Chapter 64: The Voice That Should Not Exist

Daemon tilted his head and looked at everyone standing near the Solitary Gate.

Victoria. Sana. Roxanna.

All familiar.

Then his eyes narrowed.

A small black bat sat calmly on Victoria’s shoulder, wings folded as if it had every right to be there. The System alert from earlier flashed through his mind again.

One Virendal native was attempting to cross with them.

Daemon’s gaze locked onto the bat.

"...So it was you."

The bat tilted its head innocently, almost too innocently.

Daemon turned toward Victoria at once.

"She is not coming."

Victoria blinked.

"What?"

Daemon pointed at Calista.

"She stays in Virendal. That world is not like this one. Earth is noisy, crowded, and full of people who will panic if they see a talking bat... or a masked girl appearing out of nowhere."

Calista flapped her wings once, clearly unimpressed.

Then she hopped closer along Victoria’s shoulder and stared at Daemon with stubborn intensity, as if daring him to finish his sentence.

Sana raised an eyebrow.

"I think she just said no."

"She did not say anything," Daemon replied.

"She said it with her whole body," Sana muttered.

Roxanna covered her mouth lightly, already sensing where this was going.

Daemon reached out, intending to gently remove the bat from Victoria’s shoulder.

"Calista, listen. Stay"

The moment his fingers got close, the tiny bat lunged forward and bit his finger.

"Ah!"

Daemon pulled his hand back at once.

Victoria’s eyes widened.

"Did she just bite you?"

Daemon stared at his finger in disbelief.

"...She bit me."

Calista sat there proudly, chest puffed up as much as a bat’s body allowed, as if she had won a great victory in battle.

Sana burst out laughing.

"She has the same temper as Victoria."

Victoria turned sharply.

"What did you just say?"

"Nothing," Sana said immediately, still smiling. "Absolutely nothing."

Daemon rubbed his finger and looked at the bat again.

"You cannot come. That is final."

Calista hopped forward and bit the air near his hand again, threatening a second attack with complete seriousness.

Victoria stepped between them at once.

"Enough."

She carefully scooped Calista into her hands. The bat struggled for half a second, then settled the moment she realized who was holding her.

Her tiny body relaxed against Victoria’s palm as if that had been the plan all along.

Victoria looked at Daemon.

"She is coming with us."

"Victoria"

"I will take responsibility for her," Victoria said clearly. "If anyone asks, she is my pet. If she causes trouble, I will handle it."

Calista immediately made a soft satisfied sound and pressed closer against Victoria’s palm, rubbing her head lightly against Victoria’s fingers.

Before Daemon could argue further, Queen Morwenna’s earlier words returned to him.

If you bring Calista with you, you must take care of her. She may look like an adult girl... but she is a child.

Neither Daemon nor Victoria had fully understood that part at the time.

An adult appearance, a childish nature, and a stubborn will none of it fit together cleanly. Even so, Victoria had already answered without hesitation.

"I will always stay by her side," she had said. "And I will bring her back with me."

Daemon exhaled slowly.

"...Fine. But if she bites anyone on Earth, you are explaining it."

Victoria lifted Calista slightly, calm and confident.

"She will behave."

Calista bit the edge of Victoria’s sleeve, lightly this time, almost like a teasing nibble.

Victoria glanced down at her.

"...Mostly."

Sana leaned toward Roxanna and whispered,

"Victoria gained a daughter in under one minute."

Roxanna whispered back,

"Please do not say that where she can hear you."

When they returned through the Solitary Gate, the portal opened near Victoria’s house.

The familiar street, the quiet walls, and the ordinary air of Earth settled around them at once.

After Virendal’s living forests and silver light, the difference was sharp enough to feel in the lungs.

The sky was dimmer. The sounds were mechanical. The world felt smaller, denser, and far less magical.

Daemon stepped forward first, ready to enter the house.

Victoria suddenly caught his hand.

"No."

He turned.

"This place is not safe," Victoria said. "We cannot stay here."

Daemon looked at the others, then back at her. After everything involving Kael, Apex Guild, and the attacks already made against them, he did not need a long explanation.

"Then we need a bigger house."

Victoria nodded.

"I have a place. Come. We will take the car."

A few minutes later, Daemon was behind the wheel.

Roxanna sat beside him in the front passenger seat, her new shaft carefully stored away and her posture still carrying the quiet grace she had gained in Elorian.

In the back seat were Sana and Victoria, with Calista still in bat form on Victoria’s shoulder, watching every passing light with intense curiosity.

The city moved around them in streams of headlights and neon signs. Evening traffic flowed steadily, and the low hum of the engine filled the short silences between conversation.

Daemon glanced at the rear view mirror.

"Sana."

"Hm?"

"Once we reach the new place, you and Lucien start preparing. Tomorrow, I want you both to begin watching Apex Guild. Find Kassia’s location."

Sana’s expression sharpened at once. The playful air around her faded into focus.

"Yes. Leave it to us. By tomorrow, you will know where she is."

Daemon’s fingers tightened around the steering wheel.

Kassia.

The name alone was enough to pull his thoughts into darker places. Every delay felt heavier now. Every lead mattered.

The idea that she might still be trapped somewhere under Apex’s control made the ordinary city outside the window feel almost unreal.

Roxanna glanced at him sideways but said nothing. She could see the change in his grip clearly enough.

Then, without warning, red mist filled the inside of the car.

"What?!"

Sana jerked back against her seat.

Roxanna turned sharply, one hand already rising on instinct.

Victoria’s eyes widened, though she did not panic.

The mist twisted, condensed, and reshaped itself in the narrow space near the window.

For a second, the interior of the car glowed faintly crimson. In the next moment, the small bat was gone.

A masked girl sat in the back seat instead.

Calista.

She looked out the car window with pure, unrestrained curiosity. Her masked face turned left and right as buildings, glowing signs, moving cars, and crowds of people passed by.

Everything seemed to amaze her. She pressed closer to the glass like a child seeing a new world for the first time, her posture full of open wonder rather than caution.

The reflections of streetlights slid across her mask as the car moved, and she followed each one as if afraid it might disappear.

Victoria’s expression softened immediately.

Even with the mask covering her face, Calista’s excitement was impossible to miss.

She looked completely absorbed by Earth, as if every light and every moving shape was a treasure placed there only for her.

Then, suddenly, she spoke.

"Bright..."

Everyone froze.

Her voice was soft, clear, and unexpectedly cute like a young girl’s voice hidden inside an adult appearance.

It did not match her height or her presence at all. It matched something younger. Something far more innocent.

Victoria’s eyes lit up at once.

"You can talk."

Calista turned toward her slightly.

"So many lights... so many people..."

Sana stared, stunned out of her usual teasing rhythm.

"Her voice is adorable."

Roxanna nodded, equally surprised.

"It really is. I did not expect that at all."

Victoria smiled, unable to hide her delight.

"Finally. You talk."

Calista pointed out the window with sudden energy, nearly pressing her whole hand against the glass.

"I want to go there!"

Victoria followed her finger at once.

Outside stood a brightly lit shop with a giant ice cream statue placed near the entrance.

The colorful display was impossible to miss, glowing under warm lights with painted syrup lines and a smiling face that looked almost ridiculous in its cheerfulness.

Victoria immediately leaned forward between the seats.

"Daemon, turn the car. She wants to go to that shop."

But Daemon did not answer.

He was no longer looking at the road.

The moment Calista’s voice first entered his ears, something inside him slipped.

The city disappeared.

The car disappeared.

The steering wheel under his hands lost its weight.

Instead, he found himself in a blurred memory that did not belong to the present.

A small girl was in front of him.

She looked around five or six years old. He could not see her face clearly, nor the place around them. Everything was incomplete, like a broken fragment pulled from deep water.

The edges of the world were faded, and the colors refused to stay still. Yet the feeling was vivid.

He was playing with her.

The little girl laughed and reached toward him, saying something he could almost hear almost, but not fully.

Her voice overlapped strangely with the one he had just heard in the car. The same softness. The same brightness. The same pull in his chest that made no logical sense.

Daemon tried to focus.

He tried to see her face.

He tried to catch the words before they vanished again.

The little girl turned toward him more fully, as if about to call his name

Then

"Daemon! Watch out!"

Roxanna’s shout tore through the vision like a blade.

Daemon’s eyes snapped open