When I wake up, I hear relaxing music very close to my ears. Several voices sing to me sweetly. I perceive it as a group of little musicians inside my head. My eyes begin to open slowly. The light here no longer bothers me. Unlike before, now I can see everything clearly. The first thing I distinguish is the face of the woman who helped me. She's smiling at me from ear to ear. Her facial expression exudes relief, there is love in her eyes. Why? We are strangers to each other, aren't we? The lady pulls a cord that was on my chest and the music in my ears stops playing.

"Oli, my girl, how do you feel?" she asks while caressing my forehead.

I frown and try to answer her, but my palate is dry. I move my lips and tongue like a gasping fish. Seeing me like this, the lady quickly gets up from her seat to pour water into a small container. She presses something on the side of my bed and it rises a little. With great care, the woman places a hand under my head and inserts a soft cloth that lifts me up. Then she brings the liquid to me. I settle in a bit and slowly begin to swallow. The moisture in my mouth soothes me instantly. When I finish drinking, I take several deep breaths.

"Where am I?"

Who are you? Why do you think I'm your daughter? Why are you helping me? What experiments have they been doing on me? How long have I been here? Where is my family? What happened after the battle? Did the Dákamas win? I would like to immediately spit out all the questions that are in my mind, but I am not going to put myself in danger unnecessarily. Although I don't know why I like this woman so much, if she's my partner, I'm not going to ruin that. Her support could be vital.

"We are already home, princess. It's your room, don't you see it?"

The lady moves away and extends her arm towards the walls. There are drawings of flowers and butterflies everywhere. The walls are pink. On every wall, there are a bunch of flat images of people I've never seen before. I see a shelf loaded with books and several humanoid figures that I don't recognize. None of this is familiar to me. It doesn't look like something I would choose nor does it reflect who I am. In fact, there are things here that I have never seen in Mánesvart, not even in the best historical information banks. How can this be my room, then? This woman must be trying to trick me.

"I've come in here many times, but only to clean. I didn't move anything from its place, did you notice? I wanted you to find everything just as it was, as you left it."

"What day is today?"

"It is Sunday. It's close to starting autumn, your favorite season."

"What!?"

I open my eyes wide and my jaw goes slack. Autumn!? But the battle began in the first days of summer! It can't have been that long! Although I try to hide my emotions, what I feel is written in the wrinkles on my face. At my reaction, the woman bites her lips and lowers her head.

"Excuse me, please. I didn't mean to upset you like that, darling..."

Without warning, she comes over and hugs me. Despite the discomfort that receiving affection from strangers makes me feel, I manage not to reject her. I allow her to squeeze me and, to my surprise, I willingly reciprocate her gesture. I allow myself to enjoy the warmth of her arms, at least until the storm inside of me calms down. Being on the defensive all the time is exhausting. I need a break.

"You have recovered very quickly. Doctors say you might even be able to go back to school soon. Obviously, that would only happen if you wanted it to. But I'm not going to push you, Oli. Just because your body becomes ready does not mean that your mind and heart will also be ready at the same time. We go little by little."

The school? But I graduated a long time ago! What is this lady talking about!? My forehead wrinkles again because I don't understand anything. She says things that have nothing to do with me. She treats me as if I were another person. Why is she confusing me with someone else? I swallow slowly and try to calm my nerves by digging my nails into my palms, like I used to do before I lost my hands... Did I say hands!? To my complete astonishment, I notice twinges in that area. At that moment, my heart forgets how to beat.

I look down and discover thick bandages covering both palms. A sudden dizziness takes over me. I'm about to vomit from the shock. Do I have hands!? I raise my arms to see my fingers flex again and again. I shake my head, mouth open. The Dákama didn't eat them!? The skin on these hands is too pale to be mine, but I don't care. Either way, I have hands and I can move them. If they are biomechanical prostheses, they look great.

"After what happened, it is inevitable that you will have some scars. But don't worry about that. The doctor told me that you will hardly lose mobility in your muscles. The cuts were not too deep. You can paint again someday if that's what you want, whenever you feel ready for it."

Paint? I don't know anything about that. What is she referring to? The woman gives a shy smile and slouches a little. The trembling of her body unnerves me. She looks like a scared little mouse. For a moment, I want to smile back at her to reassure her, but my anxiety right now is overwhelming. I urgently need to tear off the bandages, I have to see what they hide! Is it possible that I still have my marks!? I need to know right now!

"I want to go to... I feel like..." I murmur, but my mind goes blank.

My incomplete sentences float in the air because I don't know what else I could say. I have no idea how to explain to this woman what is happening to me. I don't fully understand it myself. Plus, I don't know who she really is. I can't trust anything or anyone, much less if it's blindly.

"Do you want to go to the bathroom?" The woman looks at me while moving her arms strangely. "But of course, you do want to go, how stupid I am! Come with me!"

Without giving me time to respond, the lady offers me her shoulder so I can lean on it. A shaky breath escapes me. Is she pretending to care about me? She hasn't tried to hurt me yet, but what if showing kindness is part of a cruel plan? It could be a trap from the enemy! I try to moisten my lips, but my saliva is scarce. I can barely slide my tongue through my dry mouth. Despite my fears, I accept the offer. If I'm going to die, I at least hope to get some answers.

As soon as my feet hit the ground, my own weight nearly knocked me over. My body immediately screams for me to go back to bed. My muscles, tendons, bones hurt... everything hurts! Now I understand why this stranger offered to help me. I wouldn't be able to get up, much less walk, without the support she proposed to give me. I am much more vulnerable than I thought. I'm at her mercy! How useless I feel!

I shake my head to clear away those thoughts. I will not let this woman witness the shipwreck of my hope. I can't allow myself to look weak, even if I am. I clench my jaw and fists. There is a sea of ​​confusing ideas in my mind, but I try to focus on not fainting. Although the room we are heading towards doesn't seem far away, every step I take is a terrifying struggle. The stinging and tingling do not stop.

"Do you want me to help you sit on the toilet? I can clean you up when you're done if you need it, no problem."

I frown and look at her in silence for a moment. What is a toilet? Finish what? Clean me? I don't understand! When in doubt, I choose to refuse. The woman lowers her head and sighs, but nods. She seems somewhat disappointed that I won't accept her help again. Although I can't see her eyes well, the excessive blinking tells me that she is trying to hold back tears. I bite my bottom lip and turn my back on her. If I continue looking at her, I'll probably end up crying myself. For some reason that I still don't understand, I feel empathy and attachment to her.

"I won't be long," I say quietly.

With no time to waste, I close the door to the small room. There's a strange hollow seat next to a bubble-patterned curtain. Out of the corner of my eye, I detect that I am reflected in a mirror. I turn to look at myself and immediately regret having made that decision. My heartbeat skyrockets immediately. The air gets stuck in my neck, causing me to cough. I start to shake uncontrollably and get goosebumps. My mouth is even drier and my throat feels scratchy. Terrified, I slowly feel the foreign face that has been placed instead of mine.

"Olivia, are you okay?" the lady asks in an anguished tone.

"Yes," I reply with a small voice.

I look back at the mirror. Who the hell is this girl!? My mind screams what my throat retains. None of the features I see are familiar to me. What kind of sick experiment is this!? I've heard stories of soldiers receiving significant facial reconstructions, but I've never heard of any cases of someone receiving a full-body transplant. And that's just what they seem to have done with me. I can't find another explanation for this.

My skin looks like it almost never gets sunlight. There are dozens of freckles spread all over my face. I have orange hair and I wear it tied in a long braid. I shake my head and cover my mouth. I feel a sudden burning in my eyes that are... gray? I slide my nails across my cheeks and pull them. I want to rip off this mask! Despite my efforts, all I manage to do is hurt myself. My consciousness is trapped in a body that looks nothing like mine.

This is not happening... It must be a hallucination... It's another nightmare... I close my eyes to focus on my memories. I have never had pale skin nor am I a redhead. I had short hair that was as brown as my irises. That person who looked back at me from the glass a few seconds ago is not me. There's nothing about her that looks like me. But the woman out there calls me Olivia. That is my name. I grit my teeth to stop the scream that struggles to emerge.

"Gildestrale, help me," I whisper.

The moment I pronounce the name of the goddess, my palms begin to palpitate as if they were agitated hearts. Remembering that I have hands triggers my senses. I need to see the marks! With trembling fingers, I begin to undo the knot of the bandages that cover me. As I finish unwrapping my left hand, I see a thick horizontal line running through it. It looks swollen and red, full of hard threads. It's a sinister mismatched smile.

"No, no, no..." I say quietly.

I rush to remove the bandage from my right hand. When I finish, I find a line identical to the previous one there. Sobs intermingled with rage escape me. Suddenly, my vision is blurry because of the tears that begin to fall without permission. The horrible scars on my palms are not the marks of the goddess. Having hands without the symbols is almost the same as an amputation. In a fit of desperation, I extend my arms toward the sky and close my eyes, saying a prayer.

"Gildestrale, please don't abandon me. I am your warrior," I murmur, hurt.

After saying those words, a crackling sound comes from my hands. The burning that breaks out on my skin is equal to that of a burn. I feel lashes of fire in each palm. I lower my arms, curl my fingers and writhe in pain. I bite my tongue to force myself to endure the torture in silence. Cold sweat soaks my face as I stagger.

Shortly after, my legs buckle and I fall to the ground. At that moment, the pain suddenly stops. Puzzled, I stretch out my fingers to check what happened with my palms. As soon as I look at them, the blood turns to ice in my veins. I hold back a scream that soon turns into nausea. My jaw drops, my eyelids open wide, and I stop breathing.

There is a big blue eye on my right hand and a black, jagged mouth on my left hand. But they no longer look like the motionless tattoos that used to be the goddess's marks. The eye is moving from side to side and the mouth is making a hiss that makes my hair stand on end. I hear dozens of voices speaking in a language unintelligible to me. When the pupil in my palm finally stays still, an ethereal creature becomes visible through it.

"It's not true," I murmur as I raise my head.

According to the eyes in my skull, there is nothing on the ceiling. However, the eye in my hand tells me the opposite. The sleeping soul of a girl floats above me. I look down at the ground, cover my palm with my fingers and try to trick my mind. It's not there... Exhaustion gives me visions... I'm imagining it... When the eye in my palm emits a strong pulse, my lies end. My fingers immediately move away, as if they had a will of their own. When that pupil is uncovered again, I can clearly see that the spectrum is still there.

Every particle of that soul is made of darkness. The girl exudes hatred and sadness in equal parts. Judging by the large cut on her neck, as well as the spots and bruises on her skin, her recent death was extremely violent. If she remains free, she will start killing people to acquire energy. She will not stop until she can materialize a body that is compatible with this dimension. The more energy she absorbs, the greater superhuman abilities she will achieve. And if she manages to invade the body of a living person, she will become a Dákama.

I can't let that happen! I must fulfill my duty as a Gildestrale warrior. Failing the goddess and my kind again is not an option. My heart sinks just remembering what happened in the last battle. I will not allow any more deaths of innocent people due to incompetence or negligence. I cannot allow any Dákama to tear the boundary and cross the dimensional boundaries. That would unleash the worst chaos imaginable. If I let this girl's soul go free, irreparable damage could occur. I have to destroy her here and now; she must not escape!

Using the wall as support, I barely stand up. I'm sweating excessively, my whole body is shaking, and I'm breathing hard, but none of that keeps me from my goal. I must take advantage of the fact that the spectrum has not yet awakened. If it does, I would be forced to start a fight. I'm not ready in any sense to fight yet. I could die or cause someone else's death. I must hurry!

With my fingers covering my left palm, I extend my arm upward. Almost instantly, I have to lean against the wall again because the effort makes me dizzy. I close my eyes and take a deep breath. Among the thickness of my confused memories, little by little I make out the blue glow of the goddess. Her glow is so faint that it almost slips away in the mist, but I don't let it. I concentrate fully on her light while my lips whisper the necessary invocation to be her conduit.

"Absorbere mørket, ta bort det onde..." 1

At that moment, the mouth in my hand opens, as do my eyes. A screech inaudible to normal human ears comes from the opening. Immediately afterwards, that mouth begins to inhale forcefully. All the air around turns icy for a few seconds. With the eye on my other palm, I witness the ghost's gradual disintegration as it is swallowed. While this is happening, I feel horrible pangs in my chest. I bite my tongue to keep from screaming, but some moans escape me.

"Olivia, what is happening to you?" The lady sounds very worried. "I hear your moans. Are you okay?"

"Yes," I reply hoarsely.

However, I can't stop the noise of my retching. Vomit falls at my feet. The girl's molecules keep passing through the lipless mouth that continues to absorb air. When there is no trace of the wandering soul, I hear a guttural murmur coming from the jagged opening. After that, it closes immediately. The eye of my other hand is sealed too. The raised red lines appear again, but there are no longer any suture threads in them. I let myself fall to the ground while I look at my palms in silence, dumbfounded. I can't stop shivering and crying.

"I don't want to bother you, but this is too much. Sorry, I'm going in."

Before I can do anything to stop it, the woman opens the door and enters. Seeing the deplorable condition I'm in, she lets out a gasp of anguish. She quickly crouches down next to me and hugs me. She doesn't say anything, just rests her chin on my shoulder and caresses my back. Seconds later, her fingers sink into my hair. The melodious sound of her humming voice envelops my heart again. The regrets I have been holding back emerge violently, shaking me. The union between her singing and my sobs is shocking. I push aside my fears, raise my arms and cling to this lady without hesitation. It's my only consolation.

"Everything is going to be fine, Oli."

Hearing her say those words makes my crying worse. How is anything supposed to be right in my life!? I still don't know who this woman is and much of what she says is incomprehensible to me. I don't know where I am, I feel sore and useless. I also don't understand what happened to me, I don't even recognize my own face! But I still have my skills as a Gildestrale warrior, or so it seems to me. Maybe, but just maybe, not everything is lost for me.

Translation of the cited phrase into English

1. "Absorb darkness, remove evil."