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    I barely managed to walk outside the entrance and noticed that it was still early in the day, though dawn had passed a while

    ago.

    Just a few more steps, I told myself as I tried to haul myself up through the flight of stairs and towards my room.

    I was going to make it to the room and then pass out on the bed. My eyes grew dizzy from exhaustion, and I tried not to think too much about the way I had worked so hard but then carelessly spoiled it all.

    It hurt to even think about it.

    But I somehow crawled my way up in the room and copsed on the floor itself. I couldn’t find the strength to get up so I justy there and let my eyes flutter shut.

    It was the most blissful sleep I got. My body and my mind were too worked up to bother about a soft bed or a nket

    anymore.

    So I justy there on the cold hard floor despite the sun beginning to go up and shine on my face.

    I was not sure how long I stayed like that or if someone would even notice me.

    Maybe Killian would, but not because he cared about me, but because I waste for training again.

    Somehow it felt that no matter how hard I tried, this world was hellbent on torturing me.

    One second I was blissfully asleep and the next, I saw a huge stone castle looming in front of me. I could see every pir, every tower and window in exquisite detail as if I had spent all my life in it.

    But it was the first time I was seeing that castle.

    It was not very different from the castle of Elorin, where I was currently residing. However, there was no forest around.

    And I could see people all around going about their day. They all seemed happy and cheerful. The town square was bubbling with people setting up their stalls, heading to work and kids going to school.

    Soft sunlight was spilling all over the cold stone, and it was a rather pleasant sight. Faraway, I could see a few guardsing over holding something.

    Gands.

    They were decorating not just the castle but the entire kingdom. My heart leapt with joy for some reason.

    My feet which I was not sure were entirely mine, were carrying me through the bustling streets all the way towards the

    castle.

    I was seeing everybody around me, but apparently nobody saw me. Or maybe they were too busy to notice me.

    I saw a little girl needing help with plucking a flower off a vine, so I smiled and tried to help her, but when I reached for the flower, my hand went right through it.

    Stunned, I looked at the flower and the girl again.

    She was jumping up and down and then shouted with tears in her eyes. “Mama, I can’t reach that flower”

    She cried and ran back to wherever her mother was.

    10:56 Tue, 26 Aug

    38)

    Meanwhile, something nudged me to keep walking. Like there was an invisible hook attached to my navel that kept pulling me ahead and forward.

    I couldn’t resist it.

    So I kept walking, and the tug grew sharper as I reached the castle entrance. The main door was huge and made up of wood withrge wooden spikes adorning the length of it.

    I almost screamed when the tug kept on pulling me closer to the door, right onto the spikes. I was sure that I was going to get skewered on the sharp pointed spikes, but somehow I was on one side of the door one second and then on the other side.

    I looked back in shock and roamed my hands over my body to check if it was still intact. But I shuddered when I realized I couldn’t touch myself either.

    What was going on?

    I tried to scream, but no sound came out. Terrified of this ce, I wanted to run away from it but the harder I tried, the harder the tug kept dragging me.

    After a while, I just gave up and let it take me wherever it wanted to. A strange thought popped up in my head.

    That I should see whatever was going to happen next.

    Something told me it was important.

    Not sure who or why.

    But I set my fear aside and passed through a series of corridors and hallways, each grand and opulent.

    The castle was finer than the one back at Elorin, with walls gleaming whiter than marble and gold and various crystals encrusted in beautiful motifs running across various pirs and walls of the castle.

    I would have marveled at the beauty, but that tug was insistent as it led me all the way from the ground floor up to the highest floor possible.

    It was great that I wasn’t physically climbing those stairs because I might have just copsed due to the exhaustion.

    My feet stopped outside an ornate wooden door that was three times my height and almost equally broad.

    It was decorated with plush velvet and rubies, but I barely got a nce at it before I was ushered in by something that felt like a slight push to my back.

    I stepped in to see two figures bent over something. Their faces were not clearly visible, but I could make out a male and a female hunched over what I now could see was a small cradle.

    And the sound of soft cooing emanated from teh cradle.

    There was a little baby wrapped in fine silk, its eyes closed and thumb in its mouth.

    I instantly knew that this was a family, and the couple were probably the kid’s parents.

    The cradle was also decorated in flowers and little gems, but when I looked closer, I think I saw something glow softly.

    I peered at it to notice that there were odd symbols carved on the cradle that I had not noticed before.

    They were humming softly and ring before dimming down every few seconds as if they were Christmas lights.

    It seemed like a sweet memory, and I tried to take a look at the face of the little kid. But what I saw shocked me.

    10:56 Tue, 26 Aug 0.

    The little baby was me.

    It had a baby face, but it oddly resembled me when I was an infant.

    I blinked a few times to check if my eyes were deceiving me, and then the face began to morph.

    The entire body of the little infant began to change as if it were shifting into something else.

    The sight was weird and a little terrifying to watch, but somehow I couldn’t take my eyes off the scene.

    The face changed to a different one entirely.

    I was not sure who it belonged to.

    But it was definitely not mine.

    What the hell was going on?

    10:56 Tue, 26 Aug