“That doesn’t matter to them,” Mina says. “They see what you’ve done, what no one else could. The barrier is gone because of you.”
I look down at the water, watching the gentle ripples distort my reflection. A goddess. I want to tell Mina that I don’t deservesuch awe, but the nýmphí’s presence makes the words stick in my throat.
One of the nýmphí tilts her head, her eyes locking onto mine. She rises gracefully and walks over, holding the crystal in both hands. “This,” she begins, her voice like a tranquil melody, “is no ordinary stone.”
My breath catches. “What do you mean?”
She kneels at the edge of the stream, holding the crystal just in front of me. “It carries an energy. Strong, but dormant. It’s waiting for something... or someone.”
“Waiting for what?” I ask, leaning forward so Mina’s paw glides down my arm.
She looks up at me. “That is for you to discover, Ethereal Leader. But if you wish, we can shape it into something you can carry. A pendant, perhaps. It may guide you when the time is right.”
My fingers brush over the surface of the water. The idea of altering something that belonged to my mother feels wrong. But if it helps me, if it keeps her close...
“Yes,” I say. “Please.”
The nýmphá dips her head in acknowledgment, and her golden hair flows as she rises. She hands the crystal to another nýmphá, who immediately disappears into the house, her movements almost too quick to follow. The others continue their work, their low chatter blending with the quiet murmur of the stream.
Mina’s paws move to my other arm, her touch gentle as she works the oils into my skin. “It is a beautiful crystal,” she says. “And now it will be something even more. Something tied to you.”
“Tell me, Mina,” I begin, looking above her eyes. “Why don’t you have crystals? And does it relate to what you said earlier that the only vólkin female who has them is Elder Aïna?”
Mina pauses and turns to me. “Yes.”
I swallow, narrowing my gaze, waiting for her to continue.
“When the barrier appeared four hundred years ago, the goddesses’ powers began to weaken. As if something was sucking out their spirit. After approximately two hundred years, the goddesses saw that nothing could break the barrier from the inside, and the vólkins and spirits were becoming desperate. Being trapped for so long did no good to anyone. And so, the goddesses’ connection to our world was fading, and they were afraid.” Mina breathes deep, taking my hand. “The vólkins would go extinct, and the balance in the world would completely disappear.”
My eyes widen at her words. It doesn’t take long to see the profound connection vólkins have with nature. I might have arrived here only yesterday, but the thought of vólkins leaving the earth makes my heart... ache. I trace over her paw gently.
“When the goddesses felt that they might lose connection to this land completely, they decided to go against nature for the first time.”
Mina’s words hang in the air.
“Against nature? What do you mean?”
She hesitates, her ears flicking, as though weighing how much to say. “They decided to create vólkin females out of female wolves in the forest, using dark magic, to continue the vólkin race.”
A breath I didn’t realize I was holding escapes me in a rush. “Dark magic... the goddesses? I thought they were pure,” I say, half to myself.
“They are.” Mina’s grip on my hand tightens. “But even purity can be forced to act in ways it shouldn’t when the balance is at stake. The goddesses sacrificed their own spiritual energy to save us.”
I can’t help but picture these wolves—wild, free—being turned into something they weren’t meant to be. “And... the females? How did you...?”
“We accepted the change and adapted to our new forms,” Mina says.
A shiver runs through me. “And Elder Aïna?”
“She is the only natural-born female vólkin. Her connection to the goddesses kept her spirit intact when others began to fade,” Mina explains.
The goddesses broke the natural order to save their creations, but at what cost? The thought of such sacrifices—both theirs and the wolves’—sends a pang of sorrow through me.
“Mina...” I rise from the stream, water trailing down my body, and wrap her in a tight embrace. Her fur is warm against my wet skin, and for a second, words fail me. “I didn’t know,” I whisper.
“This is why the vólkin females don’t have crystals or powers like Elder Aïna or the males.” She whispers the words into my neck, her arms holding me as tightly as I am holding her.
I pull back slightly, searching her eyes. “But are you—are you truly happy with this life?”
