When Haran opened his eyes, the world around him was in a haze. As his vision sharpened, the details of his situation came into focus. He was bound to a chair by the coarse ropes with the cold steel of spears pressing against his neck. Across him sat Adel with a cold expression, gazing straight into his eyes.

  "Adel…" Haran muttered.

  "I thought you were an honorable man, Haran. Why did you lie to me?"

  "I don’t know what you’re talking about," Haran confusedly replied. He tried instinctively to raise a hand to his head, but the ropes were tight. He couldn't move a muscle.

  Confusion and fear started to merge. "What is happening?" he asked.

  "That’s what I would like to know. But this time, tell me the truth," Adel replied sharply.

  "Adel, I don’t know what’s going on. The last thing I remember was being at the hearing and being told I had to leave the village without my son…" Haran trailed off as his thoughts raced.

  He stopped for the moment. "I think I understand a grasp of what has occurred," he continued quietly. "Adel, you don’t have to spare my life, but please spare the life of my son."

  "Once again, you’re trying to manipulate my empathy," Adel said in a cold voice. Then, with a sudden eruption of fury, he roared, "BUT IT WON’T WORK! I WANT THE TRUTH, AND I WANT IT NOW!" His chest heaved as he caught his breath. It had been years since Adel had raised his voice like that.

  "Adel, you probably won’t believe me, but I don’t know what I did to end up tied to this chair. However, I can tell you the cause," Haran said. He paused briefly before uttering, "Demons."

  Adel’s eyes narrowed. "What are you talking about, Haran? What demons?"

  "Adel," Haran started with a voice now nearly a whisper, "I told you I’ve paid a price. But I wasn’t talking about Loretta’s death. I was talking about myself. After the experiment… when I woke up… I started hearing voices. They sound human, but they aren’t. They speak in a language I can’t understand, repeating the same phrases over and over. Sometimes, they scream. And it’s not just the voices, Adel. They carry emotions like pain, hatred, and envy, and they force them onto me.

  And if I don’t find a mindset to reject those emotions, they overwhelm me, and I lose control. And with that, I lose my memory too."

  "Haran…" Adel began, but he had trouble thinking what to say. He struggled to string thoughts together. "When I was a young boy, perhaps no more than seven cycles old, I saw something very similar to what you’re describing. My father, the commander of the guard, was given a soul crystal by a traveling merchant after saving him and his wife from certain death. I remember that crystal. White as snow, with tiny golden flecks floating beneath its surface."

  Adel drew a deep breath. "The merchant told my father never to touch the crystal with his bare hands. He gave it to him in a special leather sack and told him to sell it in the city to the church, in exchange for tools and supplies for our village. He knew that villagers wanted nothing to do with crystals. So my father stashed it away before he could travel to sell it. Until one day, I… I tried to take it from its pouch."

  Adel’s eyes filled with tears as he recalled the memory. "I didn’t get to touch the crystal. My father knocked the pouch from my hands, and the crystal fell. Instinctively, my father reached for it, catching it with his bare hand.

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  The moment he did, a faint white aura enveloped him. He stood there, frozen, like a statue carved of ice. Minutes passed, but to me, they felt like hours. I pulled at his pant leg, but it was as though I didn’t exist to him. I shouted his name, over and over, until finally, he blinked and returned to himself.

  He looked down at the crystal in his hand as if it were a foreign object, something alien. He didn’t remember how it got there. He placed it back into the pouch, and for a moment, I thought everything was fine. But it wasn’t. The damage was already done." Adel’s voice trailed off.

  Haran wanted to interject, but he sensed that this was not a story he should interrupt.

  "A few days passed, but my father still hadn’t gone to the city to sell the crystal. At first, I thought it was because he was busy with village duties. But then, one day, I found him turning the crystal over in his hand. He was talking to someone, or something. But the room was empty. I’ve asked him, 'Who are you talking to?' But he didn’t even register that I was in the room. It was like his mind was somewhere else entirely."

  "Then I saw his face, and his eyes were as white as snow. I got scared, pulled at his sleeve, and shouted his name over and over to bring him back. And this time, it wasn’t quick. It took far longer than before. When he finally came to, he quickly shoved the crystal back into its pouch and started stumbling through excuses."

  "I was just a boy. I didn’t understand why he felt the need to justify himself. I didn’t have much education, but even then, I knew crystals weren’t something we should meddle with. I asked him: 'Why are you playing with the crystal if you know it’s bad?' The shame on his face was unmistakable."

  Adel swallowed hard. "A few more days passed. Then, he called me out to the meadow by the old mill. That’s where he showed me the magic of the white crystal. I’ll never forget it. He began to float, rising above the ground as though gravity itself had been unbound. The grass beneath him bent and swayed as gusts of wind pushed him higher.

  And that’s when I saw it. The curse. My father didn’t understand how the crystal worked. He started creating a vacuum around himself. The air vanished. He was suffocating.

  By some miracle, he managed to free himself. The air returned, but an unseen force knocked him to the ground. The impact broke his ribs. We had no way to treat such injuries. For three agonizing days, he lay in our home, unable to breathe properly, and then…" Adel’s voice cracked slightly. "Then he succumbed to the injuries.

  After the incident, the village head took the pouch with the crystal and placed it on a small boat. They let it drift downriver, hoping it would carry the curse far from our lives. For my mother and me, life became much harder after that, as my father had been the main provider of stability, food, and money."

  Look in Adel's eyes changed to one of quiet rage but also understanding. "So, Haran, I know the symptoms you speak of. Now tell me, where is your crystal?"

  Haran’s gaze locked with Adel’s. Finally, Haran spoke. "I don’t have any crystals. You’ve seen everything I own."

  Adel leaned forward, clearly frustrated. "Haran, magic does not manifest without crystals. Unless you’ve been cursed by the Creators themselves, there must be a crystal. You must be in contact with it. Be honest with me."

  "I told you everything. I have not used crystals on myself,” Haran was adamant.

  Adel’s gaze narrowed as he leaned back. "Haran, you may not recall the events, but during your case presentation, you became aggressive. Your body glowed with a white aura. And yet, there was no crystal visible anywhere. When we rescued you, we stripped you naked, and we found nothing. The only place left unsearched is inside your body."

  Haran’s expression tightened, his worry deepening into something heavier. Silence embued the room.

  "I have no reason to doubt what you’re saying," Haran said, breaking the silence. "But I am telling the truth. Since you won’t believe me, if my punishment is death, make it swift. I only beg of you, spare my child."

  Adel blinked, the words leaving him momentarily stunned.