The morning was suspiciously refreshing, with the breeze caressing my face as I walked through the academy corridors, trying to regain my balance after the long night.
But the silence didn't last; I froze in my place when my eyes fell upon two strange men.
They weren't just visitors; their luxurious royal attire screamed of authority and status. They were interrogating one of the students, and suddenly, the student raised his hand, pointing toward me with features masked in fear.
The two men turned slowly, and in that moment, I felt a coldness sweep through my limbs; on the side of their cheeks rested the same dragon tattoo... the sacred mark that Caius carries.
I knitted my brows as I felt the pulse of the necklace falter in my chest.
"What on earth is happening?"
I muttered to myself, suspicion gnawing at my mind.
They approached me with wide, confident strides, their sharp eyes like arrows aimed at a prey.
The students cleared the corridor immediately, retreating to watch the scene with muffled terror from afar.
They stopped directly in front of me, and one of them, with glowing yellow eyes resembling those of a predatory beast, stared at me as if reading the depths of my soul.
"Are you Aria?"
He asked in a hoarse voice that carried the ring of metal. I knew then that there was something gravely wrong, but my pride wouldn't allow me to tremble.
I raised my head and answered him with a coldness I tried hard to match with Caius's:
"Yes."
As soon as I uttered it, I saw nothing but a swift flash. In the blink of an eye, his hand moved with supernatural speed to clasp around my neck.
I felt his steel fingers sink into my skin as he lifted me off the ground with terrifying ease.
The air was suddenly cut off from me, and my face began to boil with blood as my color turned deep red.
My feet kicked in the air, and my mind screamed: Is this the price of being linked to a "dragon" like Caius?
As the breath escaped my lungs and the world staggered into blackness before my eyes, I saw him.
Caius broke through the crowd like a hurricane, his wide steps shaking the ground beneath him, and his golden aura exploded around him like an angry sun that almost scorched the corridors.
"Andrew! Let her go now, damn it!"
Caius roared with a voice that shook the academy walls, but the one called "Andrew" paid his threat no heed.
On the contrary, I felt his thick fingers sink further into my neck, as if challenging him through me.
I suddenly went still... not in surrender, but because a volcano of rage exploded within my depths.
"How dare he... how dare he touch me in this way?"
I screamed it in my mind, which began to ignite. I raised my hand slowly, with lethal coldness, and placed it over his hand that was choking me as if I were feeling for the place to slaughter him.
And in a swift movement, faster than a blink, I raised my leg and delivered a brutal kick that landed exactly on the side of his head.
I heard the sound of muffled bone-shattering echoing in the corridor; Andrew staggered violently, losing his balance, and his cursed grip loosened from my neck.
I fell to the ground, but I didn't collapse.
I landed in a steady stance, my eyes having turned into glowing embers of deep red, the color of the curse that dwells within me.
I began to stroke my neck, where his fingers had left marks, and cracked my neck bones with terrifying coldness while looking at him with a silent threat.
Caius stopped in his tracks, his golden aura still burning, but his eyes widened with a shock he couldn't hide.
He didn't expect me to free myself, and he didn't expect to see that lethal coldness in my eyes.
As for the other man with the tattoo, he stepped back, placing his hand on the hilt of his sword, his yellow eyes gleaming with suspicion and muffled fear.
Andrew, who was holding his head, looked at me with deep-seated hatred, but behind me, he saw Caius, who stepped forward to stand directly in front of me, blocking any access to me.
"Didn't you hear me, Andrew?"
Caius said in a low, sharp tone, more terrifying than his previous shout.
"She is under my protection... touch her once more, and you will never see the light of day again."
Caius turned to me with half a glance; his eyes were examining my reddened neck with suppressed anger, then he whispered sharply:
"Aria... calm down. The red color in your eyes will expose everything."
I felt his heart beating violently in my chest; he wasn't just afraid for me, he was boiling with an untamable desire to protect me because they dared to touch me.
I completely ignored Caius's warning.
I wasn't in a state that allowed me to swallow the insult or cower behind his back as if I were a precious artifact needing protection.
I stepped forward with steady strides until I was alongside him, my shoulder touching his, and my eyes, burning red, did not leave that cursed Andrew's face.
The marks of his filthy fingers were still burning my neck, and I felt my dignity screaming for vengeance.
I stared at him with a sharpness that tore through his mask of royal composure and said in a cold tone dripping with venom:
"I will not be silent... I swear by every hell that has dwelt in my heart, that I will break that filthy hand of yours that dared to touch me. I will make it a lesson for anyone who thinks I am easy prey."
Andrew's features changed in a single second; his shock turned into blind rage.
The air around him shook, and suddenly his golden aura surged violently, surrounding his body from every direction like a hurricane of liquid light.
His companion did the same, and the corridor filled with a suffocating magical pressure that made students flee screaming, while the marble walls of the academy began to crack from the intensity of the emitted power.
I felt Caius breathing deeply beside me, and the heartbeat in my chest had turned into the beating of war drums.
He didn't retreat, nor did he try to calm me this time; instead, it seemed my words had lit a fuse that was waiting to explode.
Caius took one step forward, surpassing me by a few centimeters to become an impenetrable dam between me and them.
His aura exploded as well, but it wasn't a normal golden one like theirs; it was denser, struck by light black lightning suggesting the power of the contract and the shared curse.
"Andrew... you overstepped your bounds by touching her, and now you dare to release your aura in my face?"
Caius spoke in a low voice, but it carried a weight that made Andrew stagger slightly.
"Withdraw now, or I swear by the dragon blood that runs in our veins, I will make this corridor your grave."
Caius turned to me for half a second, his golden eyes glowing with a terrifying brilliance, and whispered words to me that no one else heard:
"Aria... get ready. If they attack, do not hesitate to burn everything. I will open the way for you."
The atmosphere was so charged that any simple movement, even the fall of a feather, would ignite a massacre in the middle of the academy.
We both stood facing the entire
"Royal System," and the link between us screamed at that moment with one feeling: absolute loyalty against everyone.
In those critical moments, I felt a strange shiver run through my veins, not originating from me, but from that necklace encircling my neck.
The necklace shook violently as if it were a living being trembling in terror of what was coming.
I knitted my brows and my heart gripped with a sense of impending danger, and when I raised my gaze, I found Andrew staring at it.
His yellow eyes were contemplating the metal and the gem, a cunning smile forming on his face that terrified me more than his attack.
He thinks it's just an ornament, or perhaps the source of my power, not realizing it was the only "dam" preventing my hell from swallowing everyone.
"If this necklace is snatched, I will destroy the academy and everyone in it."
I screamed this truth in my mind, but he didn't back down. He exchanged a mysterious look with his companion, as if they were planning something bigger than a mere brawl.
His companion lunged first to distract Caius, who in turn rushed like a hurricane to block him.
In that gap, Andrew lunged at me with immense force. I was fast; I evaded his attack skillfully and delivered a powerful punch that landed in his stomach, but the thrill of defense vanished in a second when I felt the coldness of his palm surrounding my neck... not to choke me, but to grab the necklace.
"It seems this thing is very precious to you..."
He whispered with a demonic hiss. And with a brutal movement, he exploded his golden aura around his hand to shatter the chain.
I saw the necklace disintegrating between his fingers into fine pieces, scattering in the air like black dust.
In that moment, I felt as if time had completely stopped. My eyes widened with a terror I had never known before, and I began to see in my imagination, like a slow cinematic film, the massive amount of innocent souls whose blood would be shed because of him... and because of me.
I screamed at him with all the strength I possessed, a scream that shook the corners of the place:
"What have you done, you fool?! What have you done?!"
Hardly had the echo of my scream ended when I felt my body vibrating, exploding within my depths.
The air around me began to condense and turn into pitch darkness, and with a power that does not belong to this world, my skin tore for "it" to come out.
Caius turned toward me, and I saw in his golden eyes for the first time the features of shock and horror; he realized too late that Andrew hadn't broken a piece of jewelry, but had broken the lock that was imprisoning annihilation.
It wasn't just energy; it was the void itself. I felt it leaking from my pores profusely, a pitch-black and dense darkness surrounding me like a cocoon of death, and my hair began to fly violently in an air charged with static electricity.
My eyes ignited with a frightening red glow, and black veins traced themselves under my skin, carving their way like poisonous snakes across my face, hands, and every inch of my body.
In that moment, I saw Christoph arrive gasping for breath, but he froze in his place as if struck by lightning.
The features of running vanished from his face to be replaced by absolute terror as he stared at the monster I had become.
And suddenly, without warning, the "thing" inside me grew hungry. I felt my body turning into a human magnet drawing everyone's energy with brutal force.
I had no choice; the "void" was acting on hungry instinct upon sensing danger, swallowing the auras of students and teachers as if it were an insatiable black hole.
I saw students falling to their knees one after another, and some lost consciousness immediately after being stripped of their energy.
But the price was horrific; my own energies began to withdraw inward as well, causing me excruciating pain unlike any before.
I felt the turmoil of conflicting forces in my gut, a massive pressure that made me feel as if my body would explode into pieces.
The energy swelled within me to the point of explosion; if I didn't restrain myself now, my body would start releasing it involuntarily as destructive projectiles, tearing marble walls and smashing everything it touches.
"I won't let this happen!"
I screamed in my mind, trying to keep control, but the grip was slipping through my fingers.
Amidst this turmoil, my eyes fell upon Caius. The sight of him tore my heart; his features were contorted with hideous pain, barely trying to stand on his feet while the "void" emanating from me devoured his golden power voraciously.
He stared at me with eyes fighting for survival, and the link between us screamed with a shared agony that shook my being.
He was the only one who hadn't fallen completely, but he was withering before my eyes because of a mistake he didn't commit.
Amidst the roar of my internal explosions and the crumbling of marble walls around me by my energy, I saw Caius make a suicidal decision.
He didn't retreat like the rest, nor did he try to protect himself with a defensive aura; instead, he began to advance toward me with heavy steps, piercing through the waves of black energy my body was releasing insanely.
The "void energy" emanating from me was gnawing at his golden auras, tearing his clothes and leaving fine burns on his skin, but he didn't stop.
His features contorted with brutal pain, and his golden eyes glowed with frightening focus, as if pouring all his will into his feet so he wouldn't collapse.
"Caius... stay away! I'll kill you!"
I screamed it, but I heard nothing but the echo of his steady heartbeats in my chest, beats that said:
"I won't let you drown alone."
I pushed him away from me with all the will I had left; I saw Caius's body strike the wall with a force that shook the place, but I couldn't stop to apologize.
I moved with staggering steps, as if walking on a knife's edge; I want to get away, away from everyone before I turn into a bomb that erases existence.
I felt my internal organs failing, a brutal tearing in my gut because of my suppression of that exploding energy that was screaming to come out.
I was falling to the ground, digging my nails into the marble, then standing up with extreme difficulty.
My breath was burning, and my vision began to be stained deep red; for the blood of my exploding veins completely covered the whites of my eyes, turning my gaze into a red hell.
Behind me, I could sense his steps... Caius's steps chasing me despite his collision, refusing to leave me even as I destroy him.
Suddenly, I spotted Vasileios running toward me, his features a canvas of pure terror.
As soon as I reached the wide academy courtyard, I saw his hands rise in a desperate magical movement, to snap a massive spherical shield around me, isolating me from the world.
I heard Caius's muffled scream behind the shield, a scream that shook what remained of my humanity.
As soon as I felt the strength of the shield around me, my heart was reassured that I wouldn't harvest innocent lives.
To unleash everything The energy came out of me with a roar that terrified the sky, striking "Vasileios's shield" with a violence that made a sound like the collision of two planets.
The shield shattered immediately under the weight of the Void, and shards of energy flew like destructive projectiles, crushing the courtyard and turning trees and pillars into ash.
The place drowned in a thick haze of smoke and dust, and an absolute silence prevailed for moments, broken only by my dying breaths.
••• Caius •••
The world around me collapsed before my body did. I fell to my knees on the shattered marble; it wasn't my wounds that brought me down, but that brutal dizziness in my head, as if the earth had decided to cast me away.
As the dust settled and slowly cleared, the curtain rose on the hell I dreaded seeing. There... amidst the wreckage, was Aria.
She wasn't the rebellious girl I knew, but a shattered body, lying with painful neglect on the cold ground.
The sight tore at the soul; blood was coming from every side of her face—from her mouth, her eyes, her nose, and her ears—flowing with terrifying profusion as if it were a crimson waterfall refusing to stop.
And her eyes... those eyes that had always burned with defiance, were wide open, directed toward the clear sky with a vacant, dead gaze, seeing neither me nor this world.
I tried to stand, I tried to scream her name, but my voice was buried in my scorched throat.
Paralyzed, unable to advance a single inch toward that body that minutes ago throbbed with revolution.
Suddenly, Vasileios broke my absolute silence; he rushed toward her with desperate eagerness and knelt to carry her in his arms.
He passed by me as he ran, and in those seconds, time stopped. I saw her passing beside me, carried like a doll failed by the strings of life; her head hung down with lethal weakness, and her limbs dangled in the air without any resistance.
Her open eyes remained staring into the void, no life in them, no breath raising her chest, and no pulse...
No pulse.
The link that was screaming in my chest suddenly went quiet with the stillness of graves.
Blood was flowing from her like a thin thread, leaving a trail behind Vasileios—a trail that was writing the end of everything.
I watched his shadow move away with her insanely, while I remained there, alone amidst the wreckage, feeling a coldness my blood had never known before.
Aria had gone, and with her, the pulse that made me feel alive went silent.
I gathered the remnants of my strength and stood up with lethal difficulty; it wasn't just my body failing me, it was that terrifying weight in my chest.
I felt my heartbeats drop, slowing down as if bidding farewell to the rhythm of life; for the breaths she exhales are my breaths, and our death is one and indivisible.
I followed Vasileios's trail, staggering through the corridors, my hand clutching my heart tightly as if trying to prevent my soul from escaping, and my eyes were clouded with redness from the intensity of the pain, while the blood from my nose flowed to draw the lines of my defeat on my face.
I entered the lab, and the vision shocked me. Aria was there, laid out on a cold automated bed, stripped of everything but a thin garment to cover her weakness.
Her face was drowned under a massive black mask pumping "Isolation Stone" material into her failing lungs.
I approached her with broken steps, watching them attach wires to her pale body, and then the real crime began...
They began resuscitating her heart. With every electric shock that struck her chest, my own body convulsed with parallel violence, as if the jolt pierced through my spine to tear me apart.
I could no longer stand; I fell to my knees, leaning on my trembling hands over the cold floor, my breaths coming out with an audible rattle that filled the room with terror.
"Come on, Aria... respond, damn it!"
my scream echoed behind the fog of my pain. Suddenly, my chest jolted with agonizing force—a primal scream I couldn't suppress broke from my throat to shake the lab walls, and the tattoo on my cheek glowed with a bloody golden light, a light that drained what remained of my life to feed hers. In that decisive moment, I felt a faint shiver in my veins...
her weak heartbeats returned to throb within my depths like a dying whisper.
Vasileios shouted insanely:
"Now! Move before we lose her!"
I watched with eyes clouded by darkness as they lifted her body and placed it inside a glass capsule filled with a transparent viscous substance.
There she floated, her hair strands hovering around her face like weeds in a deserted ocean, with many tubes connected to her to keep her on the edge of existence.
I could bear no more; the price of her pulse returning was the fading of my consciousness.
I felt the darkness wrap around me like a heavy shroud, falling into the depths of the pit as I heard the last echoes of her weak throb resonating in my chest before the void swallowed me.
I opened my eyes, and the cold lab ceiling greeted me like a tombstone. I tried to inhale air, but felt my lungs as if they were filled with crushed glass.
My body was dilapidated, heavy, and drained to the point that I didn't feel my limbs at first.
But memory was faster than the pain; images attacked my mind like raging waves: Aria's body drenched in blood... the electric shocks... and my scream that drained my soul.
I stood up with a difficulty that shook the foundations of my consciousness, ignoring the protest of my broken bones.
I staggered in my steps, dragging my body toward the place where I had left my pride and my soul. And there she was... in the heart of that cursed capsule.
Nothing had changed; she still floated in that transparent viscous liquid, surrounded by tubes as if she were an "icon" of beautiful annihilation.
Her hair strands still hovered around her pale face, and her eyes were closed behind the breathing mask.
I placed my trembling palm on the cold capsule glass, trying to sense her pulse through the link, but I felt only the coldness of the liquid and the silence of the place.
Vasileios emerged from among the devices, his face pale and his eyes sunken from the effects of sleeplessness and anxiety.
He stopped directly behind me, looked at the resting Aria, and then said in a calm voice carrying the bitterness of helplessness:
"You've finally woken up. I thought the contract would pull you into the abyss with her, but it seems you both are stubborn even in death."
I turned to him with reddened eyes, searching for an answer, but he continued while pointing to the faint vital signs:
"Don't look at me like that, Caius... we've done everything we could. Her body is repairing itself slowly thanks to the isolation material, but her soul... her soul is torn. The Void energy didn't just leave her; it took parts of her essence with it."
He fell silent for a moment, then approached and placed his hand on my shoulder with a pressure that carried a warning:
"The pulse you feel now in your chest isn't her pulse... it's an echo of your own. You are now acting as a living 'battery' for her through the contract. She isn't living, Caius; she just 'isn't dying' because you refuse to let her go. If you collapse, she will go out in a second."
Then he added a final word that was like a blade in my chest:
"You are now a prisoner of this capsule as much as she is. Being more than a few meters away from her will mean her heart stops immediately. You have become her shadow... or perhaps she has become your wound that will never heal."
I couldn't stand his provocative calmness, nor the tone of despair dripping from his words.
I felt a volcano of anger explode in my chest, surpassing the pain of my dilapidated bones.
In a move whose consequences I didn't calculate, I lunged toward him and grabbed his shirt collar with both hands, pulling him toward me with a force that left only centimeters between his face and mine.
"Don't you dare!" I screamed in his face with a hoarse voice, a voice that came from the depths of my own private hell.
"Don't you dare tell me she's just an echo! Don't you dare say she isn't living!"
My reddened eyes were shooting sparks, and my hot breath hit his face as I shook him with desperate violence.
I didn't see him as "Vasileios" the director or the damn doctor; I saw in him the helplessness I refuse to admit.
"Shut up, damn it! You understand nothing about this contract!"
I continued with a ragged shout, and the tears I had never shed were burning my eyes with rage.
"If I am her battery, then use every atom of my life! Take my blood, take my magic, take my soul if necessary... but bring her back to me! Don't leave her floating there like a featureless ghost!"
I loosened my grip slightly on his collar, but my body was trembling violently, and I leaned my sweat-laden forehead on his shoulder, whispering in a tone where all my pride was shattered:
"Vasileios... I cannot be a shadow to a dead body. Find a solution... or I swear to you that I will burn this academy and everyone in it, and I will start with myself."
♣♣♣♣♣
Seven days... and I am counting the breaths that do not come out of her, but come out of my chest to her.
Her body began to repair itself; the wounds that were bleeding like waterfalls became mere faint scars under the transparent liquid, and her heartbeats that were a faint whisper are now throbbing in my veins more clearly.
But she is still there... behind the glass wall, absent in a world I cannot reach.
The lab door opened sharply, and Christoph entered.
He was gasping, his clothes disheveled as if he hadn't slept since the catastrophe. He stood beside me, staring at the capsule with shock and pain, then turned toward Vasileios, who was analyzing the data with terrifying focus.
Vasileios raised his head from the screens and noticed the pulses that had stabilized slightly, saying in a tone filled with caution:
"Look... the vital signs have finally stabilized. The pulse has grown stronger, and her nervous system has begun to respond to the isolation material. Physically... Aria has returned from death."
Christoph breathed a sigh of relief, but Vasileios cut him off with a sharp look as he continued:
"But don't rejoice too much. Her body has recovered, but her mind refuses to wake up. She is now living in a 'mental prison' created by the Void energy before its departure. She fears waking up, or perhaps... her soul hasn't found its way back to this shattered body yet."
Vasileios turned toward Christoph and asked seriously:
"Christoph, did you find what I requested of you? Is there any trace of the necklace remains in the courtyard?"
Christoph replied in a ragged voice:
"Nothing remains... Andrew crushed it completely. But I found this..."
and he took from his pocket a small charred shard glowing with a faint red light.
Here, Vasileios intervened, saying sternly while looking at Caius:
"This shard might be the only thread. Caius... since you are linked to her, you might have to do something more dangerous than giving her your energy. You might have to enter her coma and pull her out of that darkness manually... but you might get lost there with her forever."
We were talking about impossible hope, and suddenly, the cord of silence was cut by a sharp and continuous drone—a sound that tore my eardrum and froze the blood in my veins.
The calm screens turned deep red, and the vital signs began plummeting before our eyes as if falling into a bottomless abyss.
"Aria!" I screamed her name, and my hand rested on the glass of the capsule, which began to shake.
Suddenly, and without warning, her body jolted inside the viscous liquid with primal force, as if an invisible lightning bolt struck her spine.
Her limbs struck the capsule walls, and her hair strands flew around her face in total chaos.
The indicator shot up insanely, but it didn't return to stability; instead, her breathing began to accelerate in a terrifying way, to the point that bubbles began to fill the liquid around her, and her chest rose and fell as if she were running a marathon against death.
Vasileios rushed toward the devices, his fingers moving like lightning across the control panels as he shouted:
"Damn it! The respirator can't keep up with the speed of her lungs! She's burning from the inside!"
As for Christoph, he stepped back, his hand resting on the charred shard in his pocket, his eyes wide with shock:
"What's happening? Is she waking up?"
"No!"
Vasileios replied in a ragged voice as he tried to adjust the pressure valves.
"She's living a nightmare! Her soul is fighting something inside, and this struggle is consuming her body. Caius... her rapid breathing will explode her lungs if we don't calm her now!"
I looked at her and saw her eyes moving violently under the closed eyelids as if she saw horrors we do not see.
I felt my heart in my chest beating with a madness similar to her pulse; the link was transmitting pure dread to me, a childish fear of a pitch darkness swallowing her.
I gripped the edge of the capsule until the glass almost shattered under my fingers, and said in a sharp hiss:
"Vasileios, do something! Raise the pressure, pump the sedatives... anything!"
"Sedatives won't work with a burning soul, Caius!"
Vasileios shouted as he turned to me with eyes filled with despair.
"The only way is for you to go in to her now! The shard, Christoph... give it to Caius immediately! He must pull her out of that nightmare before her heart stops from the strain!"
Aria suddenly gasped—a terrifying gasp that wasn't air so much as life being snatched from the claws of the void.
She stared around with wandering, lost eyes, as if she didn't see the lab but saw the remnants of the nightmare she was in.
She raised her trembling hands and struck the capsule glass with weakness and strength at once—irregular strikes that resonated in my chest before resonating in the room.
"Aria! I am here! Look at me!"
I screamed at her as I pressed my face against the glass, trying to catch her attention, but her breathing remained insanely fast, and her chest rose and fell behind the liquid as if she were suffocating despite the tubes.
Vasileios rushed insanely toward the discharge valves, shouting:
"She's waking up in a state of shock! The pressure inside the capsule will kill her if we don't get her out now! Christoph, help me open the manual lid!"
As for me, I couldn't take my eyes off her. She strikes the glass as if trying to escape a coffin, and the panic that emanates from her through the "link" shakes my being.
She didn't know where she was, nor who we were... she just wanted to survive the darkness that was still chasing her.
The silence inside the room was broken only by the cursed whirring of the machines as I watched the transparent liquid recede inside the capsule, exposing Aria's panic trapped behind the glass.
Vasileios's fingers moved on the buttons with a cold mechanism, to tilt the capsule slowly, and in that moment, her thrashing inside was tearing what remained of my patience.
As soon as the lid opened, she lunged out like a wounded bird, clinging to them and pushing them away at once, her movements random, fueled by pure fear.
I couldn't stand seeing her like this; I advanced quickly, gripped her shoulders firmly yet with tenderness, and shouted in Vasileios's face with a voice that shook the lab:
"Remove the cursed mask... Now!"
Once the mask was removed, her chest heaved with a sharp gasp that pierced my ears, followed by a bitter cough as she tried to inhale air that seemed alien to her lungs.
Her eyes were bulging, looking at me but not seeing me; the darkness wrapping her consciousness was stronger than any light in the room. She pushes my chest with all her might, fleeing from monsters only she sees.
I had no other choice. I pulled her to me forcefully, holding her trembling body to my chest to stop that violent thrashing, while my other hand moved and rested behind her head, fixing her in a position that forced her to face me.
To unleash the "Dragon Eyes." A blazing golden light emerged from my eyes, shining sharply amidst the gloom of the situation.
The pupil split in two with a deep black line, announcing the sovereignty of the Dragon Power. I fixed her dilated gaze directly on my eyes, diving into the depths of her scattered soul, shattering the walls of her dread.
I bowed my head to rest my forehead against hers, whispering in a resonant voice carrying an undeniable authority:
"Calm down, Aria... you are safe."
Under the influence of hypnosis, the magic began to flow in her veins, causing her body to relax bit by bit in my arms.
The sharpness in her eyes faded, her eyelids began to droop, and her rapid breathing calmed to a steady rhythm.
I said to her in one final, tender, and deep tone:
"Now... sleep."
She surrendered completely, her movement went still, her eyes closed, and she sank into a deep slumber, leaving the noise of the world behind her in my hands.