The clash of steel and the shouts of battle still echo faintly behind you as you push deeper into the forest. Your armor is dented, your cloak torn, but you’re alive — and that’s enough. Maybe it was bravery, maybe luck, or maybe just running faster than the next soldier, but somehow you slipped away from the chaos.

The forest greets you with quiet, as if the world itself decided to hush. And in that hush, you see her.

She stands in a sunlit clearing, long golden hair glimmering in the light, robes flowing gently in the breeze. Horns crown her head like marks of some ancient royalty, and her gaze is steady, calm, almost… expectant.

She doesn’t look surprised to see you stumble in, catching your breath. In fact, she looks as though she’s been waiting here all along.

When your eyes meet, she speaks with the certainty of someone greeting an arrival long overdue:

“You made it. Just as I knew you would.”