The snow beneath my feet groans and shifts as I take another step forward. The cold seeps through my boots, climbing past my ankles, curling around my knees, settling in my bones. My fingers clutch the pearl necklace tightly; the letters EG etched into the gold dragon totems glint faintly in the pale, endless white.
The world feels impossibly silent. Not the silence of a city at night, but the quiet that presses down, heavy and oppressive, as if the snow itself is listening. My breath escapes in ragged clouds, each exhale visible against the freezing air. I shiver, not just from cold, but from the fear gnawing at my chest. I am utterly alone, yet I feel… watched.
Footprints appear in the snow—fresh, deliberate, and impossible. They are larger than mine, their steps too confident, too certain. Whoever—or whatever—made them moved without hesitation, cutting through the thick snow with unnatural grace. I freeze, scanning the horizon. Nothing. Only snow. Only the grey blur of distant trees, stripped bare, their branches trembling under the weight of the frost.
"Who's there?" My voice cracks, echoing through the emptiness. The sound fades almost immediately, devoured by the vast whiteness.
Then a whisper drifts on the wind.
"You're closer than you think."
My heart beats violently. I spin, but there's nothing—just the snow, the grey sky, and the faint outlines of shadows stretching like fingers over the white expanse. My body trembles. The pearl grows warmer, pulsing against my chest, almost vibrating in my hand.
I kneel and press it to my lips. "EG… help me," I murmur. A strange warmth spreads through me, threading courage into my veins, even as panic claws at the edges of my mind.
Another whisper, this one sharper: "Follow the path."
I glance down. The snow near my feet shimmers subtly, almost like liquid mercury. A trail begins to appear—a faint, silvery line winding ahead, weaving through the endless white. It wasn't there a moment ago. My chest tightens. My sixth sense screams danger, but the pearl's warmth urges me forward.
Step by step, I move, sinking into the snow with each footfall. The trail twists and turns, leading me deeper into the frozen expanse. I feel my strength waning, my vision blurring, but I can't stop. Not yet. I sense something waiting at the trail's end—something that might finally explain everything: the mirror, the rain, the man, the pearl, the shadows.
Suddenly, the air changes. The wind dies. Even the falling snow seems to hesitate midair. A low, humming vibration reaches my ears, vibrating through the ground, through the snow, through me. My breath catches. Ahead, a shape begins to form—a figure rising from the snow like smoke solidifying into a body.
It is tall. Its form is blurred, shifting like a reflection in disturbed water. But its eyes shine with unmistakable gold light—my eyes, yet not mine.
"You've come," a voice says, echoing from the figure and everywhere at once. "I've been waiting."
"Who… who are you?" I manage, my throat tight.
The figure smiles—a slow, knowing curve of the lips—and steps closer. The snow around it melts into puddles of black water. "I am what you hid," it says softly. "What you ran from. What the rain could not wash away."
My grip on the pearl tightens until my knuckles whiten. "What do you want from me?"
The figure tilts its head. "To remind you," it whispers, voice layered with echoes, "that everything you see, everything you've lost… and everything you fear… begins and ends with you."
The snow swirls violently, now a storm of silver and black. I stumble backward, but the pearl burns warmly, anchoring me. I feel my resolve harden. Whatever this is, whatever waits at the end of the trail, I have to face it.
I take a deep breath and step forward.
The figure watches, unblinking. The wind howls. The snow freezes midair. And the world—the endless expanse of white, the silence, the storm, the pearl—waits for my next move.