"Welcome back, dear."
"..."
No response came.
Soren continued walking forward, the two boys still clinging to his legs and the little girl giggling atop his shoulders. None of them so much as glanced her way. It was as though her voice had dissolved into the breeze before it could reach their ears.
Ethea’s brows furrowed slightly as she quickened her pace, closing the distance between them, and called out again, louder this time.
"DEAR!"
This time, they stopped.
Soren’s steps faltered, the boys loosened their grip, and the little girl’s laughter faded into silence as all four of them turned their heads toward her in a slow, almost mechanical unison.
And the moment their gazes met, something curdled deep in Ethea’s chest.
Their gazes were vacant and hollow, as if they were looking straight through her rather than at her. The warmth she had seen in their faces just moments ago was gone, replaced by an expression so unnervingly blank it made her stomach clench. A chilling dread coiled around her heart, squeezing until her pulse thundered in her ears.
’...N-No.’
Something was horribly wrong.
"D...Dear?" she called out again, her voice light as a butterfly. "Are you... ok?"
Soren tilted his head to the side, his soulless eyes studying her face.
"...Who... are you?"
"H-Huh?"
His words hit her like a physical blow, driving the air from her lungs. Before she could process anything, before she could reach out and demand what was happening, why he was acting like this, the world around her began to fracture.
The warm sunlight dissolved first, bleeding away like paint washed off a canvas. The blue sky crumbled next, pieces of it falling into an expanding void of nothingness. The dirt path beneath her feet, the swaying pine tree, the gentle ripples on the lake... All of it was devoured by an encroaching darkness that spread from every direction at once.
Within seconds, Ethea found herself remaining alone in an endless black expanse. And there, in the distance, walking away from her, was Soren with their children and pets. They moved further and further into the void, their profiles growing smaller with each step.
"W-Wait!"
Ethea lurched forward, her feet pounding against nothingness as she broke into a desperate sprint. Fear like she had never known flooded her veins, cold and suffocating, wrapping around her throat until she could barely breathe.
"WAIT! PLEASE!"
She ran faster. Harder. Pushed her body beyond its limits. But no matter how desperately she reached for them, no matter how loudly she screamed their names, the distance between them only stretched further. The darkness around her coiled around her ankles like living chains, dragging her back even as she fought to press forward.
"SOREN!"
"..."
He still did not turn around, and neither did the children or pets, even as their names tore from her throat in a voice she barely recognized as her own. All the while, their forms grew fainter, swallowed inch by inch by the hungry dark, until only the faintest outlines remained... But soon... even those were gone.
"Please... don’t... leave... me..."
The darkness consumed everything.
"No!"
Ethea’s eyes flew open.
"Huff... Huff..."
Her breath came in ragged, uneven gasps. Sweat clung to her forehead, cold and clammy against her skin.
"Huff... Huff..."
For several seconds, her eyes darted frantically across the darkness, struggling to piece together the shadows swimming before her. Then, little by little, the outline of a face surfaced from the gloom. The soft line of a jaw. The gentle slope of a nose. A sweep of dark lashes resting against skin, the faintest glint of moisture on slightly parted lips.
"S... So... ren...?"
His name slipped from her lips in a whisper so faint it barely stirred the air. He was still beside her, exactly where he had been when she closed her eyes, undisturbed by the horror she had just been dragged out of.
"..."
She fell silent, unable to look away from him. Her gaze traced the familiar lines of his face, anchoring herself to the steady rhythm of his breathing as the last remnants of panic slowly loosened their grip.
’A... nightmare...’
It had been nothing more than a nightmare.
Relief washed through her, and for perhaps the first time since waking in this broken body, she felt something close to gratitude for simply being here. For being back in this room, in this bed, in this imperfect reality. Even paralyzed, even trapped within limbs that refused to obey, this reality was a thousand times kinder than the nightmare she had just escaped.
Because... Because her husband was here... with her...
’...’
She squinted her eyes as the nightmare replayed itself before her.
The beginning had been everything she wanted. A peaceful life by a beautiful lake, their children laughing and playing around, their bonded beasts lazing under the sun. She had been standing on her own two feet, washing laundry like it was the most ordinary thing in the world. It... It had felt so blissfully simple.
But...
The ending had been cruel enough to poison the whole memory.
’...’
However, it had also shown her something else. A glimpse of what could be waiting on the other side of all this struggle, a future worth every painful step, if only she fought hard enough to reach it. And at the same time, it had shown her what might happen should she falter, should she let her fears consume her, should she fail to grow strong enough to stand beside him.
Her fingers, still intertwined with Soren’s, tightened their grip.
She refused to let that tragedy happen. She refused to become the woman frozen in place, watching helplessly as everyone she loved drifted beyond her reach. If her body was broken, she would mend it. If she was too weak, she would grow stronger. She would keep walking forward, however long it took, until she could stand beside him on her own two feet.
With that resolve burning steady in her chest, Ethea closed her eyes and sank deep into her consciousness, where the first threads of spiritual power were already stirring in response to her call.