and pricked her palm. The blood welled up slowly. She let it drip onto the center of the circle.
"moria Sanguis," she whispered.
The words tasted strange on her tongue, familiar and wrong at the sa ti.
For a mont, nothing happened and she let go of the breath she was holding. What was she even thinking? She must have been overwheld by the recent accidents and thinking too much. She took a step forward to leave the circle. But just then, the salt shimred.
A soft red light began to pulse from the ring, faint at first... then brighter, flickering as though catching fire without heat. Her blood in the center swirled and moved on its own, as if guided by unseen hands. Then, It shaped itself into a sigil.
The very sa one she had drawn as a child.
Her vision blurred. Sothing behind her eyes burned.
And then, she fainted.
Olivia sat cross-legged on a woven mat, the texture of it oddly familiar beneath her fingers. She looked younger than Olivia rembered, her long hair tied back with a crimson ribbon, her eyes the sa storm-gray as Olivia’s. She smiled, a tired, knowing smile, and reached out to gently cup Olivia’s cheek.
"You ca back to , my little star," she whispered, her voice carrying an echo that did not belong to the waking world. Her fingers trailed down to Olivia’s palm, the very one she’d pricked for the ritual. "You rembered the blood."
Olivia blinked, confused. "Mother? What is this place?"
"It is mory," her mother said, her voice growing softer. "It is true. And it is ti."
She leaned closer, her lips brushing Olivia’s ear as she began to speak in a language Olivia didn’t recognize—yet every syllable struck her like a bell, resonating deep in her bones.
"Luvera silent morthai levenim. Altheris ven doura. morin vastren."
The words felt like a key fitting into a hidden lock in her mind.
"Repeat it," her mother urged, her voice gentle but firm. "Repeat it, and never forget. You will need it when the blood calls again."
"Luvera silent morthai levenim. Altheris ven doura. morin vastren," Olivia echoed, her voice trembling. As she spoke, the ground beneath them glowed with the sa red light from the ritual circle. Sigils blood like flowers in the light, circling around her mother in spirals of ash and gold.
Her mother smiled, eyes wet with unshed tears. "You are the last, Olivia. The last with the blood strong enough to wake the truth. You must choose what to beco: salvation... or ruin."
Before Olivia could ask what that ant, her mother reached forward and pressed a warm palm against her forehead. "Wake now. And rember."
Light exploded behind Olivia’s eyes.
She gasped as she awoke, her body jerking upright on the cold stone floor of the apothecary. The red sigil still pulsed faintly around her before fading into silence. Her heart thundered. The words were still echoing in her head, every syllable etched into her mory like a scar.
She clutched her chest, breathing hard.
What had just happened wasn’t a dream.
It was a mory.
A mory she never knew she had.
And her mother... her real mother... had perford a ritual just like this.
But why? Why tell her to rember now?
Why did the sigil match the one she used to draw as a child?
And what had she ant by salvation or ruin?
As she sat in the lingering quiet of the basent, heart racing and hands trembling, Olivia felt, myriad of emotions, confusion, fear and loneliness. Wiping her tears, she cleaned the floor and returned to the room where she was sleeping before anyone could find her.
Sleep was the last thing in her mind. Sothing was happening to her, she was changing but she did not know what it was. Damon knew! He knew sothing she did not.
She inhaled a sharp breath and went to his room. Two night guards watched her as she walked in the dawn, early maids had just started boiling the water for the day, they paused when they saw Olivia walking to the duke’s chamber and knocking the door.
The door should not have opened, yet it did and she entered. Their eyes filled with fear and questions as the door closed behind her.
"You are awake." she whispered as he looked at her in the dark room.
"So are you." he held her hand and pulled her in an embrace. "And you have co, without calling you." she felt his lips brushing her nape and she shivered.
"I missed you," Damon whispered against her neck, his breath hot on her skin. "I waited, but you didn’t co. So I thought..." he trailed off, burying his face in her shoulder. "Maybe you wouldn’t anymore."
His voice cracked, so soft that she might have missed the tremor in it if her heart wasn’t beating so hard.
"I did co," she murmured, her arms hesitating before wrapping around him. "I just... I didn’t know if I should."
He pulled back slightly to look at her, his hand brushing a strand of hair from her face. In the dim candlelight, his eyes searched hers, dark with sothing unreadable.
"I have co Damon but not to hug you. I have co because I have questions." he paused and let her go as if he was burnt with her touch. He went and lit a candle.
"Are you curious about the hidden library of the book you were reading?" sothing changed in her voice, and her heart raced. She gulped her fear as she watched him.
"I am curious about the truth you are hiding, Damon. Tell what you know?"
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