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Yet here I am. Something hasn't gone according to plan. And if I haven't joined the Underworld, I'm not in Paradise either... Something's wrong, but I don't really know what.
***
Since then, I've been wandering alongside her, vainly trying to support and help her, hoping that one day she'll forgive me for dragging her into this mess.
Lately, she's been doing some really strange things. For some reason, she refused to perform a ceremony. She simply took the bread and threw the beer away, pocketing the six coins nonetheless.
I don't think that's a good idea. Alas, I don't know how to warn her, since she can't see or hear me!
If only she could keep quiet and stick to the rules, she'd have a tiny hope of saving her skin— and maybe her soul.
25
Believ
I open my eyes to a field of ruins bathed in an unearthly light. Orange rays sweep over the rubble surrounding me, enveloping me in a soft warmth.
Am I dead?
I find shelter below a wall, but the devastated landscape in front of me hasn’t been so lucky.
I try to sit up straight and take in the strange, apocalyptic scenery. How did I end up in the middle of this rubble, from which emerge broken limbs at the ends of which probably lie the corpses of human beings?
There's nothing left of the subterranean tunnels, buried forever with their foul secrets. I scan my surroundings; only dust floats. No sign of a human presence; I remain alone. I begin to panic. Ember! Where is Ember? Please, God, let him be alive somewhere, and not under my feet. I try to suppress a sob.
My seizure must have been more violent than the previous ones; I have no memory of what happened. There's no time to lose. I must find my ghost without delay. Of course, I reason with myself that a spirit floats, that nothing tangible can reach it, but I do remember one thing: he was in a very bad way the last time I saw him and, despite all his huffing and puffing to come to my rescue, something prevented him from doing so.
I'm leaving the cave that seems to have protected me from a destructive collapse when, all of a sudden, the wall shifts! A frightful roar resounds behind my back! What the...?
Stunned, I turn around to face the improbable: a dragon! I can't help but recoil, although I'm not sure whether it's fear that's driving me or the need to understand what I'm seeing. What is this creature doing here? How come dragons exist?
No... The physical proof of what I've learned in the basement is staring me in the face. Magical creatures do exist, and I've been visited by the most extraordinary of them all.
Despite everything, an instinctive cry gets stuck in my throat.
Its mouth opens wide, revealing countless fangs that leave me no chance of survival. What relieves me is that I'm unlikely to suffer either.
“Believ. Is everything all right?”
That voice...
The mere vibration of that timbre moves me. Tears escape from my eyes, and I can't contain them. Is he really here?
“Don't be afraid, Believ. We did it. You did it...”
With my eyes locked on the azure eyes of the charcoal beast, whose warm breath comes through the imposing row of teeth, I struggle to gather my wits. What is he hinting at? Why does he remain hidden? Why is he leaving me at the mercy of this carnivorous creature?
“We did it?” I struggle to articulate.
“This is me. You gave me back my body and my identity. You saved me.”
What does this mean?
“Y-you?” I stammer, flabbergasted, now recognizing the particular hue of those irises staring back at me.
“I'm Ember Crow. I'm a—”
“Dragon.”
