My gaze flicked across the room, catching on to something that made the breath stall in my lungs.
A book.
Old—ancient—its spine cracked, its pages thick with the scent of centuries.The ink had faded in places, but the title remained legible.
The Sacred Alchemy of Solaris: Secrets of the Celestial Forge.
A bolt of ice shot through my veins.
Solaris.
My homeland.
The world I had been torn from, the legacy I had been forced to leave behind.
Slowly, reverently, I reached out, tracing the embossed letters with a touch that felt almost… devotional.
What secrets did this tome hold?
What knowledge had been plundered from the sacred halls of Solaris?
With the book clutched tightly, I knew—this was more than an abandoned cottage.
I had stumbled upon a nexus of past and present, a bridge between who I had been and what I must become to protect those ensnared in the web of this unfolding tragedy.
My fingers flipped through the brittle pages, parchment whispering under my touch.
And then—I found it.
A recipe.
A poison so malevolent, so unforgiving, that it did not simply kill—it decapitated, melted flesh, deformed bones.
My breath stilled.
I traced the list of ingredients, my eyes narrowing—until they landed on one.
Noctyss flower.
The Bloom of Death.
A single petal capable of slaying the darkest of lords and ending Timehunters with a mere drop in the bloodstream.
A slow, crawling shiver etched down my spine.
This—this was an assassin’s dream.A toxin so absolute that no mortal body could withstand its wrath.
But the revelation darkened.
The only known antidote?—
Snake venom.
Lazarus’ cure.
The very substance he had once used to heal me.
The irony clawed at my ribs, a bitter, twisted truth that left a weight in my chest.
