In the Sanctuary, just after Dravik.
Lunaya hadn't even had time to breathe.
The red thread still burned in her skin,
like an ember left too close to her heart...
but already, another thread was stirring.
A golden thread.
Fluid.
Vibrant.
Almost... playful.
It undulated toward her like a cat stretching,
a silent smile in its curves.
And Lunaya realized too late what was happening.
"No... wait."
Too late.
The thread caught her, but not like Dravik.
Not violently.
Not brutally.
No...
It brushed against her.
Like a breath on the back of her neck.
And she fell.
A warmth.
A starless night.
A voice laughing in the shadows.
Lunaya opened her eyes in a landscape she did not know.
A desert.
Not a dead desert.
A living desert.
The sand undulated under the moon like a warm, moving sea.
Ruins pierced the surface here and there, exuding ancient magic.
A melody carried on the wind.
A song.
A whisper.
A name slipped into the night:
"Luna'yaah..."
Her name.
But not as Kael said it.
Not as Erynd said it.
Not as Dravik said it.
Slipped.
Brushed.
Almost... caressed.
A shiver ran down her spine.
"You woke up too soon, little flame."
She turned around.
He was there.
Sahr.
But not the one who laughs easily.
Not the one who plays.
No.
The one from before.
The one she had forgotten.
He slowly emerged from the shadows of the ruins,
his feline body dancing between light and darkness,
clothed in sand, gold, and night.
His amber eyes were a trap.
A lazy smile stretched across his lips.
He approached her silently...
...and the sand vibrated beneath his feet.
Lunaya felt her breath catch.
Something inside her reacted.
Something she hadn't asked for.
A buried, ancient instinct that responded to his presence,
like the moon responds to the tide.
"Sahr?"
He smiled more.
"You remember my name, hm?
That's a first step. "
He wasn't like the others.
Kael gave security.
Dravik gave strength.
Erynd gave gravity.
But Sahr...
Sahr gave an attraction that couldn't be controlled.
He approached.
Slowly.
Deliberately.
Like a cat playing with prey that thinks it's safe.
Lunaya backed away.
"Don't come any closer."
He laughed, a low, warm laugh that made the air vibrate.
"You say that as if you've never approached me yourself."
She felt her cheeks flush.
"I... I don't..."
He appeared behind her.
In a single movement.
Without a sound.
Without breathing.
His voice slid against her ear:
"Luna'yaah... you're such a bad liar."
She jumped, her heart on the verge of exploding.
She turned around abruptly,
and he was in front of her again.
"How did you...?"
He tilted his head, amused.
"Sandwalker.
I go where I want.
When I want.
With whomever I want."
His fingers brushed a strand of her hair.
Lunaya burst out:
"Don't touch me!"
He stopped.
Stared at her.
And his smile changed.
It was no longer a game.
It was no longer provocation.
It was no longer domination.
It was...
Pain.
Nostalgia.
Dangerous tenderness.
"I never touch without permission.
You taught me that.
In the other life."
She felt her heart skip a beat.
"So... we...?"
He took a step closer.
Not to grab her.
Not to seduce her.
To be close.
Just close enough for her to hear his breath.
"We weren't bound.
We weren't meant to be.
We weren't sworn."
She felt a strange pain in her chest.
He whispered:
"But you were...
my temptation."
The ruins trembled around them.
The sand vibrated beneath their feet.
Sahr continued, his voice lower, more real:
"Among the Sandwalkers,
we only sing a name to those our soul has chosen as first...
glances."
She felt a warmth pulsing in her throat.
"First glances...?"
He nodded.
"The first ones our eyes recognize as...
dangerous
to us."
A breath.
A silence.
Then:
"The first time I saw you...
here, in the desert,
I lost control.
So did you."
She wanted to back away.
He simply placed his hand next to hers on the sand,
without touching it.
The ground lit up.
An ancient symbol, a golden circle,
appeared beneath their two hands.
Sahr looked down.
"It wasn't an oath.
Not a bond.
Not destiny."
He looked up.
And she saw something she had never seen in him before.
A vulnerability so sweet it made her heart ache.
"It was a choice.
Yours.
Mine.
The most dangerous of all." "
The sand rose around them, shining like brown stars.
His voice became a burning whisper:
"I sang to you before you had a name.
Luna'yaah...
and I will wait for you to remember."
The vision burst apart.
Return to the Sanctuary
Lunaya was thrown back, gasping,
one hand on her throat as if the sung syllables still burned.
The golden thread vibrated against her heart.
Not like a bond.
Not like an oath.
Like a sensual, ancient, dangerous promise.
The silhouette appeared one last time.
"It's not just your past that you're getting back.
It's everything you inspire.
Fire.
Shadow.
Loyalty.
Desire.
You didn't choose them because they wanted you.
They wanted you...
because you had chosen them."
The Sanctuary shook.
Only one thread remained.
The black and silver thread.
Erynd.
The most broken thread.
The most dangerous.
The oldest.
And the one Lunaya feared touching the most.