"Not all wounds have to bleed. Some are silent—yet pierce deeper than a thousand blades."
The forest felt suffocating. Towering trees loomed like dark pillars, trapping what little moonlight tried to pierce through the thick canopy. The sound of Minato and Elvira's footsteps was nearly inaudible, swallowed by the rustling of cold, heavy wind.
They were following an old, worn map found in the ruins of a border town—a map marked with an X at the heart of this forest, as if whispering that something, or someone, awaited there.
Elvira pointed ahead, toward a small building barely visible in the dark.
"If the information is true… she lives here," Elvira said softly, her voice nearly swept away by the wind.
Minato stepped forward first, approaching the dilapidated shack. Its walls were decayed, the roof covered in moss, and the door hung loosely from its hinges. He pushed the wooden door gently. A sharp creak cut through the silence.
Inside, the smell of damp earth and rotting wood filled the air. In the darkness, a small figure sat in the corner of the room, her back turned to them. Long white hair draped down, nearly touching the floor. Her body was thin and pale, as if made of mist trapped too long in the real world.
Minato and Elvira exchanged glances before stepping closer.
Slowly, the girl turned.
Her eyes—deep, shadowed blue—locked onto Minato's. There was emptiness there, like a frozen lake with no bottom. But more than that, there was something even more suffocating: a silence that had been forced.
A large scar was visible on her neck. An old wound—rough and brutal—as if someone had tried to rip away her voice.
Minato held his breath. He stepped closer, carefully, showing no sign of threat.
"Your name...?" I asked softly, almost whispering.
The girl did not reply with sound. Instead, she raised her hand and traced a magical symbol in the air. The ancient letters glowed faintly, forming one word: "Luelle."
Through hand gestures, faint flashes of magic, and subtle mental images, Luelle began to tell her story. Not in words, but in fragments of emotion—sorrow, fear, and bitterness—that clung to the air like frozen dew.
In the visions she shared, Minato and Elvira saw a glimpse of the past: a dark laboratory, small bodies lying on operating tables, glowing magic circles searing into their skin. The Pillars—robed figures like Veylan—stood around them, recording, condemning, and forcing.
Luelle was one of their test subjects—they had tried to fuse human bodies with ancient magical cores, attempting to create the "perfect vessel" for primordial power.
Most failed. Only a few survived, and among them, Luelle was one of the sacrificed: her body survived, but her voice—her soul's means of connection—was permanently stolen.
"You know about Archa Tempest?" I asked gently.
Luelle nodded weakly. She traced another symbol in the air—the same one I had seen in my mother's heirloom book.
Elvira stared with wide eyes.
"She... she was the first vessel of Archa Tempest. But... the magic rejected her."
I looked at Luelle, my chest tight.
"And now the magic has chosen me," I whispered. "But why? What does this power truly want?"
Luelle gazed at me, and in her eyes, something flickered—something that resembled pity. She raised her hand again, forming a single glowing sentence with symbols:
"This magic... only bonds with those scorched by loss."
Time passed slowly.
Outside the shack, Minato sat by a small campfire. The orange glow flickered weakly, struggling against the cold night air.
Elvira sat beside him, wrapped in her cloak. Her eyes watched the flames before turning to Minato, who was lost in thought.
"She can't speak... but she's still alive," I muttered unconsciously.
Elvira let out a long breath.
"Do you understand now, Minato?" she said quietly. "That not all strength is gained through battle. Sometimes... just surviving is the fiercest act of defiance."
I nodded slowly. The night wind stirred, brushing through my hair.
"Then..." I murmured, "I'll keep living. So those who've gone silent... won't be forgotten. And so no one else has to be silenced."
My eyes turned to the sky. The stars flickered through breaks in the clouds. In that silence, for the first time, I truly felt the weight I had begun to carry—not just power, but the voiceless echoes of the past.
With Luelle's arrival, the pieces of the ancient magic's secrets were beginning to align. But behind the girl's silence, there were faint signs that something greater was stirring. Something that would test not just Minato's strength—but his resolve to keep going in a world that was slowly trying to break him.