Chapter 395: The Guiding Light

Sophia turned sharply to Tarin, her chest tight with disbelief. She was certain his words had shifted unexpectedly.

"Tarin," she called out. She wondered if he could... no, she shook her head. If he couldn’t see the woman, then he wouldn’t have spoken, right?

Anyway, there was something about this whole situation that just felt... off. Why was the woman here, and where did she come from? Why had Tarin suddenly spoken of a story about when the Moon Goddess walked with her own and how she appeared... no, Sophia shook her head.

It couldn’t be possible, she told herself. There was no way the goddess would appear to her. There was no way.

She glanced back at the mysterious woman beside the cracked egg. Her heart stuttered in her chest.

The woman was, in simple terms... she shouldn’t exist, but she did. She was impossible to describe in simple terms. She was beautiful yet scary. She looked kind yet wicked. It was a mix of different things that Sophia couldn’t actually place.

The woman was tall, slender, and impossibly ethereal, her form flickering as though she existed somewhere between the real world and a dream. Her hair was a white colour, shifting with a life of its own, catching faint glimmers of the dim light in the nest and reflecting them like scattered starlight. Her eyes were pale, almost otherworldly, the kind of blue that felt both infinite and familiar at the same time. Her skin seemed translucent, the faintest veins tracing her arms like delicate rivers beneath glass.

What made Sophia’s chest tighten most was the way she seemed simultaneously fragile and untouchable, almost as though a strong gust of wind could scatter her, yet the very air seemed to bend around her as if she exerted a gravitational pull on the world. Her presence was paradoxical—ominous, yet comforting, frightening, yet oddly inviting. She beckoned again, her hand raised, fingers curling in a gentle invitation, urging Sophia forward.

"Maybe... we should follow her," Tarin whispered, his voice barely audible. His eyelids drooped as exhaustion threatened to pull him under again, but his tone held the faintest trace of belief, a tether Sophia clung to.

Sophia hesitated. Her instincts screamed caution. The woman could be dangerous, a trick of the nest, a hallucination conjured to lure them into some trap. And yet, the intensity of her pull, the weight of her presence, made Sophia’s doubts falter. Something about this woman felt... familiar.

The same thought about the Moon Goddess tickled in, and Sophia shook her head, telling herself it couldn’t be possible. That it shouldn’t be possible. The Moon Goddess shouldn’t and wouldn’t appear to someone like her. But even as she tried to convince herself, a part of her disagreed firmly.

Sophia stood rooted to the floor in both shock and disbelief and perhaps also fear.

A sudden crack split the air, echoing through the nest. Sophia’s pulse jumped. The egg nearest them trembled violently, the fissure widening as another egg cracked beside it. From inside, a hiss erupted, sharp and menacing, the sound vibrating in her bones and setting her nerves on fire.

Her hands shook slightly as she muttered under her breath, lips forming a silent prayer to the Moon Goddess. It didn’t matter that a part of her thought that whoever she was praying to could be right in front of her. She didn’t care.

The mysterious woman tilted her head ever so slightly, as though acknowledging whatever Sophia had just said, and then, to Sophia’s surprise, smiled more.

It was a soft, almost playful smile, disarming in its simplicity yet imbued with a power that tightened Sophia’s chest. How someone could appear terrifying and welcoming at the same time, she thought, was beyond her comprehension. The same presence that could be deadly seemed intent on guidance rather than harm. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

Sophia’s gaze flickered to Tarin, who was shivering violently beneath her cloak. She scooped him into her arms, careful to cradle him gently yet securely. She made sure his small pouch stayed pressed against him. The way he had talked about it, it had sounded important, and she wasn’t going to make him lose something important. Once she was set, she nodded as if reassuring herself that she was doing the right thing and followed the woman’s silent, fluid motion.

The ethereal figure glided forward, moving impossibly fast yet without a sound, her bare feet—or perhaps her feet weren’t quite touching the floor—passing over the floor, the bones scattered as if the nest itself bent beneath her. She led them toward the very spot where Sophia had first awoken, the place that had felt like the center of the nest, the point where everything had begun.

Sophia’s brow furrowed as the woman stopped and pointed toward the wall. Sophia’s gaze followed, scanning the slick surface. There was nothing there.

It was smooth like the rest of the nest. The only thing there was dirt—smooth dirt.

"There’s nothing there," she said to the woman, but the woman shook her head and pointed at the wall again.

"I’m seeing it," Sophia told her, "and I’m saying there’s nothing there."

The woman shook her head and pointed again.

Sophia took in a deep breath and told herself that if this woman was pointing at the wall, then there must be something she had missed.

She moved closer to the wall, running her fingers along the surface, testing for hidden seams, tiny cracks, anything at all.

The woman’s hand moved again, more insistently this time, her figure shimmering like a candle flame in the wind.

Another hiss erupted from the cracking eggs behind them, sharp and menacing. Sophia flinched. Her grip on Tarin tightened. She pressed herself against the wall, letting her hands glide across the slick surface, tapping and knocking lightly. She listened, waiting for any hollow echo that might betray a hidden passage.

The woman’s figure shifted slightly, nodding faintly as if to encourage her. Sophia swallowed hard, murmuring to herself, "This better help. This fucking better help. Please."