Chapter 1 Shimmering Rebirth

• The rain had been falling.
• She remembered that much. Cold pavement, aching eyes. The distant blur of headlights through the windshield. A blink—just one—and then nothing.
• Until now.
• Warmth.
• It held her gently, like silk spun from dreams—weightless and unfamiliar. Evelyn Hart drifted, suspended in liquid starlight. Her eyes fluttered open to a stone ceiling arching above her, laced with veins of soft lavender light. The cavern walls pulsed with the faint shimmer of bioluminescent moss, glowing like the rise and fall of breath. Delicate vines, reminiscent of clematis, coiled along the stone, adorned with golden blossoms that cast an iridescent shimmer, their glow shifting like morning dew kissed by the sun.
• She shifted upright, pushing herself from the shallow heart of a pool that gleamed silver-blue.
• Everything around her pulsed with quiet magic.
• She looked down at herself—bare, save for two things: a three-inch leather wristband snug on her left arm, and a five-inch leg wrap strapped around her right thigh. Both were damp, but perfectly in place.
• Familiar. Precious.
• The wristband held her acupuncture needles—steel-thin, balanced, unshakably sharp. The leg wrap, hidden under reinforced folds, cradled her second needle set, three small daggers, and a surgical knife—each crafted with precision, their weight as remembered.
• Ding
• A chime rang—not through her ears, but inside her skull. Clear. Crisp.
• SYSTEM CONTRACT COMPLETE.
• Soul Binding Confirmed.
• Host: Evelyn Hart
• Realm: Beastmen Wilds – Northern Crescent Territory
• Assigned Role: Healer | **Vessel of ******
• Contract Gift: Spirit Healing – Tier 1 Unlocked
• Memory Merge Progress: 0% — Progress will unlock as Host develops
• Baseline Realm Knowledge: Transferring
• Inventory Scan:
• – Wristband: Bound & Enchanted
• – Leg Wrap: Bound & Enchanted
• Properties: Self-Sharpening | Auto-Return | Soul-Bound
• System Communications: Internal Only
• Warning: Mentioning the System to others will result in immediate death
• She blinked, stunned.
• "Vessel of… what?" she asked silently.
• Access Denied. You do not have the authority to know that yet.
• Her brows drew together.
• “Where am I? Why are you calling me Xueya? My name is—”
• Your previous life ended in your world. You died.
• This realm has accepted you under a new name—Xueya.
• You are the only human here.
• You are not to share that fact with anyone.
• The words struck like frost down her spine. She touched her chest, half-expecting a wound or heartbeat that didn’t belong to her.
• She was alive.
• Somehow.
• But not… herself.
• Not completely.
• The pool beneath her shimmered brighter. She rose carefully to her feet—still waist-deep in glowing water, hair like black ink down her back, her skin luminous beneath the cave’s gentle light.
• Then—
• LIFEFORM APPROACHING
• Species: Beastman – Wolf Variant
• Rank: Leader
• Gender: Male
• Bond Status: Dormant
• Soul Resonance: High
• She turned slowly toward the source of the approach. Her muscles tensed, her fingers flexed—but the system whispered:
• No hostile intent detected.
• Subject: Compatible.
• Event Trigger: Initiated.
• Her golden eyes narrowed.
• She reached for the smooth stone beside the pool, just reflective enough to glimpse herself.
• Pale porcelain skin. Long, soaked black hair. Eyes like molten gold—not quite human anymore. A faint glimmer of light traced around her irises, vanishing just as quickly.
• Baseline Realm Knowledge Transfer: Complete
• – Civilization Level: Primitive
• – Dominant Species: Beastmen
• – Females: Rare | Cannot Transform | Hold Matriarchal Authority
• – Males: Transformable | Protectors & Providers
• – Roles: Leader, Elder, Healer, Warrior, Hunter, Scout, Gatherer
• – Lifespan: ~3000 years | Maturity: Age 100
• – Healing Arts: Traditional & Spirit-Based
• – Spirit Healing is high-risk and sacred—reserved for dire needs
• – Sacred Law: Females are never to be harmed. Households follow the matriarch
• – Bond Mechanism: Mating = Soul Link | Vines will appear as tattoos, unique in each bond.
• – System: Perceivable by Host Only | Mention = DEATH
• A silence settled in her chest, steady but strange.
• And then—
• A flash.
• Would you like to glimpse the soul bond’s origin?
• Her answer formed without thought. Yes.
• The world tilted.
• A memory. But not hers. Not entirely.
• Blood. Fire. A battlefield of stone and claw.
• A massive wolf, torn open and dying.
• Her—this version of her—kneeling at his side, eyes glowing with threads of light, vines of gold wrapping around her hands as she chanted in a language older than breath.
• His hand reached for her, not to pull—but to hold.
• Love. Loss. Oaths unspoken.
• Then it vanished.
• She gasped, staggering just slightly.
• And at that moment—he stepped into the cave.
• Ravnir’s POV
• He’d wandered too far again.
• The eastern forest was beyond his territory, untamed and unfamiliar. Ravnir had meant only to hunt. But when the dream struck—silent, vivid, wordless—it pulled him from sleep and left his instincts howling. Something was waiting. Someone.
• He followed the call.
• The trees thickened around him as dawn broke in muted streaks above. His silver hair dampened by mist, he moved like a shadow, guided more by gut than memory. The land dipped where it shouldn’t. Roots parted for a narrow path he’d never seen, descending into the forest’s bones.
• Then he saw it.
• A cave mouth hidden beneath old vines and stone. Not natural. Not forgotten. Hidden on purpose.
• Inside, silence reigned.
• Ravnir entered, and breath left him.
• The chamber was vast—lit by glowing crystals suspended like stars. In its heart lay a still pool, glowing faintly silver. He knew it from old tales.
• The Pool of Mirror.
• But not just any. The Main Pool. The first. Lost to myth.
• And in its center stood a woman.
• Naked, save for a wide leather wristband and leg wrap, she rose from the water like a vision carved of moonlight. Pale gold skin shimmered in the crystalline light. Her long black hair floated around her, curling like smoke, encircling her in a sensual halo.
• She wasn’t beastkind.
• No fur. No claws. No tail.
• Only her eyes marked her—molten gold, steady, ancient.
• She was beautiful in the way fire was: mesmerizing, untouchable. Her form was slender, powerful. Not fragile, but honed—like she had been shaped by duty. Her stance, upright and unashamed, stirred something in him. Not lust.
• Recognition.
• He saw her. And something inside him broke open.
• A flash of memory—of war, of her hands glowing gold as she pressed them to his dying chest. Her voice crying out a name lost to time.
• Then nothing.
• His breath returned.
• Their eyes locked. Neither spoke.
• He took a step, and the air between them pulsed, thick with memory and something more—something old.
• His wolf stirred, not with warning, but with hunger. Not for her body. For what she was to him.
• Though he didn’t understand, he knew this: she was why he’d been called.
• Not the Pool. Not a vision.
• Her.
• And as they stood in sacred stillness, the world shifted again.