That night, Luciana slept peacefully.
For the first time in several days, she had no plans waiting for the morning.
No quest to prepare for.
No forest to search.
No flowers to collect.
No need to wake early and check the guild board.
She had spent the evening eating at the night market with Raizen, returned to the inn with a comfortably full stomach, and fallen asleep soon after.
But sometime during the night—
The dream returned.
Again.
There was no sound.
No wind.
No voices.
Only a world covered in endless blurriness.
Luciana stood somewhere she couldn’t recognize.
The surroundings were impossible to understand, as though she were looking through thick mist.
Everything existed, yet nothing could be seen clearly.
Then—
Something appeared.
A woman.
She was falling.
Luciana couldn’t see her face.
Couldn’t hear her voice.
Couldn’t understand what had happened.
But the feeling surrounding the scene was different this time.
There was something unbearably sad about it.
Two figures stood nearby.
They remained still.
Watching.
Luciana tried to move closer.
Nothing happened.
She couldn’t reach them.
Couldn’t speak.
Couldn’t even hear her own breathing.
Then the two figures turned away.
They walked into the distance.
Leaving the fallen woman behind.
Luciana’s chest tightened.
She wanted to call out.
Wait.
But there was no sound.
Then—
Another figure appeared.
A man dressed entirely in black.
He came rushing toward the woman.
His movements were desperate.
Nothing like the calm figure Luciana had seen in her previous dreams.
He dropped beside the fallen woman and gathered her gently into his arms.
He held her as though she were something precious.
Something he had been terrified of losing.
Luciana stared.
The image remained blurred.
She still couldn’t see his face.
But today…
she saw something she had never noticed before.
Tears.
They were running down his face.
Silent tears.
The man lowered his head.
His shoulders trembled slightly as he held the woman closer.
Luciana felt something twist painfully inside her chest.
Why?
Why did watching a stranger cry hurt so much?
She wanted to go to him.
Wanted to tell him that everything would be all right.
But she couldn’t move.
Couldn’t speak.
Couldn’t even reach them.
The man held the fallen woman tighter.
And the tears continued to fall.
Luciana stared at them.
A strange warmth spread through her chest.
Along with a sorrow she couldn’t explain.
Then the dream began fading.
The figures disappeared into the mist.
The woman’s form vanished.
The man disappeared last.
But even as everything dissolved, Luciana could still see those silent tears.
Then—
Her eyes opened.
Luciana sat up abruptly.
Her breathing was uneven.
For several seconds, she simply stared at the darkness of her room.
Her heart was beating strangely fast.
She pressed a hand against her chest.
“What…”
She looked around.
Nothing.
Just her room.
Her bed.
Her belongings.
The faint moonlight coming through the window.
Luciana slowly wiped the corner of her eye.
Her fingers came away slightly wet.
She froze.
Had she been crying?
She didn’t remember crying.
Luciana lowered her hand.
That dream again.
The fallen woman.
The two figures.
The man in black.
Only this time, she had seen his tears.
She couldn’t explain why the image affected her so deeply.
She didn’t know who the woman was.
She didn’t know who the man was.
She didn’t even know why her heart felt as though it remembered something her mind couldn’t.
Luciana pulled her blanket closer and stared toward the window.
For a while, she considered going back to sleep.
She closed her eyes.
The image immediately returned.
The man holding the fallen woman.
Those tears.
Luciana opened her eyes again.
“Nope.”
She threw the blanket aside.
“I’m not sleeping anymore.”
She quickly changed into something comfortable and slipped out of her room.
The inn was quiet at this hour.
Most of the guests were asleep, and only a few lanterns remained lit along the hallway.
Luciana quietly made her way outside.
The cool night air touched her face.
She took a slow breath.
Fresh.
Quiet.
Better.
She stood outside the inn for a moment, letting the breeze settle her thoughts.
It didn’t work.
The dream was still there.
Especially the tears.
Luciana sighed.
“Why do I keep dreaming about people I don’t even know?”
She started walking.
She had no destination.
No quest.
No particular place she wanted to reach.
She simply wanted to move.
The streets around the inn were quiet, completely different from the lively night market she had visited earlier.
A few shops remained open.
A tired merchant was packing away his goods.
A couple of late-night travelers walked toward an inn farther down the street.
A magical lamp floated above a corner, gently illuminating the road.
Luciana walked beneath it.
Her footsteps were soft against the stone pavement.
She passed another street.
Then another.
She didn’t bother checking where she was going.
Silvermere was large enough that there was always another road to discover.
Eventually, the familiar streets near her inn gave way to busier roads leading toward the central part of the city.
Luciana noticed the difference immediately.
Even at night, the main capital district of Silvermere was still awake.
Tall buildings rose along the streets.
Mage shops displayed glowing crystals behind their windows.
Restaurants served late-night customers.
Carriages passed occasionally, their lamps casting long shadows across the road.
Luciana slowed down.
She had never really explored this part of Silvermere.
Not properly.
She had always had somewhere to go.
A quest.
A guild task.
A market.
A destination.
Tonight, she had none of those.
She simply walked.
She stopped beside a fountain in a quiet square.
The water shimmered beneath the moonlight.
Luciana sat on the edge and watched it for a while.
The dream came back again.
The fallen woman.
The man in black.
His tears.
She frowned.
“I really don’t understand you.”
She wasn’t sure whether she was talking about the dream…
or herself.
Luciana touched her chest.
There was still that strange ache.
Not exactly sadness.
Not exactly fear.
Something deeper.
Something familiar.
But familiar with what?
She had never seen that place.
Never met those people.
At least, not that she could remember.
“Maybe it’s just a weird dream.”
She said it aloud, hoping the words would make it feel more ordinary.
They didn’t.
A breeze moved through the square.
Luciana looked up.
The moon was bright above Silvermere.
For a moment, she thought she saw something silver shimmer at the edge of her vision.
She turned.
Nothing.
Just the quiet street.
Luciana blinked.
“I’m definitely tired.”
She stood and continued walking.
Eventually, she reached a higher part of the capital district where she could see some of Silvermere’s towers rising above the rooftops.
The city looked completely different from here.
Beautiful.
Vast.
Alive.
Luciana rested her hands against the stone railing and looked out.
When she had first arrived, Silvermere had seemed impossibly large.
Now she was beginning to recognize its streets.
She had completed quests beyond its walls.
Found places she wanted to revisit.
Met new people.
Earned her own money.
And somehow, in the middle of all of that, she had begun building a life here.
A small one.
But hers.
Luciana smiled faintly.
“Maybe that’s enough for tonight.”
She took one last breath of the cool air.
The dream was still unanswered.
She still didn’t know who the fallen woman was.
She still didn’t know who the two figures were.
And she certainly didn’t know why the crying man had made her heart hurt.
But she didn’t need an answer tonight.
She turned around and began walking back toward the inn.
Her steps felt lighter than before.
The city was quiet around her.
And for the first time, Luciana realized that perhaps she didn’t always need a destination.
Sometimes…
walking was enough.
She returned to the inn sometime before dawn.
When she finally climbed into bed, she pulled the blanket around herself and stared at the ceiling.
Her eyes were tired.
Her mind was still full of questions.
But eventually, sleep came.
And this time— there were no dreams.