Three months passed quickly. Lyra’s days were no longer measured in hospital shifts or nights spent in front of her computer. She no longer woke to the sound of her alarm. Nor did she rush to keep up with a life that kept moving while she chased after it without ever truly catching it.

Here, time was measured by sunlight, by training, by the sound of metal as swords struck one another. Many nights were filled with life, wine, and dancing at the tavern. The people she had met when she first appeared in this world had made her one of their own. Their group had grown close by now... They gave her the feeling of being part of a family. A feeling she had not known for many years... So easily. So peacefully.

After the first month, Lyra stopped waking with the feeling that she would find herself back in her apartment again.

Her mornings began in the Headquarters infirmary. She spent hours with the injured, reading, sorting herbs. The knights and trainees had long since started calling her by her name. She was not the stranger anymore. She was simply Lyra.

Her afternoons found her in the courtyard. Her stance had changed by now. Her hands had grown stronger, and they had given her a proper training sword so she could get used to its weight.
After that first lesson with Valir, she continued practicing with the other instructors as well.
The Grand Master was not always present during the drills, but he would occasionally appear in the courtyard.

Over the past few days, she had barely seen him outside at all. The light in his office often remained on late into the night.

Whenever she passed by his office, and the door was open, she saw him buried among maps, reports, and sealed documents. He looked serious. Distant.

He was very different from the moments when her gaze found him relaxed at the tavern with the knights he spent time with, enjoying the music and wine, talking animatedly, and laughing.

The calm, however, did not last long. It was a quiet morning when a young knight burst into the main hall and hurried toward Valir’s office, holding a letter. Lyra had just come out of the library carrying a few books on herbal medicine and was making her way toward her office.

His expression was troubled. It seemed urgent.

Keeping her steps steady, she continued on her way and entered the infirmary. From the room next door, she could hear voices, though she could not make out what they were saying. They sounded tense. Something had happened, and judging by the worry it had caused, it was serious.
Only one word stood out.

“Ulvenwood.”

Lyra lifted her gaze from the book in front of her and stared at the wall that separated the infirmary from Valir’s office. She frowned. For the first time in months, she felt a sharp twinge in her chest. Unease.
She rose from her seat and began rearranging the bottles on the shelf.
Although it was not necessary, keeping her mind and hands occupied had always made her feel better, as if she could push that unpleasant feeling away through movement.

She had become absorbed in her task when she heard Valir’s calm, formal voice from the doorway behind her.

“Lyra?”

She turned toward him, still standing on the small wooden ladder by the bookcase, which she had climbed to reach the higher shelves.

“Sir,” she greeted respectfully, carefully stepping down from the ladder. “Is something wrong?” she asked.

Valir stood within the wooden frame of the doorway. His expression seemed calm, but she could tell that something was weighing on him.

“We will be leaving on a mission outside the city...” He paused briefly, weighing her reaction. She moved in front of her desk and leaned against its edge, crossing her arms over her chest. She waited silently. “We will need you there. Just in case.”

“When do we leave?” she asked steadily. She did not ask what, how, where, or why. It was something she had known would happen sooner or later.

“In the morning.” He watched her closely. As if assessing her.

“I’ll be ready,” she replied without changing her posture.

He said nothing else. He nodded, as if confirming something to himself, and turned back toward his office.

The moment he moved away from her doorway, she let out a relieved breath. Her heart was pounding, and her fingers tightened around the edge of the desk until her knuckles turned white. She had not wanted to appear shaken in front of him, and she had held herself together as best she could. It was a skill you had to have as a doctor, after all, so you would not panic the patient too, no matter how bad things were.

Her first mission was now a reality.

She did not understand how the rest of the day passed. Her thoughts were already fixed on the next morning.
No matter how hard she tried to sleep later that night, she could not.
She tossed and turned, stretched, unable to get comfortable from the tension coursing through her.

Before dawn had even broken, she got up and began preparing.

She took a bath to clear her head and wake her body properly. She put on her uniform and stepped out of her room. The corridor was still dark, still empty. Only the sound of her boots echoed as she went downstairs.

She stopped by her office first. The night before, she had prepared the bag she would take with her, with everything she might need. Clean gauze, a few bottles of alcohol, herbs for pain relief, and clean water. She checked them one last time before slipping the bag over her shoulder.

She closed the infirmary door and stepped outside into the cool, damp morning air.

The courtyard was still empty. She was the first to arrive. She sat for a while on the steps. The smell of moisture that had soaked the earth all night was strong and fresh.
It eased her nervousness a little.
She closed her eyes, listening only to the sound of the windmills creaking rhythmically each time they turned along the walls.
It was not long before she heard the first footsteps approaching. Heavy. Rhythmic. Steady.
It was a stride she recognised. Valir.

“Good morning!” she said, with the respect due to her superior.

“Good morning. You’re early,” he replied lightly. “Trouble sleeping?” he asked, smiling faintly. He seemed to understand the feeling well.
The feeling of a first mission. The anticipation.

“Something like that...” she answered, a little awkwardly.

“We’ll be a small group. It’s nothing serious. We’re just going to check on something. A routine patrol,” he told her. He seemed calm, but he was hiding something.

If it is only a routine check, why does the Grand Master and the doctor need to go? she thought, looking at him with faint disbelief. She wanted to say it, but held back. At that moment, the other four knights who had been expected came through the gate. One man, one woman, and between them, Roland and Karl. They greeted Lyra warmly.

“You’re coming too?” she asked the two brothers.

“Yes,” Karl said enthusiastically. “Our first mission.”

For a moment, Lyra’s gaze flicked toward Valir, slightly worried. Yes, they had experienced knights with them, but she, along with the two younger boys, was not ready. Or at least that was how she saw it.

“It is a training mission,” Valir said, as if he could read everything that had crossed her mind.

She nodded without saying anything else.

They did not take horses with them. It might have been dangerous. The forest was not terribly far, they had told her.
What they had not clarified was that it was not far for them. For Lyra, the road felt endless.

They walked for several hours before reaching the forest.

The landscape on the way to Ulvenwood unfolded across a breathtaking, pristine wilderness.

Paths that wound through deep ravines, fallen trees scattered here and there. Dense bushes lined both sides of the trail. In some places, a tangle of vines and thorns had taken over the route, and they cleared their way as they passed. They stopped several times along the journey.
They met merchants coming from the harbor and heading toward Windstadt, stopped for water at a spring, and paused to catch their breath. Throughout the entire route, Lyra walked among the knights. The instructors’ expressions were serious and careful.
Even the two younger boys with them had lost all trace of their morning excitement. They maintained disciplined formation and watched their surroundings closely.

It was early afternoon when Lyra, Valir, and the four knights crossed into the forest.

It was dark. That was her first impression.

The tree trunks rose enormously around them. Their branches intertwined intricately overhead, forming a canopy, as if they were trying to keep the sky and light out of this place.

Here, the temperature dropped noticeably. The air was cold, damp, and heavy. There was nothing pleasant about it. The first thing they all noticed was the unnatural stillness that hung over the forest.

No birds could be heard. No insects flew. Even the leaves seemed to avoid rustling.

It was the silence of a place where something had already passed through and frightened everything in its wake.

There, they came across two hunters. Both were pale and exhausted.

“Grand Master!” one of them called. He was a grey-haired man with a weary, frightened look. Beside him, a younger man with brown hair and light stubble glanced anxiously around.

“Wilhelm, Samuel. What happened?” Valir asked. He knew them.

“We went hunting with my son two days ago. We’re only now returning,” the man said hesitantly.

“Empty-handed?”

“What can I tell you? I believe there’s something in the forest.” A shiver passed through his shoulders. “The wolves are restless. Very. And as for the game... nothing. It’s all vanished.”

Lyra felt her stomach tighten.

“Anything else?” Valir seemed to be searching for their answers for something.

“No... But this isn’t natural. That much I know. We’ve hunted here for years. You know that.”

“I do.” His gaze wandered somewhere deep into the forest.

“Be careful in there, Grand Master,” the man said, casting a look over their group. His gaze settled on Lyra and the two younger knights. “I wouldn’t go in there for training if I were you.” His voice was low, uneasy, serving as a warning.

No one spoke.

“It changes nothing,” Valir said, and once the two hunters moved away, their small group continued forward carefully.

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