thief of fate-Chapter 106: Sigard

I feel nothing. No cold, no warmth. Everything around me is silent, as if the world had stopped in a single moment.

But despite everything, my hand is still holding the bow.

Even as they wrap my chest with bandages, even as they pour some kind of liquid over my ruptured wounds, I haven’t let go. I don’t know why. Maybe because the feeling of it between my fingers is the only thing that makes me believe I’m still here, still alive.

My body is worn out. Every muscle screams, every nerve is about to explode, and yet... my right index finger is still pulled on the string, as if an enemy might appear at any moment, as if I’m about to release one last arrow, even if my heart shatters afterwards.

I closed my eyes.

And I wasn’t asleep yet, nor awake. There is a place in between, and I... sink into it.

I sink, and sink...

Darkness.

The sound of my breathing vanished.

My heartbeat? Nothing.

Am I dead? Is this death? I thought it would be more silent than this, but here... silence has weight. It has a texture. It wraps around my head, swallows me.

Suddenly, I hear it.

The voice.

Her voice.

Feminine. Soft, but it doesn’t belong to the world I know. It’s closer to a feeling than a sound, entering my mind not through my ears, but from my depths.

"Sigard..."

A whisper. A whisper that holds a thousand meanings, a memory, a promise, and a threat.

"I told you not to use that power."

The voice was warm, but there was hidden firmness in it. As if she was crying inside, but didn’t want me to know.

I know who she is. She has always been here. She has always whispered to me in the final moments, between the flashes that appear in critical instants.

I wanted to smile, but in this darkness, there are no lips.

"You’ll destroy your body completely, didn’t you understand that?" Her voice returned, harsher this time. As if she no longer blamed me, but blamed herself. As if she expected what happened, but didn’t stop me.

I thought for a moment... then said to her, with a calmness I didn’t know I had:

..."It’s okay."

Silence. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

"It’s okay... as long as the others survived."

Did she understand what I meant? Did she understand that I don’t fight because I believe in victory, but because there are those who must remain? Because there are children in villages I’ve never seen, and mothers who don’t know my name, and fathers who will scream with less pain... just because I released one last arrow?

There was another silence. Deeper. But she didn’t leave.

I felt footsteps, even though I heard nothing. She doesn’t walk on the ground. She’s not that kind.

She came closer. I saw her without seeing her. A woman without features, without a real body, but she was closer to me than any other being. She was closer to truth than my skin, than my blood.

Then she whispered:

"This time..."

She stood before me, her luminous body striking into the darkness as if it were creating a dawn inside death.

"I’ll save you. For this world."

For this world...? I don’t know why, but those words hurt more than all the wounds.

Why? Why are you doing this for me? I’m just a man with a bow. I wasn’t born noble, nor was I burdened with prophecy. I just... chose to fight.

I raised my head inside the darkness and whispered:

"Thank you... Lady Tofana."

His eyelids trembled. His breath returned first, slow, deep, as if his body was remembering life for the first time. Then his chest followed, contracting with irregular tremors, then the breaths continued.

Sigard opens his eyes.

Blurry vision, distorted sounds, but the first thing he was sure of... was that his hand was still on the bow.

The doctors were hovering around him, one of them whispered to the other: "He’s back... did you see his eyes? They were open but not here."

He didn’t hear them.

His inner voice was still echoing: "Lady Tofana..."

She was thinking of him from afar.

Tofana.

Not human, nor an angel, nor a spirit. She was something else. Her existence was tied to threads of fate, to sacrifice, and to those who choose giving over surviving.

And he... was one of the rare ones.

Sigard wasn’t a hero born with talent, nor a warrior with supernatural power. But he... decided.

And that is enough for her.

She watched him as he slowly rose, pushed the healer’s hand away, and raised the bow once again, as if his heart was bound to its string.

She sighed.

"Don’t destroy yourself again, Sigard..." But she didn’t say it this time. She left him alone, with her trace.

...

I was hearing the world come back.

Footsteps, whispers, the sigh of wind against the ruined walls.

But the only thing I heard clearly... was my heartbeat. Not because it was strong, but because it was weak enough for me to feel it.

"Where...?" I murmured as I tried to rise.

Someone approached me. Maybe Kyren? No, Kyren doesn’t move that lightly.

"Stay down, you idiot." It was Shizo. With her usual tone, but this time hiding a tremble of worry.

"You were going to die."

I smiled. Or tried to.

"But I didn’t."

"Thanks to you? No. Thanks to something else." She said it while looking away, at the sky that was no longer blue, but as if it had burned.

I whispered to myself:

"Thank you... Tofana."

Shizo didn’t understand, but she didn’t ask.

And somewhere... where there is no time or place...

Tofana was looking at Sigard’s arrow that was still drawn, despite everything.

"A time will come when I won’t be able to intervene..." She said that to herself, then closed her eyes, and disappeared.

....

People around me move, whisper, look at me with a strange tone in their gaze. Not pity, nor fear. Something closer to... awe.

"He’s alive? "The doctor said it was impossible... no one survives this kind of internal explosion." "But look at him. His wounds are starting to close... at an abnormal speed."

They think I can’t hear them. Or maybe they think nothing at all. Humans talk when they’re struck by the unbelievable, as if words protect them from it.

One of them approached and whispered to the healer: "Sigard... a medical miracle, isn’t he?"

I held back a laugh. It was the laugh of a dead man, a soundless laugh, but it shook me inside.

A miracle? Me? I was on the verge of explosion. I heard my bones cracking, smelled my flesh burning as I used that final skill. If this is what they call a miracle, then the definitions must have changed in my absence.

I’m just a stubborn person... who holds onto his bow more than life.

But they continued talking, and then one of them mentioned a name that made me open my eyes wide.

"They saw Raine too... he’s the real miracle."

Raine.

The silence that followed his name was like a glass wall being hit by a stone.

"His body was completely burned... his arm was broken. Even his face, there was nothing left to see." "And yet... he rose. Stood as if nothing had happened."

Time stopped inside me for a moment. Not because I was surprised... but because something strange stirred in my heart.

Stood as if nothing had happened?

I closed my eyes again, this time by choice. I wasn’t seeking sleep, but depth.

Is it possible...? Could Raine be like me? Or rather, could he be like what I’ve become?

Is he also one of the chosen? Those who were not born with talent, but were given a "blessing," or a curse, to decide for themselves how they will live... or die.

It’s a strange feeling... to think you’re not alone. I’ve always believed that the voice that hears me, that power that gives me the ability to go on, was my secret alone. But... what if it wasn’t?

What if this world has begun to choose others?

I wanted to see him. I wanted to talk to him. I wanted to see in his eyes the same burning spark that’s inside me... or maybe to find in him something I don’t have.

But not now.

I know my body. I know Tofana too. She gave me a short grace. A temporary rest. And that’s all I have.

I’m breathing now, because a time is coming when everything will be taken.

I leaned my back against the wall and breathed.

"Next time..." I whispered to myself, looking at the sky that was beginning to regain its gray color.

"I’ll look for you, Rayn. And I’ll know."

These moments I live now... They are my only moments of rest.

And what comes after, will be everything else.

"I will save as many people as possible"