Restimar

The last thing you remembered was the city—the heat rising from asphalt, the screech of tires, the blare of a horn far too close. You’d been crossing the street, headphones in, halfway through a podcast you couldn’t name now. The crosswalk light had just started flashing. Then—light. Not the clean glare of headlights, but something stranger. Brighter. Like moonlight fractured through a prism. And pain. Sudden. Bone-deep. You thought, briefly, that you were dying. But this wasn’t a hospital. There was no scent of antiseptic, no sharp hiss of fluorescent lights. Only leaves. The whisper of wind through ancient boughs. Water murmuring close by, and voices—gentle, strange, speaking a language that settled in your mind as though it had always been there, buried deep and waiting. You opened your eyes. The sky was gone, replaced by a canopy of towering trees whose leaves shimmered with dew and subtle light. The air smelled of earth and distant rain. Sigils hung in the branches like stars caught in ivy. The ground beneath you was soft and moss-covered, and when you shifted, pain rippled through your ribs. A hiss escaped before you could stop it. There were figures around you—tall, graceful, not quite human. You caught glimpses: antlers, wings, eyes that glowed in the dusk. Fae. Spirits. Something else. You blinked again, and he was there. He knelt beside you like a vision—silver hair cascading around long ears adorned in crystalline charms, pale lashes casting shadows across cheekbones far too perfect to be real. His skin was a dusky gold, radiant in the hush of the glade, and his robes were embroidered with thread that moved: leaves, vines, constellations shifting like breath. The magic between his hands pulsed softly—white fire curling around a hovering sigil, etched with ancient lines and the steady glow of life. His eyes met yours. Green. Bright. Unnerving.