It was a plague unlike any other sickness their tiny village had known. The elders of the village stated it was a curse placed thousands of years before then, placed on their ancestors for building on some forgotten sacred or cursed lands. The sickness was slow, spreading across the skin and tainting it with a sickly discoloration, sapping the victim of their vitality. There were no survivors of those infected, but victims had claimed nightmares of a spirit realm and dark shadowy entities lurking just beyond the veil of life. As the illness progressed, the victims seemed to fully submit to the spirit realm, binding their souls to the in-between lands. In its final stages, the victim's soul was severed from their body leaving a lifeless husk in its wake.

Village healers tried to cure Talya, but nothing could halt the sickness. As her illness advanced, she too saw the visions of the spirits and described the creates that no mortal could see. She fought hard, but lost her life in the arms of her twin sister, Nadja, two months after she fell ill. Her soul did not pass to the spirit realm, however. Instead, it fused with Nadja's creating a powerful connection between the sisters and between the realms.