The prison walls trembled with silence. Dust hung like ghosts in the air, and somewhere beyond the cracks in the stone, faint golden light flickered—like a warning of something sacred... or cursed.
Kael sat across from Sunny, his gaze unreadable. In his hand, he held something. It wasn't a weapon, nor was it glowing with power. In fact, it looked almost invisible. But Sunny felt it—like it was bending reality around it.
Kael extended his hand.
"Take it," he said quietly.
Sunny hesitated. "What is it?"
"A key," Kael whispered. "To change reality. Not in the way you think. It doesn't respond to your will... it responds to collective desire. It only changes the world if people truly want it to change."
Sunny's brows drew together. "Then why didn't you use it before?"
Kael didn't answer.
Instead, he looked down, lost in thought—as if torn between memory and regret.
After a long pause, he spoke. "There was someone… my brother."
Sunny leaned in slightly.
"He was born a believer," Kael said. "Not in gods or temples, but in the idea that people could be good. He thought faith and love could coexist. But that belief shattered when he fell in love with someone from outside his world. Someone not of his religion. Someone... different."
Kael's voice darkened.
"When people found out what he believed, they turned on him. The one he loved... betrayed him. Told them everything. They dragged him to be sacrificed, said he was a heretic who mocked their god."
Sunny's hands clenched.
"But just before the final blow… Amon appeared," Kael said, almost reverently. "He didn't save my brother out of kindness. He saved him because he was proof. Proof that even love could be punished. That even belief has limits. Amon gave him this object. Made him its protector."
Kael finally looked up. "But my brother never used it. He believed… people didn't want to change."
Silence filled the space like water rising in a sealed room.
Sunny stared at the object.
"And now?" he asked. "What if they do?"
Kael stood up, voice soft but heavy. "Then let the world prove it."