Chapter 1 — The Forest

  Eis lay still at first, as if the world needed a moment to finish forming around her.

  Pale blond hair fanned across the moss beneath her, strands sticking where dew had collected. Soft layers framed her face as she slowly opened her eyes—cool gray, sharpened by confusion and lingering instinct. Her skin, smooth and fair, reflected the faint silver-gold glow filtering between the trees. She had a slender, lightly built frame, the kind honed more by quick movement than brute strength. Even now, disoriented and half-sprawled on the forest floor, she carried a quiet steadiness in her posture, as though her mind reached for order before panic.

  Only when the silence held did she push herself upright.

  Her hand moved automatically across her torso, brushing fabric, checking seams, searching for familiar damage. She paused at her sternum—breath hitching—

  Nothing.

  Just steady skin and the rise and fall of breath beneath her palm.

  Still, a faint warmth lingered beneath the bone, deep and indistinct, like the echo of an old injury.

  The ground beneath her was damp and faintly warm, pulsing as though something hidden lived within it. Overhead, two moons—one silver, one gold—hung unnaturally close, painting the forest in a soft, eerie radiance.

  Her clothes were torn. Her backpack was gone.

  Her chest tightened.

  Not pain. Not fear.

  Pressure—subtle, insistent—gathering behind her breastbone, as though something there had stirred.

  Before she could question it, the sensation sharpened—not words, not a voice. More like an instinct recalled too suddenly.

  Create.

  Her breath caught. One hand lifted without her meaning it to.

  Light gathered around her fingers, pale blue and steady, as if answering a request it already understood. She shaped it without thinking, the way one shaped a memory held too long in the body.

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  Steel. Balance. Weight in both hands.

  The light split cleanly in two.

  With a muted, crystalline sound, twin blades took form in her grasp—long, narrow swords with faintly curved edges, their metal silver-blue and unblemished, as though freshly drawn from a forge that did not exist. Simple guards. Familiar grips. Perfectly balanced.

  They felt right.

  Too right.

  Eis lowered the swords slightly, eyes narrowing.

  The warmth in her chest receded—not gone, but settling deeper, like embers pressed beneath ash.

  The air shifted.

  Not with sound, but with pressure, the forest around her seeming to draw a breath it did not release. The hairs along her arms prickled. Instinct screamed.

  Eis stilled.

  A rustle broke the silence.

  Something moved through the trees—light-footed, deliberate, circling.

  She turned slowly, weight settling into the balls of her feet, blades angling into a ready guard. Her breathing evened as tension coiled through her limbs, familiar and grounding.

  Between the shadows, a pair of glowing yellow eyes fixed on her.

  Too low to be human. Too steady to be simple wildlife.

  A low, wet growl rolled through the brush.

  Then the shape stepped forward.

  A wolf—but massive, its frame far larger than any natural beast. Pale green light flickered beneath its fur like veins lit from within, pulsing in time with a presence she could feel more than see.

  A mana beast.

  Eis adjusted her stance by a fraction, heels aligning, shoulders loosening. Distance. Angle. Escape routes. The old calculations surfaced without effort.

  The wolf snarled—

  And lunged.

  She moved.

  Not back. Sideways.

  The beast’s claws tore through the space where she had stood, raking moss and soil instead of flesh. Eis pivoted, boots sliding on damp ground as she brought one blade up to deflect the snapping jaws, the impact shuddering up her arm.

  Heavy.

  Stronger than it looked.

  She twisted with the force rather than fighting it, letting momentum carry her clear as the wolf overextended. Her second blade flashed, carving a shallow line across its flank—not deep enough to cripple, but enough to make it recoil.

  The wolf yelped, skidding back, eyes wide with surprise.

  Eis didn’t chase.

  She reset her stance instantly, blades raised, breath controlled despite the surge of adrenaline pounding through her chest. The forest seemed to lean inward, waiting.

  The beast circled again, slower this time, hackles raised.

  Inside, Eis’s pulse steadied.

  She wasn’t helpless.

  But whatever force pulsed beneath that creature’s skin—

  This world held dangers she did not yet understand.