Fifteen.
Lucien was just fifteen when the world first cracked open.
She hadn't planned to stray so far from home. The town was small, the nights quiet, and the rules simple: don't wander too deep into the woods. But curiosity has a price, and that night, the trees whispered her name.
Lost, shivering in the fog-drenched dark, Lucien stumbled into what she thought was an abandoned graveyard.
It wasn't.
They came with no warning—figures of smoke and sorrow, their eyes glowing dimly like dying embers. Souls long forgotten, bound to nothing but hate and hunger. A ghost nest. And she had walked straight into it.
Her breath caught as the first one lunged.
That's when he appeared.
The shaman.
A cloaked figure stepped from the shadows and raised his hand. With a word that bent the air, he sealed the ghosts mid-flight. The wind stilled. The spirits froze. And for the first time in her life, Lucien saw real power.
He saved her life.
And changed it forever.
—
The years that followed weren't easy.
The shaman didn't smile. He didn't comfort. But he taught.
For three years, Lucien trained under him—through cold mornings and long nights, learning sigils older than language, chants that bent the veil between worlds. She learned how to speak to the dead… and how to silence them.
By the end of it, she wasn't just his student.
She was his legacy.
—
On the day she turned eighteen, he gave her the book.
Bound in faded leather, its pages yellowed and worn. There was no title on the cover—just a single symbol etched into the spine.
At first glance, it looked like any old relic. Anyone could read it, but none could understand it. The language was alive, hiding its meaning unless it chose to reveal itself.
"The Book of the Banished Souls," the shaman said. "These are spirits that can never return. Cursed. Dangerous. Forgotten for a reason."
Lucien hesitated. "Why me?"
"Because one day," he said, "one of them will find a way out. And when it does… it will be your duty to seal it."
"But how will I know?"
"You'll feel it," he said. "In your blood. In your bones. When the time comes… the book will awaken."
He placed the book in her hands.
"In fifteen years," he whispered, "you'll understand."
And then, just like that—he vanished.
No goodbyes. No final lesson. Just a girl, a sealed book, and a countdown ticking in her soul.