A few minutes earlier…
Elna collapsed to the ground, muttering Loren's name.
Who was Loren?
Taking advantage of Elna's weakened state, İlyara fixed her gaze on Elna's aged eyes. Then, the ground beneath her feet seemed to slip away.
Once again, she fell into the darkness. But this time, the darkness was deeper. The lost emotions within Elna were roaming freely through her mind, making it difficult for İlyara to reach her memories. The emotions were simply too intense. İlyara wasn't sure she could bear all of them.
A sudden wave of anger struck İlyara and dragged her into one of Elna's memories. Before she could even watch the memory, a feeling of sadness suddenly spread through her, and this time, she was pulled into a memory whose owner she did not know.
She couldn't stay there for long either. The emotions running wild kept crashing into İlyara, dragging her from one memory to another. Most importantly, not knowing whose memories they were was confusing her mind. She was beginning to fear that if this continued, she would lose her mind.
"Why?"
As İlyara was being swept through the memories, she heard Elna's voice.
"Why, Loren?"
This wasn't the voice in her mind. It sounded like a voice from within Elna's memory. İlyara tried to focus on it. The more she tried to reach that voice, the more the emotions attempted to pull her into other memories. But İlyara didn't give up. She was determined. She hadn't come all this way for nothing.
She tried to draw her mind toward it by repeating the voice from Elna's memory.
"Hello, Loren," the voice in the memory said.
"Hello, Loren," İlyara repeated.
"How are you?"
"How are you?" she continued repeating. It seemed to be starting to work. Because the darkness was slowly beginning to unravel.
"I'm fine, Elna," said another voice.
İlyara didn't repeat this voice. It was deep, like a man's voice.
As İlyara continued running through the darkness that was beginning to unravel, she found herself surrounded by purple violets. It looked like a field; no matter which way she turned, there were purple violets everywhere. She had seen this place before. Those purple violets…
The bloody violets İlyara had seen before spread through her mind. But she flinched when someone touched her shoulder, and the blood covering the purple violets suddenly disappeared. Yet she was still standing in the field of purple violets.
Could the people in the memories touch her? This was the first time she had experienced something like this. Normally, they shouldn't have been able to see her either. At least, that was how it had been before.
She slowly turned around. Her heart was beating rapidly, but there was no reason for it to be beating this fast.
"You came," İlyara said happily. Her mouth had moved on its own, and even her own voice sounded strange to her ears.
What was happening?
The man standing before her was a few centimeters taller than her and wore gray armor. He must have been a Taşkan as well. After all, since most men in this world possessed physical strength, it wasn't unreasonable for them to choose to become soldiers.
His blond hair shone like the sun in the daylight. His blue eyes, in particular, were captivating, like the sky itself.
Wait… Did these thoughts belong to İlyara?
"Elna," the man said.
Elna?
Had he called İlyara Elna?
İlyara wanted to look around to see if there was anyone else there, but she couldn't. Her body wasn't obeying her.
"Yes, Loren?" İlyara said.
She definitely wasn't the one doing this.
Could it be…
Could she actually be living through Elna's memory? Was that even possible? She wanted to ask Elna about it. But she supposed she could no longer ask her. She was no longer the teacher-like sister she used to be. She was the Ancient now.
Loren was trying to avoid making eye contact with İlyara. Or rather, with Elna.
But why?
"You can tell me," İlyara said.
After giving İlyara a brief glance, Loren began looking at his left hand. He was moving his fingers over a particular area. İlyara saw a mark there… or perhaps a trace. It looked like a bond mark. She wanted to look at the bond mark on her own hand, but she couldn't.
"This is about the bond," Loren said, his eyes still fixed on the mark.
"What happened to it?"
Yes, what had happened to it?
"I can't do this anymore," he said.
Uneasiness filled İlyara.
"The emotions are too intense," Loren continued. "I wake up in fear and covered in sweat almost every night."
İlyara's heart was beating far too fast.
"What do you mean?" İlyara asked. Her voice was very stern.
Loren flinched at Elna's voice and took a step back.
İlyara's heart ached.
"Are you afraid of me?"
Loren raised his head and looked into İlyara's eyes.
"Yes," Loren said.
İlyara looked at Loren for a while without saying anything.
"Then let's cancel our blood bond," she said, turning her back to him. Then she began to walk away.
"Elna," Loren said. Although İlyara paused for a brief moment, she continued walking.
As İlyara moved through the violets, the sky began to darken. Then, when she looked up, she saw the full moon.
"Elna."
This time, as soon as she heard the voice, she turned around.
"Why did you call me here?" İlyara asked angrily.
Was Elna angry with Loren now?
Loren raised his hands as if surrendering. At that moment, İlyara noticed that the bond mark was gone. Elna must have noticed it too, because İlyara's heart ached with pain.
"Stop using your power already," Loren said.
İlyara laughed.
"It's consuming you—"
"Does that matter to you?" İlyara cut him off. "I've been going without a blood bond agreement for two years."
She paused.
"Without a bond agreement," she said, raising her hands into the air. "Look. Just look at how they're surrounded by black smoke."
Loren tensed.
İlyara felt Loren's fear within herself. Then she felt sadness and regret as well.
İlyara was now looking at him with disgust.
"Why did you call me here—"
"Not him. We called you."
İlyara turned toward the voice coming from her right. Four women were walking toward them. Several white-armored soldiers followed behind them.
"So, are you betraying me now?" İlyara asked, turning to Loren with a mocking smile on her face.
Loren, however, looked away.
"Loren, you may leave," said the woman at the very front.
"Yes, President," Loren said.
The Council President?
"Elna," the Council President said. "We can't allow you to hurt people anymore."
"Hurt them?" İlyara said incredulously. "I'm the one hurting people?"
İlyara felt herself growing angry.
"Everyone is ungrateful," she continued.
"No," the President said. "You can't just take people's emotions whenever you please. You're stealing them."
"I… I'm freeing them from their sadness, their anger, the pain of life," İlyara said. "Do you have any idea how difficult it is to contain them within yourself?"
How dare she judge her?
"You're insane," the President said. "People are walking around like soulless beings because of you."
"But they're not suffering," İlyara said.
As time passed, İlyara felt herself beginning to take Elna's emotions as her own more and more, and that was starting to frighten her.
"You left me no other choice."
After the Council President said this, she directed the soldiers toward İlyara. Physically, İlyara was far weaker than the soldiers. How could she possibly stand against the Taşkans? Her power was emotions. She had managed to bring a few of them under her influence, but it wasn't enough.
After struggling for a while, she collapsed to the ground when one of the soldiers kicked her. İlyara wiped the blood from her mouth before sitting upright. Then the Council President gestured toward the soldier standing in front of İlyara.
The soldier raised his sword into the air.
It was over now. Doing good for people had been foolish, and she was paying the price for that foolishness.
The soldier swung his sword toward İlyara. But the blow never came. When İlyara lifted her head, she saw a man standing in front of her with his back turned to her. The man slowly collapsed to the ground.
Only then did she realize who he was.
Loren.
At first, İlyara tried to understand what was happening. This couldn't be Loren; he had left, hadn't he? Yet he was right in front of her, looking at İlyara with his blue eyes. But he wasn't blinking at all.
Had Loren protected her? Why?
Why?
Why?!!!
"Why?" İlyara whispered. Then she took Loren's head into her lap and stroked his hair.
"If you were going to betray me, why did you throw yourself in front of me?" İlyara said. "How dare you do this to me?"
İlyara's heart filled with a pain she couldn't describe. Then tears began to fall.
"Get up!"
"Finish the job," the President said.
"Ahh!" İlyara screamed. Then black smoke burst from her body, scattering in all directions. First, it spread into the soldier in front of her, and then into everyone there.
As the pain in her heart disappeared, İlyara suddenly found herself back in the dining hall. She watched Arın raise his sword into the air and swing it toward Elna, who was lying on the ground covered in blood. But black smoke suddenly burst from Elna's body and scattered in all directions. The force of the explosion sent Arın flying through the open doorway and into the corridor. İlyara, meanwhile, was dragged back a few centimeters but managed to remain on her knees.
The emotions flowing from Elna took her breath away. She lowered her head and tried to cough, but she couldn't. Then she quickly raised her head, looked at the ceiling, and began to scream.
---
Arın (Uniformed Man)
As Arın swung his sword at the Ancient, he suddenly found himself being dragged across the floor of the corridor. He quickly pulled himself together, got to his feet, and picked up his sword from the ground. Then he ran toward the dining hall.
As he approached the entrance to the dining hall, the eerie feelings brushing against his skin made him uneasy.
What kind of emotions were these? The emotions İlyara had transferred to him had never made him feel this way. Her touch had been so... soft.
What was he thinking?
"Ahh!"
Hearing İlyara's scream snapped him out of his thoughts. His entire body tensed as his dead heart began beating wildly.
He couldn't lose İlyara. No, he wouldn't let himself lose her. However, while İlyara was inside the Ancient's mind, he had almost lost her. The Ancient had first scratched İlyara's throat with a dining knife, then made a scratch across her bond mark. Fortunately, Arın had managed to break free from her influence. He wasn't sure he could have done it without his bond agreement with İlyara. Because at that moment, the only thing he could hold on to was that bond, and through it, he had even managed to make İlyara hear his voice.
Then he picked up his severed hand from the ground and waited for it to reattach itself to his wrist. This was one of the advantages of being a Morhena. Perhaps this was for the best.
As he approached the entrance to the dining hall, he felt as though he had run into a barrier. The room was filled with black smoke, and he could barely see İlyara.
İlyara was screaming in pain without stopping. Emotions were continuously flowing into İlyara from the Ancient, who lay motionless on the floor.
"Damn it," he cursed under his breath.
"İlyara!" he shouted. But İlyara didn't stop screaming in pain for even a moment.
He sheathed his sword and prepared himself. Then he reached his hands toward the black barrier of emotions. He began pushing the black smoke with his hands. The more he pushed, the farther he could move into the dining hall. But this didn't last long. An emotion hit his skin with such force that he immediately dropped to the ground, falling onto his knees.
Once again, he thanked himself for being a Morhena. Because these stray emotions weren't flowing into him. They were hitting his skin instead. But some of them were very powerful. They kept him from moving and made it difficult for him to advance.
He tried to get to his feet several times, but he couldn't. Of course, this didn't make him give up. If he couldn't walk, he would crawl. He tried to reach İlyara by crawling for a while. But the closer he got, the more the emotions seemed to crush him.
Were the emotions really this powerful? What would have happened to him if he weren't a Morhena? He didn't even want to think about it.
When another powerful emotion came crashing down on him, he fell face-first onto the floor. His nose hit the white floor hard. His black blood disappeared into the smoke. He ignored his bleeding nose and began to drag himself forward. If he couldn't crawl, he would drag himself along the ground. No matter what it took, he would reach İlyara… he had to. What would he do without her?
Finally, he managed to reach İlyara. He reached out his hand toward her. But he regretted it. The moment he touched her, the eerie lost feelings suddenly began surging into his body through those soft hands. He quickly pulled his hands away, but how much longer could İlyara endure these emotions?
Holding on to İlyara, he slowly lifted himself from the ground and hugged her. He allowed those ancient emotions to fill him.
"Ahh!"
"Ahh!"
He was now joining İlyara as she screamed in pain. Every part of his body struggled to escape these emotions.
Danger.
Danger.
But all he could think of was İlyara.
Arın had no idea how long they had been in this state. His body couldn't endure any longer, and he collapsed into İlyara's lap.
When the black smoke in the room disappeared, İlyara stopped screaming. Then she pushed Arın, who was lying motionless in her lap, off her. She didn't even care that Arın fell onto the hard floor. She slowly got to her feet.
Arın watched İlyara's every movement. But he couldn't move his body. All he could do was watch her.
İlyara's entire body was covered in black smoke. Her eyes, however, were glowing bright red.
What had happened to her? Weren't the black smoke surrounding her bothering her?
İlyara left the dining hall without even looking back.