Her lips parted slightly, absorbing the revelation.“The Timehealers… they became the Timehunters in this world.They hunted us.Hunted me.”My mission loomed between us, an unspoken specter in the dim light.“Lazarus, my master, tasked me with eradicating these ruthless societies.Since the day I was thrown here, I have waged war against them—leaving a trail of ruin and destruction across countless timelines.But when I arrived in France, ready to continue my mission...”I exhaled, my voice dropping to a whisper.“You, my love, had already beaten me to it.”
I paused, running my tongue over my lower lip, my thoughts unraveling into questions I dared not ask.“Did I know I would meet you?That I would fall for the daughter of my enemy?No.Was I surprised to find you possessed the Noctyss flower?Absolutely.”
The words poured forth, a confession laced with wonder.Drawn by something unseen—something inevitable—I leaned in, pressing a trail of kisses along her neck, each one a silent vow, a tether binding me to the fate neither of us had foreseen.
“How did you come to possess such a powerful flower?”I asked between kisses, my voice rough with desire.“The Noctyss only blooms in Solaris.Where did you find it?You have to be honest with me.”
I needed to know.The Noctyss was no ordinary flower—it was a relic of my lost world, a passageway back to Solaris, back to a home shattered in time.
Elizabeth hesitated as if gathering the fragments of a distant past.“A long time ago, my parents took my brothers and me to the Carpathian Mountains.”
Recognition flared within me.Ah.So that is where the realm opens.Excitement surged through my veins, so potent it felt like I could tear through the veil of time and return to Solaris instantly.
Her voice softened, tinged with something I couldn’t quite place.“My father took my brothers hunting.My mother and I wandered the mountains, searching for rare blooms.”A flicker of something—pain, perhaps—darkened her expression.“She was an alchemist of great renown in my father’s society.She believed we might find something...useful.”
She hesitated, then exhaled, the memory unfurling like a long-buried secret.“I wandered away from her and stumbled upon an unusual flower.It stood apart from the others as if waiting for me.”Her fingers curled slightly against my chest.“I picked it.And then...I saw them.A row of identical flowers led away into the forest like a trail of fallen stars.But the moment I plucked that single bloom...”She swallowed.“All the others died.”
A hush settled between us.I listened, enthralled, imagining her as a child—innocent, unaware that her small hands had disturbed something far greater than she could comprehend.The Noctyss did not simply die.It responded.It reacted.
It chose.
Elizabeth’s voice softened, touched by the weight of memory.“My mother found me, and we followed the path of flowers.It led us to a engraved stone.It was so strange.”Her gaze met mine, shimmering with the same awe she must have felt that day.
We lay there, two souls intertwined by destiny, bound by secrets that spanned realms.The weight of history pressed upon us was as tangible as the touch of skin on skin.
I furrowed my brow, my mind piecing together fragments of an ancient puzzle.“Did you ever tell your father about the flower or the stone?”The question hung between us, delicate yet charged, a thread that might unravel more than we were prepared for.
“Never.”Elizabeth’s response was immediate and unwavering.Her fingers traced the outline of an invisible book in the air, as if conjuring the memory itself.“We found the ancient tome beneath a peculiar rock—a rock that seemed to levitate ever so slightly above the ground, as if imbued with power itself.”
She mimicked the motion of brushing dust from its cover, lost in recollection.“It was so close to that strange monument.To us, it looked like a door—one leading to a healer’s cottage hidden within a stone wall.Yet, no matter how we searched, we could find no way in.It was as if we had stumbled upon the remnants of someone’s abandoned sanctuary.”
A chill swept through me, despite the warmth of her body against mine.The pieces aligned, revealing a truth neither of us had spoken aloud.
That wasn’t an ordinary stone, nor was it a door—it was a gateway.
Elizabeth’s eyes met mine, clouded with the weight of secrets long kept from her patriarch.“We immersed ourselves in the flower’s mystery when we returned home.We devoured every script, every scroll, every alchemical record withinThe Sacred Alchemy of Solaris—searching for answers.And there, hidden among its ancient pages, we found it.The Noctyss.Its name, its image.And so we began our experiments, testing the formulae it revealed.”
My thoughts clashed like steel on steel, the implications striking harder than I could comprehend.Finally, I asked, “How was it possible for your mother to master such an art?Did she inherit the necessary bloodline?And how did she acquire the key ingredient—the blood of darkness?Where did she get it?”
Elizabeth’s hand trembled as she looked up at me, fear flickering.She opened her mouth to speak, but her voice faltered.
I reached for her, my touch gentle, steadying her trembling fingers.“You never have to be afraid when you’re with me.I will protect you from any monster that dares to come your way.”
Her expression softened, but the shadow of uncertainty still lingered.
I exhaled, my breath uneven, my mind still reeling from the revelation.
“Your poison may not have been flawless, but it had an effect.A powerful one.If you had perfected it, the people of France would have been forced to flee—it’s that dangerous.”I hesitated, the question clawing its way to the surface.“Who was your mother?What was her name?”My voice was barely a whisper, bracing for the truth I hadn’t known I was seeking.
Elizabeth’s answer came, unaware of the storm it would unleash.
“Isolde Ravencroft.”
Lightning shot through my veins.My breath caught.I jolted, muscles tensing with the weight of the name that echoed through history.
“The Ravencroft family,” I murmured, the words tasting of revelation.My pulse pounded in my ears.“Your kin hail from Solaris.They were Timehealers—their essence allowed them to create perfection where others found only failure.”
The past had never truly been buried.It had only waited—through bloodlines and legacies—until now.
