The morning sunlight filtered weakly through Milly's curtains, but her room felt dim almost airless.
She sat in a corner of her bedchamber, her knees drawn to her chest, her silver-white hair tangled and shadowing her trembling face.
Her eyes, normally gentle and bright were wide and unfocused, staring at her own shaking hands.
Her breath came in shallow bursts.
Milly (whispering): "No… no, it wasn't me… I didn't mean to…"
The faint smell of earth and dust still clung to her pajamas. Bits of rubble were caught in the hems.
And on the table, that object from the ruins rested faintly glowing, as though watching her.
When she dared glance at it, her pupils flared gold for a split second, and she quickly looked away, heart pounding.
(Scene Southern Ruins [same morning])
Wind swept through the devastated area.
The once-grand ruin was now a scar on the landscape a deep crater, its inner walls lined with faint golden marks, like veins of lightning frozen in stone.
The Sage stood at its edge, cloak rustling around him, the Mistress beside him.
He knelt and pressed a hand against the fractured ground. The residual mana burned faintly against his fingertips.
Sage: "…It's the same energy signature we detected from the forest incident months ago."
Mistress: "Then whoever caused both events… was the same person."
Sage: "Not a person," his eyes narrowed -"a being."
The wind howled again. Dust swirled up and revealed an outline scorched into the ground
a shape that vaguely resembled dragon wings.
The Sage stood silently for a long moment, eyes darkening.
Sage (lowly): "Impossible…"
(Scene Milly's Place)
He appeared at her doorstep not long after.
The door was slightly ajar unlocked. No lights inside.
Sage: "Mila?" he called softly. "It's me."
No answer.
He stepped in cautiously. The air was heavy, thick with mana residue that clung like mist.
And then he saw her.
Huddled in the farthest corner of the room, Milly sat motionless. Her face was pale, eyes blank yet shimmering with tears she hadn't let fall.
Her fingers dug faintly into her sleeves, knuckles white.
The Sage approached slowly, his voice careful and low.
Sage: "You're trembling."
Milly (barely audible): "Don't come closer…"
He stopped.
Sage: "Something happened last night, didn't it?"
Milly (whispering): "I… don't remember. I can't remember."
Sage: "But you feel it."
Milly: "…It's like I… destroyed something."
Her voice broke at the last word.
The Sage's gaze flickered toward the faintly glowing object on her table the same light he'd seen echoing through the crater.
He didn't touch it. Instead, he simply said:
Sage: "You're afraid of yourself."
Milly: "Wouldn't you be? If every time you close your eyes, the world trembles…?"
Silence.
The Sage's expression softened, his tone losing its edge.
Sage: "…Rest for now. Don't use any magic until I say otherwise."
He turned toward the door, his mind swirling with questions he didn't dare voice aloud.
When he left, Milly looked up faintly toward the light slipping through her curtains that same faint gold shimmer tracing her hands again.
Milly (quietly): "Why… can't I control it…"
The camera pans slowly to the object on the table pulsing once, in rhythmm with her heartbeat.