**Mistery Place**

"Every man who has done something great has been guided by the subconscious." Orison Swett Marden

Meanwhile, deep within the Black Forest, Killian, who had awakened as soon as the sun appeared on the horizon, was calmly looking at the items still left in his backpack. He was making sure once again that he hadn't forgotten anything and that the rations, now reduced after sharing with Ruby, would last until he found a nearby village within the Black Forest, in the territory of Korya.

Once he was certain and had repacked all the items, he noticed Ruby, in her form of a small white cat, staring at him with curiosity. Knowing he couldn't communicate with her in a way she would understand, he gently picked her up, placed her in his lap, and said:

"We have to go now or we'll run out of supplies before leaving the forest! And there's one more thing: although I'm almost sure, I don't know if I'm really heading in the right direction!" he said, while the little cat in his arms looked at him alarmedly.

Carefully, he found another, safer way to descend the mountain and began to follow the direction the compass pointed. A few miles ahead, still following his route, he heard a sound that seemed to be a waterfall or running water. He decided to make a small detour and slowly approached the source of the sound.

After entering what appeared to be a passage in the mountain and avoiding some giant rocks, he found himself facing a paradisiacal scene. It was a waterfall, but the water running through it seemed to be filled with gold dust. Exotic plants and magical beings that were part of that beautiful scene did not notice his presence. Small creatures with wings shining in an almost golden hue, similar to humans but too small—fairies, he thought! Besides the supposed fairies, in the golden lake formed under the waterfall, there were fish that looked like carp, but with scales resembling diamonds. He noticed that the rocks around, or even the plants he had only described as exotic, looked like precious stones!

The environment seemed like a treasure-made paradise! Ruby, as amazed as he was, jumped from his arms to the ground. She began to play with the fine, bright, and golden sand that made up the ground in that place. When Killian bent down to touch this sand, he realized: it was gold! Gold dust mixed with other precious metals, a beautiful and invaluable combination that perfectly matched that place.

Despite the stunning beauty of that place, which seemed never to have been discovered or explored before, Killian didn't feel any danger, and the beings there seemed too preoccupied with themselves. Then he remembered that he hadn't bathed in three days, and looking at that golden sparkling water, he thought: it shouldn't do any harm! He undressed, which made little Ruby, who was now playing with a fairy desperately trying to escape her clutches, stop for a moment, worried about him.

Upon entering that water, he felt as if he was being hugged by it, not just any hug; that water brought the sensation of a fraternal and intense embrace, almost like a mother's, he thought. But he soon remembered he had no idea what it felt like to be hugged by a mother. At that moment, now submerged in the waters, he began to see within the water an adult woman, with olive-toned skin, long black hair dancing in the water, and green-amber eyes. She wore a long white dress that also floated in a dance like her hair. Finally, she seemed to notice that he was staring at her and, with a gentle gesture, looked at him with tenderness, expressed a calming smile, and then disappeared as if erased by a strong golden light.

He then surfaced and looked for the woman around, but there was no one. However, Ruby and some of the fairies from that place were at the edge of the lake, looking at him with an expression of astonishment and concern. Instinctively, he raised his hands and waved at them, then turned and began to swim again in the water. Shortly after, feeling completely embraced by the waters, he decided to dive again, go deeper. So he did, but forced himself to keep his eyes open. That's when he saw a blue glow standing out, coming from the bottom of the lake.

He had never been an excellent swimmer, but he risked diving deeper to check what that glow was. As he approached, he saw that it wasn't something solid but seemed more like the flow of some liquid that also wasn't a liquid, something he couldn't explain. That's when this blue light began to surround him. He panicked and let some of the air he was holding escape, releasing even more a sense of urgency. This sensation mixed with the comforting wave that the water brought, leaving him in a state of doubt about what to do. It had been a while since he felt uncertain about something. He instinctively thought: I wish my mother could tell me what to do next. But before this thought could complete in his mind, the blue light surrounding him began to settle on his skin, and in a moment, he was glowing, glowing blue like the light he had seen before.

He thought about swimming out of the lake and getting rid of it, but he couldn't move. Then the light became more intense, so intense that it made him close his eyes. At that moment, he found himself in another place, a kind of room where the sky and the ground seemed like a single thing. Although it was a place, it didn't seem finite, generating in Killian a mix of fear and admiration. Then, at that moment, a figure appeared in front of him: himself.

A second version of himself, as if he was looking directly into a mirror that was his image but didn't necessarily reflect his reactions or actions. He tried to move away from it, but it wasn't like he could move in that place. And then the mirrored version of him, which until then had been standing still observing him, spoke:

"So this is how you finally got here," said the mirrored Killian. But Killian, shocked to hear his own voice and be in the midst of all that irrational situation, immediately responded:

"I died… So it means I died in that lake." Upon hearing Killian's words, the mirrored Killian laughed and then said:

"You didn't die, we haven't died yet! It just seems that finally you managed to unlock an inner part of you that many don't reach. I'm talking about myself in this case!" he said, pointing to himself.

Killian, still intrigued and not understanding the facts, said:

"If you and I are the same person, as you say, how am I talking to you? And what's this about unlocking a part of me? Does that mean you were sealed or something?" he said, placing his hand on his head in an attempt to understand the situation.

Then the mirrored Killian said:

"Few people, when they evolve themselves, find various versions of themselves: an evil version, a childish version, an older version. Anyway, we are the subconscious taking shape to talk to the whole self," he said, sitting on nothing, suspended in that place that didn't seem to have a beginning or end, sky or ground.

Trying to organize his thoughts, Killian said:

"So you are my subconscious. I see. But I don't think I've evolved that much to know or talk to my subconscious…" Before he could complete his reasoning, the mirrored Killian said:

"Yeah, it's good that you understand that you're not an evolved being!" he said coldly and continued, "What happens is that you found an anomaly, a shortcut… Well, I can say that, something that would be unlocked in you in the future but found you first."

This time, Killian interrupted and said:

"What do you mean by shortcut? Unlocked in the future? I just saw a light and went to see what it was…"

The mirrored Killian looked at the original as if he was looking at an ignorant person and then said:

"A lot that should be said, or rather, explained, can't be explained now because it would be beyond your comprehension at the moment. And honestly, I don't know what you would do if you knew everything at once. What I can anticipate for you in this encounter is that your destiny found you before you were ready to conquer it. And now, you and this power that is already within you, though immature and limited, will have to grow and evolve together."

Killian tried to understand what he had just heard, but before he could say anything, he opened his eyes. He was still in the golden lake, but there was no more blue light. Suddenly, he began to feel suffocated like someone who holds their breath for too long, so he quickly swam to the surface.

When he reached the surface, Ruby, who had taken on a human form, was crying desperately while being comforted by the fairies she had been chasing moments before. When everyone noticed he was coming out of the lake, they looked at him with deep astonishment. Then he said:

"Come on, guys, what is it?" The probable encounter with his subconscious or a supposed hallucination caused by possible lack of oxygen he had experienced moments before was enough. Now the fairies and Ruby were staring at him in shock.

Then he thought: "Am I glowing blue like that time?" So he began to examine himself, but everything seemed normal. He approached Ruby, extended his hand to caress her hair, and said:

"Sorry, you must be scared and crying because you thought I drowned! But I'm fine, see!" he said, pointing to himself.

At that moment, in silence, Ruby approached him and extended her hands to Killian's eyes, making a confused expression. The fairies around also seemed to be looking at something in his eyes, astonished. Then he decided to take the mirror out of his backpack in an attempt to understand what all that shock was about.

He went to the backpack, finished dressing, and then took the mirror. When he checked his reflection, he was amazed to see that one of his eyes was still normal and characteristic of the Ashrose family in its very light blue, almost gray. But the other eye, his left eye, had completely changed. Now, it had a translucent glow in the cornea, followed by a sclera that, instead of being white, was the color of pure gold. His iris resembled a faceted sapphire in its vibrant blue hue, and in his pupil, there was a vortex that seemed to sweep the golden and blue tones into its black interior. There were many details, his eye looked like a precious and magical stone. And it was astonishing to him, why suddenly?

So he decided to look back at the fairies and Ruby, testing if there was a difference in his visual perspective between the two eyes. He tested his right eye first, closing the left, and everything was the same. Then he did the opposite and noticed a slight difference: with his left eye, he seemed to see a spectrum of light in living beings, with different colors for species and different sizes of the light wave between beings of the same species. He couldn't understand. But the fairies began to get agitated when one of them finally said:

"You're not just a simple human, are you?" Puzzled by this question, he quickly replied:

"I am human, I just don't know what happened! I dove, saw a blue light, and now I'm like this!" He seemed intrigued, and the fairies also seemed to have many doubts. But once again, they said:

"You can't be a simple human, or these waters would have consumed you until nothing was left! And you were just swimming, even dove… For a moment we thought it was a delayed reaction, and then you came out with that strange eye… I've never seen humans with one of those or anyone!" said one of the fairies.

Killian pondered their words, but they didn't make sense. After all, he was human, his father was human, and his mother, even though he hadn't known her, was also human. So there must be another explanation, he thought.

So he simply said:

"Well, as far as I know, I'm human! Besides, I'm as surprised as you! The bath was good, but now I need to get Ruby and get back on my route!" he said, extending his hand to Ruby, who seemed to understand nothing.

Then one of the fairies, suspicious, said:

"You're just going to leave? You don't want to take the gold from here or the precious stones?" she asked, genuinely curious about the fact.

However, Killian looked around at that intriguing and paradisiacal landscape and said:

"I don't have that kind of ambition, and I like this place as it is! Plundering here for precious stones would ruin the place and, without a doubt, take away its beauty and mystery!"

The fairies, in turn, just stared at him, surprised. He then took Ruby by the hand and began to return the way he came. Meanwhile, the fairies continued speculating about everything that happened, affirming to each other that he definitely wasn't human.