Bölüm 4

Selaya lay on the riverbank, gasping for breath. The cold night air clung to her skin, her fingers digging into the damp earth as she tried to steady herself. She had seen something—a vision of the future, or perhaps the past. The golden temple. The black throne. The man made of shadows. And the power that had burned in her palm. Her mark still glowed faintly, the constellation on her wrist pulsing like a second heartbeat. Whatever had happened when she stepped into the River of Night had changed something inside her. She was not the same. The wind carried whispers through the trees. Selaya pushed herself upright, looking around. The river stretched into the distance, winding westward as her mother had told her. The sky above was vast and endless, the stars unfamiliar—as if the heavens themselves had shifted. She was no longer in the world she had known. She was somewhere else. And she was not alone. A shape moved in the trees. Selaya froze, her breath catching. The figure stepped into the moonlight, its form wrapped in flowing black silks, its face hidden beneath a hood. It did not walk so much as glide, its feet barely touching the ground. Selaya’s pulse thundered. She should have run. But something in the air—some invisible force—held her still. The figure raised a hand. The world around her blurred. Darkness rushed in. For a moment, she felt herself falling again—not into water, but into shadow, into silence. Then the air shifted, and she was standing somewhere new. A city made of pale stone stretched before her. Its towers twisted like frozen flames, their walls carved with ancient runes. A strange mist hung in the streets, curling around her ankles, and the sky above was not sky at all but a swirling veil of light and darkness. It was a place she had never seen before. And yet… She knew it. The figure stood before her now, its hood still drawn low. But when it spoke, its voice was neither man nor woman—only wind and whisper, dusk and dawn. "You have stepped beyond the veil, Starborn." Selaya’s heart clenched. Starborn. She had never heard the word before, but it sent a shiver through her bones. "Where am I?" she asked, her voice steadier than she felt. The hooded figure tilted its head, as if considering. "You stand in the City of the Forgotten," it said at last. "A place between worlds. Between time. Between what was and what will be." A place between fate itself. Selaya swallowed. "Why am I here?" The figure stepped closer. Its presence was not human. It was ancient, woven from something older than memory. "Because the world has called you. And you have answered." The words struck something deep inside her. The world has called you. Selaya thought of the vision, of the temple and the throne. Of the power she had wielded in another life, another time. She was meant to be here. She had stepped beyond the threshold. Now she would have to decide what came next.