Bölüm 3

The forest swallowed Selaya whole. She ran without stopping, the cries of the villagers fading behind her. The deeper she went, the more the air changed—thick with the scent of moss and something older, something that whispered of lost things and hidden paths. She followed her mother’s words, searching for the path beneath the old willow. But the woods were not the same as they had been in daylight. They twisted and bent, shadows curling around her ankles like fingers. The wind carried voices. Or perhaps… it carried memories. She did not know how long she ran before she saw it—a tree unlike any other. The willow stood alone in the clearing, its silver branches reaching toward the stars. Its roots twisted over an old stone path, half-buried beneath the dirt. Selaya pressed a trembling hand to the trunk, her heart hammering. This was it. She stepped onto the path, and the forest exhaled—as if something had been waiting. The path wound through the trees, leading her deeper into the unknown. The moon shifted overhead, casting pale light over the twisting branches. Then, at last, she heard it—the sound of water. She emerged from the trees to find a river unlike any she had ever seen. It stretched out before her like a ribbon of black glass, reflecting the sky in perfect clarity. The stars shimmered in its depths, as if the heavens had spilled into the earth. She stepped closer, her breath catching. The water was not water at all—it was liquid night, flowing in an endless current. The River of Night. A voice echoed in her mind. "A traveler walks the river once… and never again." Her mother’s words had been clear—she had to follow this river west. But there was no bridge, no boat. Only the endless stretch of dark water. She knelt at the edge, her fingers hovering over the surface. It was cold—not like ice, but like the void between stars. The wind whispered through the trees. "To follow your fate, you must lose everything." Selaya clenched her fists. She had already lost everything. Her home. Her mother. Her place in the world. She took a deep breath—then stepped into the river. The moment her foot touched the water, the world shifted. The stars above rippled. The air hummed. And the ground beneath her… vanished. Selaya fell. Darkness swallowed her whole. She did not hit water. She did not sink. She floated, suspended in the void, her heartbeat the only sound. Then, in the endless black, something moved. A shape rose from the darkness, forming out of silver light. A woman stood before her—cloaked in stardust, her face hidden beneath a veil woven from the Seven-Sister Stars. Selaya could not speak. Could not breathe. She had seen this woman before. In the water. In the lake. The woman lifted a hand. Her voice was the wind, the river, the sky. "You have crossed the threshold." The stars behind her pulsed—a heartbeat in the void. "You are no longer who you were, Selaya." A shiver ran through Selaya’s bones. She tried to speak, but the words did not come. The woman stepped forward. Her fingers brushed Selaya’s forehead. And suddenly— She remembered. She was standing in a golden temple, its walls etched with constellations. She was older—draped in silver robes, a crown of light resting on her brow. The air pulsed with power. Before her, a throne of black stone loomed. And upon it sat a man wrapped in shadows—his face lost in the shifting dark. "You cannot stop what is coming," the shadowed man said, his voice deep as the ocean. "The cycle cannot be broken." Selaya lifted her hand. Light burned in her palm. "You are wrong," she whispered. The vision shattered. Selaya gasped, her body breaking free from the void. She was back on the riverbank, the night air thick in her lungs. But something was different. Her constellation-mark burned on her wrist, the stars glowing with a light she had never seen before. She had changed. She had crossed the threshold. And now… The real journey would begin.