The sky outside the temple was far wider than Raven had ever imagined in any moment of his short life. From the day of his birth until the age of four, the world to him had been nothing more than cold stone walls, a dim light hanging from the ceiling of a dark room, and a silence that stretched like an endless tunnel. The corridors inside the temple always carried the scent of cold incense and ancient dust, as if time itself had stopped there centuries ago. The room where he had lived was narrow and sealed, with no window and no path for sunlight except a small lamp dangling from the ceiling that cast long shadows across the walls. Inside that room the days passed slowly, so slowly that Raven could no longer distinguish between night and day. The only thing he knew was that sleep would come, and with it the dreams. Sometimes they were not merely dreams but strange visions filled with layers of darkness that stretched endlessly, layers stacked like worlds upon worlds. He always felt that something stood at the far end of those layers watching him in silence. It did not speak, it did not move, yet it existed there. A heavy and mysterious presence he could not understand.
But now, after Emma opened the door of that room and held his small hand, everything changed at once. The world he stepped into was not simply another corridor or chamber of the temple. It was an open space without walls. The sky stretched above him like a boundless ocean, and the air moved freely across the rocky hills surrounding the temple carrying sounds he had never heard before: the whisper of wind moving through dry grass, distant birds calling somewhere far away, and the quiet breathing of life itself which had never existed in his dark room.
Raven walked silently while Emma held his hand, his small footsteps following hers along the long stone path that sloped downward away from the towering gates of the temple. Neither of them spoke at first. Perhaps words were unnecessary in that moment, because everything around them was new to Raven. His violet eyes moved slowly between the sky and the ground as if he were trying to understand this vast world that had suddenly appeared before him.
After several minutes he suddenly stopped walking. Emma noticed immediately and turned toward him. She was much taller than him of course, a seventeen-year-old girl whose eyes carried both kindness and quiet concern. When she saw him looking up toward the sky she smiled faintly and gently asked if something was wrong.
Raven slowly shook his head.
Then he said in a very quiet voice that he had never known the world was this large.
Emma felt something tighten in her chest when she heard those words. She herself had spent most of her life in the temple, yet she had at least seen courtyards, gardens, and nearby villages. But this child had spent four entire years inside a room without a window.
She gently squeezed his hand and told him that this was still not the whole world. There were many things he had yet to see.
They continued walking as the temple gradually grew distant behind them. The tall stone towers slowly disappeared behind the rocky hills until they could no longer be seen. Raven never turned back even once. He had no reason to. The room he had lived in was not a place anyone would long for.
The path stretched between rocks and patches of dry grass for many hours. Emma occasionally stopped to make sure Raven was not tired, but to her surprise he never complained. He walked quietly as if long journeys were something familiar to him despite the fact that he had never stepped outside that dark room before.
After a long time they reached a small valley where a clear stream flowed through its center. Smooth stones glimmered beneath the sunlight while water moved gently around them. Emma suggested they rest for a while. She sat on a nearby rock while Raven crouched beside the water. It was the first time he had ever seen water flowing like this before his eyes.
He leaned slightly forward and slowly reached his hand toward the shimmering surface. When his fingers touched the water, small circles spread across it. He watched them silently, as if that simple movement held some quiet mystery.
Emma smiled when she saw him watching the ripples and asked if he had ever seen a river before. He shook his head. She laughed softly and told him this was not even a river, only a small stream. Then she took a piece of bread and some dried fruit from her bag. It was almost all the supplies the Priestess had given her before she left.
The instructions she had received were not long.
In truth they had been very simple.
Take the child far away.
Raise him somewhere he can never return from.
The Priestess had not explained why. She gave no answers. Yet Emma had the strange feeling that the Priestess was not truly afraid of the child himself, but of what he might someday become.
Raven ate quietly for a while before suddenly speaking.
"You are not afraid of me."
Emma looked up in surprise.
"And why should I be?" she asked.
Raven stared at the moving water before him.
"Everyone was."
Silence lingered for a moment.
Emma moved a little closer and gently placed her hand on his blue hair.
"You are only a child," she said softly.
Raven did not reply, but he did not move away either.
At that moment, somewhere far beyond the awareness of human beings, something faint shifted within the structure of reality itself. It was not a sound and not a light, merely a subtle ripple, as if an ancient story had begun to stir slowly within the deep fabric of existence. It was not truly an awakening yet. Only the smallest acknowledgment, as though something distant had noticed that a small step had occurred within the world. A step that, with the passing of time, might lead to events far greater than anyone could imagine now.
Raven finished his food quietly while Emma folded the cloth she had used as a mat. She stood up and told him they should continue their journey because a nearby village might allow them to spend the night there.
Raven stood beside her and suddenly spoke her name.
"Emma."
She turned toward him.
"Yes?"
He looked up at her with calm violet eyes.
"Why did you come for me?"
Emma paused for a moment.
The truth was simple. She could have said that the Priestess ordered her to do it. That would have been the easiest answer.
But she did not say it.
Instead she remembered the moment she opened the door to that dark room and saw him sitting alone in the corner. A small child surrounded by shadows. No voice. No light. No one beside him.
She sighed quietly.
"Because no one should live alone in the dark."
Raven remained silent for a moment before slowly nodding.
He said nothing more, yet for the first time he felt that the road ahead of him was not entirely empty.
They began walking again while the sun slowly moved toward the horizon. The shadows of the hills stretched across the ground like long lines of darkness.
Neither of them knew that this small journey, which had begun with quiet steps away from the temple, would one day become a story stretching across countless years. Years in which many things would change, and time itself would slowly reveal secrets that no one could yet imagine.
For now, Raven was only a four-year-old child walking along a dusty road beside a seventeen-year-old girl.
And despite the simplicity of that moment, it was the beginning of a path that would one day lead him into depths the world had never yet seen.