Читать книгу Universe Aeternov. Book two. The Shadow that Remembers the Light - Группа авторов - Страница 11

“The real strength is not in not falling.

It’s about falling down and hearing the earth whisper…

and realizing that it hasn’t betrayed you.

She was just waiting for you to learn how to listen.”

1. THE TEST OF FAITH

Alina has been studying at the School of Bright Paths for three months now.

She knew all the basic forms of Shaolin styles.

She could disappear into thin air like an exhalation.

She was able to stop a punch from a distance without touching the opponent.

But Master Li Jiang still wouldn’t let her go on real missions.

“You can move,” he said. – But you don’t feel fear. A fight is not a dance for the audience. Combat is a dialogue with pain. And you still haven’t learned how to listen to someone else’s pain… without hiding your own.

Alina said nothing. There’s resentment in my chest.

“Why does everyone believe in me as a hope… but not as a warrior”?

That night, she made a decision.

2. THE SHADOW AT THE GATE.

At the edge of the Lotus Dimension, a crack appeared where reality was thinning.

The Shadow of Fate crawled out of her – not just a monster, but a reflection of the fallen Chronos from one of the alternate lines.

She didn’t scream.

She was calling:

– Alina… You know you’re not welcome here. You’re a mistake. Your world was erased because it was weak. And you… you’re just a shadow. The shadow of a shadow.

Alina froze.

Those words weren’t a threat.

These were her own fears, clothed in flesh.

But she came out to meet me anyway.

“I’m not afraid of you,” she said, taking up a Shaolin-style stance. – I came to show that even a shadow can choose light.

The shadow smiled and attacked.

3. THE FIGHT THAT DID NOT BECOME A VICTORY.

Alina threw everything she had learned into the fight.:

• Wind Dance – escapes from blows, light as a leaf in a hurricane;

• Fist of the Heart – blows aimed not at the body, but at pain;

• Embrace of Silence – attempts to stop the enemy without destroying.

But the Shadow of Fate was not human.

She was a void clothed in memory.

Each of her blows is a question:

“Why do you exist at all”?

“Who loves you, even if your father chose another world”?

“Will you save them? Or will you just postpone the fall a little?

“Alina continued to move, the technique remained impeccable, but her soul was trembling.

And when she tried to apply the final technique, “Homecoming,” in which the opponent stops himself, remembering his childhood, the Shadow laughed.

“I don’t have a childhood, – she whispered. “I only have your fault.”

And she grabbed Alina by the throat, not with her hand, but with a memory:

the moment when Andrei erased her homeworld in order to save others.

Alina fell.

Not from physical pain. From a broken heart.

4. DEFEAT.

A shadow loomed over her.

“You are not a warrior,” she said. “You’re an echo. And the echo can’t beat the silence.

She didn’t finish it.

She’s gone.

She left Alina lying in the dust, in a torn suit, with her chrono code out.

When Master Li Jiang found her, she was crying – not ordinary tears, but the sand of time flowing out of her eyes.

“I lost, – she whispered. “I don’t deserve to be an Avatar.”

The master sat down next to him. He did not comfort or scold.

– Did you think that fighting is a way to prove your strength? “What is it?” he asked softly. – no. Combat is a mirror. And today, for the first time, you didn’t see him as an enemy. Myself.

“But I couldn’t do it,” Alina said.

“You survived, – the Master replied. – And this is already a victory for someone who is still learning to be human.

He helped her up.

– Tomorrow we will not start with punches. And with silence. Because before you stop someone else’s pain… you need to stop being afraid of your own.

5. A LESSON IN SILENCE

The next day, Alina did not go to the “Hall Without Shadows”.

She was sitting in the “Garden of Pulses”, among the trees that had grown out of frozen moments.

She didn’t practice.

She was listening.

I listened to the pulse of time.

I listened to the whisper of the Shadow of Fate – not as a threat, but as a cry.

She listened to her heart, not as a weakness, but as a compass.

And gradually I began to understand:

The Shadow of Fate did not want to destroy it.

She wanted Alina to hear:

“I want to go home too.”

THE END OF THE CHAPTER.

In the evening, Alina returned to Master Li.

“I’m ready to learn anew,” she said. “Not as a warrior. Like someone who’s afraid… but goes ahead anyway.

The Master nodded.

“Then you won’t start tomorrow with a punch,” he said. – And with a hug.

He smiled out of the corner of his mouth.

– In this universe, the strongest is not the one who defeats the enemy. And the one who doesn’t turn him into an enemy.

Somewhere in the depths of the Black Abyss, the Shadow of Fate froze.

And a tiny spark flashed in her empty eye sockets.

Not the light.

The hope of forgiveness.