Once upon a time, in a land far removed from the ordinary world, there was a kingdom named Evershade. But this kingdom was unlike any other, for every morning, as the sun peeked over the horizon, the people would groan in despair. They had lost the joy of waking up, for their days were filled with misery and torment, as if a curse had fallen upon the land.
The curse began with the King, a man of great ambition, who once sought to conquer realms far beyond his borders. But in his quest for power, he wronged an ancient being—a keeper of time itself. The being warned him, “Do not seek what is beyond your reach, for if you do, time itself will turn against you.” But the King, blinded by greed, ignored the warning and pressed on.
And so, the curse fell upon Evershade. Time fractured, looping the worst moments of each person’s life. Every single day, the people relived their deepest fears, regrets, and sufferings. No matter how hard they tried, they could not escape this endless cycle. They awoke each morning knowing it would be another day of the same pain, the same heartache. No joy could pierce through the cloud of despair that hung over the kingdom.
In the heart of this misery lived a young woman named Elara. She had seen the curse ruin lives, drive people to madness, and strip away any hope. But Elara, unlike others, had a strange resolve. She had heard the stories of the curse’s origin, whispered through the alleys, and she believed that the key to breaking it lay not in facing each agonizing day but in escaping it entirely.
One night, while the kingdom lay restless in their cursed dreams, Elara found a forgotten book buried deep in the royal library. It spoke of a place beyond the fabric of time, where one could step outside the loop and leave the waking world behind. It was a dangerous journey, one that only the bravest could undertake, for it required an ultimate sacrifice—the surrender of one’s life in the waking world to live forever in the realm of dreams.
Elara pondered this deeply. The idea of never waking up to face another day in Evershade seemed almost like a blessing. And so, she set out on a quest to find the portal to the dream realm. She traveled through dark forests, crossed treacherous mountains, and finally, she stood before the entrance—a shimmering veil that pulsed with the energy of dreams.
With one last look back at her world, she stepped through.
In the realm of dreams, she found peace. Time did not exist here; there were no cycles of pain, no suffering. It was a world of endless possibilities, where one could shape their reality as they wished. Elara never returned to the waking world, and soon, tales of her choice spread throughout Evershade.
The people of the kingdom, too, began to seek the dream realm, one by one, escaping the cursed cycle of their days. The kingdom fell silent, empty of souls, as they chose the eternal solace of dreams over the torment of waking life.
And so, Evershade became a land of shadows, where time no longer mattered, and waking up was no longer a necessity.