"What do you an, changed?" Reinhard asked carefully.
He already knew the answer.
The system had explained everything last night about the Void Sovereign and how Yor received her power. But he needed to hear what her parents had told her and how much she knew.
Yor’s hands twisted together in her lap. "My parents said I wasn’t born with a Void Sigil. That was when I was a baby; I had sothing else. A different power entirely."
"How did they know?" Reinhard leaned forward slightly. "Most people don’t discover their Sigils until the awakening ceremony at twenty years old."
"It’s a family tradition," Yor explained while her voice dropped quieter. "The Noctyne family has produced Void Sigil users for generations. My great-great-grandfather and my great-grandmother. All of them had void powers."
She looked up at him with worry clear in her eyes. "Because of that history, my family developed a thod to check newborns. A ritual that can detect if a baby carries the Void Sigil, and they do it within the first week after birth."
Reinhard’s mind worked through the implications. "They check because they want to create pre-emptive asures?"
"Exactly." Yor nodded. "If nothing is done, sooner or later, the child will lose control and might accidentally hurt everyone around them. The family needed to know early so they could prepare and protect everyone."
Yor stood and moved to the garden’s edge, where flowers blood despite the cold. Reinhard followed, but he didn’t say anything, giving her ti to gather her thoughts.
"When I was born, they did multiple checks," Yor continued while staring at the flowers. "My parents told they’d prepared everything through the family histories and knew what to expect with a Void Sigil user in the house."
She touched one of the flower petals gently. "But the ritual showed I didn’t have void power. I had sothing else."
"What was it?" Reinhard asked.
Yor’s hand dropped from the flower. "They didn’t know... But I have a feeling it was similar to Sirin. Although I don’t know why I think so, I just know when I saw Sirin, I felt an odd familiarity with it."
Reinhard held his chin and said. "Maybe your mories rember."
Yor blinked before laughing and saying. "Maybe..."
"I’m guessing it was age eleven when the Void Sigil first showed up?"
"Yes... My parents told they found screaming in my room at night." Yor turned to face him. "I was surrounded by black-grey energy that was pouring out of ... They could do nothing until I finally stopped and then fell back asleep."
Reinhard felt his chest tighten at the image of an eleven-year-old Yor in agony. "And then they find out your original Sigil was replaced."
Yor wrapped her arms around herself. "There was no warning. I went to sleep one night as one person and woke up as soone completely different. My parents were terrified since they didn’t understand what had happened or why."
"And that’s when they began searching for answers while... being more strict with you." Reinhard pointed out.
Yor nodded with a sigh. "They tried many things but could never find an explanation... And I can’t bla them because even now I don’t understand it... Why did mine transform? And where did the void power co from if I wasn’t born with it?"
Reinhard moved closer and gently took her hands in his.
He felt them trembling, and only after they cald down did he ask. "Yor, what are you really asking?"
Her voice ca out barely above a whisper. "Does this an I’m not really ? If my Sigil was replaced, if the power I have now isn’t mine originally... Am I even the sa person I was supposed to be?"
Reinhard flicked her forehead, making her gasp in surprise. And then he gently cupped her face, making her look him in the eyes.
"Listen to carefully," Reinhard said while squeezing her hands gently. "Your Sigil doesn’t define who you are; it’s just a tool you used. What makes you Yor, is your mories, your feelings, and your desire. None of that changed when your Sigil transford."
Yor’s eyes searched his face desperately. "You really believe that?"
"I know it." Reinhard pulled her into a hug. "I’ve seen who you are, and that person is incredible regardless of what power she carries."
Yor held onto him tightly while taking shaky breaths. "Thank you."
They stood like that for a mont before Yor pulled back slightly. "You said you knew sothing. That you could explain this."
Reinhard nodded slowly. "I didn’t tell you this because I was confused. But when I was sealing your power, I saw a vision."
"What did you see then?" Yor asked in surprise.
"Yeah, it was sothing massive." Reinhard’s voice grew distant as he rembered. "A being so large I couldn’t comprehend its full size. It existed in a space that wasn’t quite reality. Everything around it was darkness and absence like the concept of nothingness given form."
"It spoke," Reinhard continued. "Not in words exactly. More like thoughts pressed directly into my mind. I couldn’t understand most of it as it was too much for ... But I caught fragnts. Sothing about ’the vessel’ and ’the chosen one’ and ’when the ti cos.’"
Yor’s hands clenched in his shirt. "What was it?"
"I think," Reinhard said carefully, "it was the Void Sovereign."
Silence.
Yor stared at him without blinking. "Sovereign? Like the beings from legends? The ones that govern fundantal forces?"
"Those aren’t just legends." Reinhard kept his voice gentle. "They’re real. And I think the Void Sovereign was the one who replaced your original Sigil with the Void Sigil."
"But why?" Yor’s voice cracked. "Why would sothing that powerful replace my Sigil? What does it want?"
"I don’t know," Reinhard admitted. "But there’s a place where we might find answers. A place where the Void Sovereign might just be."
"Where?"
"Silent Peak."
Yor’s eyes widened with recognition. "The mountain range to the north? The place where grandpa and grandma went...And where every Void Sigil user who tried to climb it in the last fifty years never returned."
"I know." Reinhard t her gaze steadily. "But I think Silent Peak is where the Void Sovereign is. And if you go there, you can get the answers you need about why it chose you."
"Get answers..." Yor whispered. "Do you really think..."
"I’m not sure, but I think it’s the best shot we have." Reinhard held her hand gently. "More than anything, it might also hold so answers about the Void Distortion."
"The Void Distortion... Right, I could see why you might think they have a connection." Yor muttered before closing her eyes and then asking. "Will it just be us-"
"Of course, not. You know our friends would kill us if we left them behind."
Yor looked down before laughing with a faint smile. "That’s true..."
"But we will only go if you’re-"
"I’m." Yor instantly said as she opened her eyes. "My parents spent seven years as empty shells because of this powe... My grandparents died at Silent Peak searching for answers about the void... This Sigil has caused nothing but pain for my family."
Yor clenched her hands as a determined look appeared. "I want to know exactly why and above all else... Punch it just once."
Reinhard blinked before he crossed his arms across his belly and laughed. Yor blushed a bit before smiling and leaning, hugging him tightly, nuzzling her face in his chest.
"When do we leave?"
The question hung in the morning air like a challenge to fate itself.
"Not imdiately," Reinhard said. "We need to get permission from the Headmaster and then prepare."
"How long?" Yor pressed.
"A month at worst and maybe less if I can convince the Headmaster quickly." Reinhard squeezed her shoulder reassuringly.
"Then in a month we will go... I can’t wait to get my answers."
"I’m sure we will." But even as he spoke those reassuring words, Reinhard rembered the system’s warning from last night.
What waits there is more dangerous than any distortion you’ve faced.
Every Void Sigil user who’d climbed Silent Peak in fifty years had died there.
And now they were planning to walk straight into that death trap. The only question was, would they make it back down alive?
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