The darkness receded slowly, reluctantly, like a viscous liquid. Hearing returned first — distant voices whispering words in an unfamiliar language. Then came touch — the cold stone beneath her back, the weight of her own body, motionless yet strangely light. And finally, sight — dim light penetrating through not fully closed eyelids.

  Who am I?

  This question emerged like the first wave striking the shore of awakening consciousness. Others followed: where am I, what happened, why can't I remember... anything?

  Liara — the name surfaced from nowhere, the only fragment washed up on the shore of memory. She tried to move, and her body responded with unexpected ease. When she finally opened her eyes, she first saw only circles of light — dozens of oil lamps and candles surrounding her elevated platform.

  "The goddess has awakened!" whispered a trembling voice somewhere to the left.

  Liara propped herself up on her elbows and looked around. She was lying on a stone altar in the center of a circular hall with a high vaulted ceiling. Around the altar, five figures in dark blue robes with deep hoods formed a semicircle. They all knelt with their heads bowed.

  "Where am I?" asked Liara, and the sound of her own voice surprised her — melodious, but with a barely noticeable metallic undertone.

  One of the figures, the tallest, dared to raise his head. From under the hood, a wrinkled face of an old man looked at her, his eyes glowing with reverent awe.

  "O Great Liara, Daughter of Eternity, we have summoned you to the Temple of the Last Breath," he said with a tremor in his voice. "I am High Guardian Sedric, and these are my assistants. We... we are your most devoted servants."

  Liara slowly sat up. Something was wrong with her body — it felt simultaneously both hers and foreign. She raised her hands to her face and froze: her skin was pale, almost white, with a barely noticeable silvery tint. On her wrists, thin lines were visible, resembling seams.

  "What's happened to me?" she didn't want her voice to sound so confused, but she couldn't help it.

  Sedric rose from his knees, but kept his head respectfully bowed.

  "Child of the Breath, you have returned to us in a new body. A body worthy of your divinity, created by us according to ancient blueprints. This is... this is the highest achievement of our art."

  Liara lowered her feet from the altar and felt the cold of the marble floor. She was dressed in a simple white dress without ornaments. Somewhere deep in her consciousness flickered the thought that all this was wrong, that she shouldn't be here, that she wasn't what they thought she was.

  "I am not a goddess," she said, but the words sounded uncertain even to herself.

  The silence that followed these words rang with tension. Then Sedric carefully pronounced:

  "Great Liara, the prophecy states that when you return, you will not remember your divine origin. This is a test for you and for us."

  He made a sign, and one of the priests hurriedly rose and disappeared behind the columns.

  "Your return was foretold in the scrolls of the Prophet Eran," continued Sedric. "'And she shall appear in a form created from dust and light, and she shall not remember her greatness, but the world shall tremble at her steps.' We have waited for this moment for three hundred years."

  Something flashed in her consciousness — an image, too quick to catch. A sensation of falling, a scream, darkness... and something else she couldn't quite remember.

  The returning priest carried a small silver tray. Something wrapped in dark fabric lay on it. Approaching the altar, the priest knelt and extended the tray. Sedric carefully took the bundle and unwrapped it before Liara.

  It was a mirror — small, in a simple silver frame, darkened with age. Sedric held it as if it were the greatest treasure in the world.

  "Look, Child of the Breath."

  Liara took the mirror. Her hand did not tremble, though inside everything tightened with anticipation. When she looked at her reflection, she couldn't suppress a quiet gasp of surprise.

  From the mirror, a face of incredible, inhuman beauty looked back at her. Perfectly regular features, large eyes of an unusual silvery-blue color, snow-white skin with a light pearlescent glow. But there was something else — thin, almost imperceptible lines, like those of a porcelain doll, where parts joined... of what? A mask? Or indeed — parts of a body?

  "What have you done to me?" she asked, and this time her voice contained not only fear but also anger.

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  Sedric bowed even lower.

  "We created a body worthy of your return. The best craftsmen of Alkarion worked on it for decades. It is a golem, created using the most ancient technologies, lost to ordinary people. Inside is your divine essence, which we summoned from beyond the Veil."

  Liara set the mirror aside and stood up. Strangely, she felt strong. Her body obeyed perfectly, as if she had been using it all her life.

  "I want to know everything," she said firmly. "Who am I, according to you? Why do you think I'm a goddess? And why don't I remember anything?"

  Sedric's gaze slid sideways, toward the dark passage behind the columns. For a moment, Liara thought she saw movement there — a shadow watching what was happening.

  "We will tell you everything we know, Great Liara," said the old man. "But first, allow me to lead you to your chambers. After awakening, you need to restore your strength."

  One of the priests lifted a long dark blue covering from the floor and respectfully handed it to Sedric. He draped it over Liara's shoulders like a mantle.

  "Come," he said softly. "Many await the opportunity to kneel before your return."

  Liara followed him, feeling a strange combination of confusion and calmness. Something told her that this wasn't the first time she had found herself in an unfamiliar place without memories. But why was she so sure of this?

  As they walked down a long corridor lit by the bluish light of magical fires, Liara again caught a movement — the shadow of a person slipping around a corner. This time she was sure she hadn't been mistaken.

  "Is someone following us?" she asked Sedric.

  The old man hesitated for just a fraction of a second.

  "There are many servants and priests in the temple, Great Liara. They all long to catch even a glimpse of your return."

  She nodded, but the uneasy feeling didn't leave her. In the touch of strangers' gazes, there was something more than simple curiosity or reverence. Fear? Hostility?

  They climbed a wide spiral staircase and entered a spacious room with tall windows. Moonlight penetrated through stained glass, coloring the floor in patterns of blue, silver, and purple. The room was richly furnished: a carved four-poster bed, several armchairs, a dressing table with a mirror, many bookshelves.

  "These are your chambers, Child of the Breath," said Sedric. "Here you will be safe. Tomorrow, when the sun rises, we will talk about everything that concerns you. Now I will leave you to rest."

  He bowed and headed for the exit, but Liara stopped him.

  "Sedric, I want to know one thing right now. What happened to... the real me? To the one I was before?"

  The old man turned, and a strange expression flashed across his face — a mixture of fear and something like guilt.

  "You have always been a goddess, Great Liara. You just didn't always remember it."

  With these words, he left, gently closing the door behind him. A moment later, Liara heard the click of a lock.

  They had locked her in.

  She slowly walked around the room, touching objects with her fingertips. A strange feeling — everything around was simultaneously familiar and foreign. In the mirror on the dressing table, her face was reflected again — perfect, inhuman. She touched her cheek, ran a finger along the barely visible seam.

  A golem? Am I a living doll?

  Something inside protested against this thought. She felt alive. Felt the warmth of her body, the beating of... her heart? Did she have a heart?

  Approaching the window, Liara saw below a huge city, spreading in all directions as far as the eye could see. Countless lights flickered in the night like stars descended to earth. The temple where she was located stood on a high hill, towering over the city.

  At that moment, the moon emerged from behind the clouds, and its light fell on Liara's face. A strange feeling of déjà vu enveloped her completely. She had seen this city before, but from a different side, from a different height. And the moon... the moon was red, not silver as it was now.

  Suddenly she heard a rustle behind her. Turning sharply, Liara saw a figure wrapped in a black cloak step out from the dark corner of the room.

  "Who are you?" she asked, instinctively backing toward the window.

  The stranger — it was definitely a man, tall and broad-shouldered — threw back his hood. In the moonlight appeared a face with sharp features, framed by dark hair. His eyes seemed almost black, but Liara felt that this wasn't their true color.

  "My name is Kairos," he said in a low voice, which contained not a drop of the reverence with which the priests addressed her. "And I've come to warn you, goddess."

  He pronounced the last word with a barely noticeable mockery.

  "Warn me about what?"

  "That you're being deceived. You're not a goddess. You're a mistake, an accident. And your appearance here is part of a game whose rules you can't even imagine."

  Something stirred inside Liara — not fear, but a strange recognition. As if these words, spoken in this voice, she had heard before. In another place. In another life.

  "Who are you really?" she asked, taking a step toward him.

  His lips touched with a bitter smile.

  "A man who remembers you better than you remember yourself."

  And then he did something that finally turned her world upside down — he reached out and touched her cheek where the invisible seam ran. And from this touch, a spark ran through Liara's body, like lightning in a clear sky. And in this spark, she saw...

  ...a city in flames, falling from the heavens... ...a woman with her face, but alive, real, reaching out to a dark silhouette... ...and eyes, green eyes, looking at her with such hatred and pain that her heart was torn to pieces.

  Liara recoiled, gasping for air. The memory — was it a memory? — disappeared as quickly as it had appeared.

  "What was that?" she whispered.

  "A fragment of truth," replied Kairos and stepped back into the shadow. "I will return tomorrow night. And if you truly want to know who you are and why you're here, be ready to leave with me."

  "Why should I believe you?"

  He smiled again, but now his smile revealed a strange sadness.

  "Because, unlike them, I'm not afraid to remind you of who you were before. And who you can become again."

  With these words, he dissolved into the shadow so quickly and silently that Liara might have thought she had imagined it all. But the touch on her cheek — and the memory it evoked — were too real.

  She approached the window again and looked at the sleeping city. Somewhere there, among those lights, lay the answers to her questions. And Liara knew she would find them, even if it meant trusting a mysterious stranger with eyes she remembered but couldn't recall.

  Something told her that this was not her first journey in search of herself. And, possibly, not her last.