My breath came out in white streaks, staining the air in front of me.My heart hammered against my ribs—rapid, frantic—like it wanted to escape my chest entirely.
I was shaking.
Was it fear?Pain?Or something deeper—something I didn't have words for?
I didn't want this.I didn't want any of this.
My thoughts tripped over each other, collapsing into noise.I didn't even know what not existing meant… but suddenly, it felt close.Too close.
Skin and bone… and nothing inside.Was that all I was?
Time slowed, stretching thin around me.My body moved strangely—responding to my thoughts before I even understood them.
Then a hand grabbed me.
Not Aveline's.Bigger.Rougher.Crueler.
It clamped around my collar—then lower—fingers digging into my neck and shirt like it already knew the shape of me.
Like it had held many like me before.
My feet left the ground.
My body rose, lifted by that monstrous grip.Pressure dug into the back of my neck. My shirt tore—fabric teeth ripping into skin.
A wave of rot hit my nose.His breath.His teeth—yellow, sun-colored.His eyes—empty.A dead void staring straight into me.
Aveline's fear had color.These eyes had nothing.
Was this what it felt like to be nothing?Helpless?Powerless?
My earlier shouts for help… had never mattered.They lived only inside my skull, echoing in a hollow space where no one could hear me.
But at least—At least Aveline got away.
"You are perfect," the man holding me said.
Perfect?Me?
His fingers tightened.The others laughed, their voices scraping like rusted iron.
Perfect for what?Perfect for who?
He leaned in closer.His empty eyes swallowed my reflection.Small.Fragile.Disappearing.
His other arm lifted.Fingers curled into a fist—slow, deliberate—like he wanted me to watch it form.
Why—?
Everything went black.
My eyes snapped open.
Pain erupted down my face—nose, cheek, left eye—sharp and throbbing.Cold stone pressed against my back.
Where—Where am I?
A bitter metallic taste filled my mouth.Blood.
I forced myself upright, spine screaming.My tongue pressed the roof of my mouth—dry, coated in that silver tang.
My vision steadied.
Bars.
Thick, vertical metal bars stretching from floor to ceiling.A cage.My cage.
I turned my head.A narrow corridor ran between rows of identical cells—perfectly aligned, quiet, suffocating.
And inside those cages—
My breath hitched.
Ears.Pointed.Just like mine.
Hair in muted colors—sun gold, ash brown, moonlight silver.
Elves.
Like me.
Dozens of them, curled into corners, huddled against walls, bodies shivering even without moving.
A soft sound reached me.
Sobbing.
Somewhere down the row.Barely a whisper.Barely alive.
The darkness hid their faces, but not their ears—long, pointed, unmistakable.
My chest tightened.
These cages weren't meant to hold criminals.
They were meant to hold… us.
Elves.
My kind.
My heart raced faster and faster, drowning out the distant sobs.
What happened to me wasn't special.
It was routine.
A cycle.
A system.
And I was now part of it—whether I understood anything or not.