After the encounter with Steven, I uncovered the truth hidden beneath his half-lies—truths revealed by Lionel.Aisha wandered through Lionel's study, hands trembling. The photos labeled "S. & L." weren't of siblings. They were of Sanathiel... and Lionel. The original and the clone.
Medical reports lined the desk."Project Moira: Recreate the Nevri Warrior without his beastly side."But they hadn't foreseen the mutation.The child born from the altered DNA suffered from a degenerative blood disease. His skin blistered at the touch of light, his organs weakened day by day. The only thing that kept him alive... was blood. Not quite human. But enough to tether him to a life of transfusions and shadows.
Beneath the house, in the basement—cold storage.Bags labeled Special Blood. Her name was written on them.Aisha. Sanathiel. Side by side.She wasn't a protégée.She was a backup.
Lionel's injections, his extraction schedule... everything fell into place.She felt sick.A handwritten note stared at her like a knife to the gut:"Aisha's DNA: 98% compatibility with Zaira. Sole heir to the Variance—linked to Nevri."
She couldn't stay with a monster like Lionel. She was in danger.
She packed her things. Switched taxis at several stops. Disappeared.She walked through unknown streets, stopping at a dusty antique shop, an impulsive idea crossing her mind: sell the medallion.
But the moment she placed the lunar medallion on the counter, visions pierced through her skull like lightning.Zaira wielding the medallion in battle.Sanathiel burying it beneath snow.Lionel injecting himself with her blood.
She kept it.It was the only clue she had left.
Trying to steady her breath, she wandered deeper into the shop, losing herself between rusted relics and dusty glass jars.And then—she saw it.Fragments of a map.Scattered, like a puzzle long forgotten.
Before she could reach them, she bumped into someone.A tall man with dark glasses and a wine-red hat, looming above the crowd like he didn't belong there at all. He wasn't one of Lionel's men—but his aura was no less dangerous.
The moment he touched her, time shattered.Flashes of a life that wasn't hers invaded her mind—Zaira whispering her name in a snowy forest.Lionel screaming in flames among the Nevri ruins.Fallian holding the blood-soaked medallion.
"You think it's a coincidence you survived?"He yanked the medallion from her neck."You woke me from my slumber… and now, I'll free you from Lionel."
The air grew heavier.
"We've met before," Aisha whispered, shocked.Her fist shot up on reflex—but her body faltered.At his touch... something inside her remembered him.
"Think you can run from Lionel?"His voice was a caress and a threat."He's just a shattered mirror—and you... you're the reflection that refuses to look."
He stepped closer, brushing his cheek against hers.
"Aisha," he murmured.Her heart thundered. Shame and heat surged inside her.
"Who the hell are you to speak my name so freely?" she hissed."You can believe me or not," he said. "But our memories have been altered, Huntress."
Then, he said it.
"Sanathiel."The name ripped her soul apart. He was dead. He should be dead.Yet here he was, alive—unchanged—as if time had meant nothing.
"For a moment, I thought you were Zaira," he said softly. "But I was wrong.Zaira put me to sleep.You woke me up."
Aisha's heart beat wildly. She hated the fear and longing twisting inside her.Sanathiel leaned in closer. She tried to pull away.
"Get your hands off me," she snapped—but her voice trembled.
He didn't let go.Instead, he lifted the medallion—the one she'd stolen from Lionel—and held it up to her face.
"For now, I'm only taking what's already mine."
His tone chilled her. That certainty... the conviction in his gaze.Sanathiel didn't see fate as something to fight.He saw it as inevitable.
When he vanished into the crowd, Aisha stood frozen.Only two things were certain:Lionel would hunt her.And Sanathiel...He wasn't her savior.He was the trap she was destined to fall into.
But in her pocket, a stolen document revealed coordinates."Location of Zaira: Nevri Tomb – Sector 9."A restricted zone. A sanctuary of the Thirteen.Aisha stared at the paper, trembling.
Her fate wasn't sealed—it was a map.
"Our Moira—our destiny—is simple," she thought."But we try to complicate it, just to give it meaning. In the end, it all comes down to the choices we make... and the paths we dare to follow."
She just didn't know yet...if she was ready to face hers.