When his consciousness returned, the first thing Şehsuvar felt was cold.
Not the cold of the air.
A cold that seeped all the way into his bones.
He tried to move.
He couldn't.
His body was half-buried in mud and splintered wood.
He tried to raise his hand.
There was no response.
He tried to move his legs.
Still, he couldn't.
The taste of blood filled his mouth.
The smell of burps and scorched earth stabbed at his nose.
But strangest of all was the silence.
Şehsuvar couldn't hear gunfire.
Couldn't hear screams.
Couldn't hear explosions.
He knew the battle couldn't possibly be over yet.
That meant his eardrums had probably burst.
He tried to draw a deeper breath.
Pain.
But he was still alive.
His heart beat weakly inside his chest.
Strange.
He didn't feel afraid.
Instead, he felt relieved.
He didn't have to attack anymore.
Didn't have to shoot.
Didn't have to kill.
If he died, another young man would take his place.
His duty was done.
For the first time in a very long while, Şehsuvar wanted nothing more than to sleep.
Maybe this was the end.
He closed his eyes.
But a short while later, something pulled his body out of the mud.
Şehsuvar didn't know who had saved him.
His body was laid flat on its back so he could breathe.
He opened his eyes.
At first, all he could see was a shadow.
Then the shadow slowly became a person.
A woman.
Not a member of his unit.
Not a military nurse.
Not an officer.
An ordinary woman couldn't possibly be in a place like this.
Especially not dressed like that.
She wore a beautiful coat that looked far too luxurious for a battlefield. Her clothes were clean, almost entirely free of mud, as though the explosions and hail of bullets had never touched her.
She appeared to be advanced in age.
Yet there was something about her face that made age feel meaningless.
She had the bearing of a noblewoman from an age long gone.
Şehsuvar stared into her eyes.
Grayish green.
Their color resembled a fir forest shrouded in mist.
There was a strange depth in them.
As though the woman kept an ancient forest behind her eyes.
Her skin was extraordinarily white.
Not pale like a sick person.
More like something that was never meant to be touched by sunlight.
Her long hair was tied low at the nape of her neck. A few strands had come loose and moved gently in the wind.
The woman looked Şehsuvar up and down.
Calmly.
Without haste.
As though she were making certain of something.
As though she had been searching for someone.
And had finally found him.
The woman's lips moved.
The voice that came out was very soft.
“Ah... you'll do.”
Şehsuvar wanted to ask who she was.
No sound came from his throat.
The woman raised her hand.
Her movement was so gentle that it felt utterly out of place on a battlefield.
The tip of her index finger touched Şehsuvar's forehead.
Precisely between his eyebrows.
In the next instant, all the strength left Şehsuvar's body.
But there was no pain.
Instead, warmth flowed through his entire body.
It felt like sinking into warm water.
Peaceful.
Light.
Almost like sleep.
The gray sky vanished.
The battlefield disappeared.
In its place stretched long clouds in colors he had never seen before.
Red.
Blue.
Green.
Purple.
Gold.
The colors mingled like a rainbow trapped inside the mist.
Şehsuvar tried to fight back.
His body no longer obeyed his commands.
The clouds moved closer.
Enveloping him.
His hands began to disappear.
Then his arms.
His chest.
His legs.
Little by little, Şehsuvar's body dissolved into the prismatic colors.
The boundary between him and the clouds disappeared.
Before his consciousness vanished completely, he caught one last glimpse of the woman.
She was still standing in the same place.
Calm.
Silent.
As though what was happening were something she had done many times before.
Then everything turned white.