The stars vanished the night Kael's world ended.
Not because of clouds, nor the rising of a moon too bright but because smoke, ash, and flame swallowed the heavens above the quiet village of Valen. That evening should have been like any other. The villagers were finishing their evening meals, children laughed and chased each other near the well, and Kael had just returned from chopping wood in the forest, arms sore but spirit light.
He remembered clearly the warmth of the hearth, the scent of his mother's stew, and the tired smile on his father's face. That memory would soon be all that remained.
The first arrow hit the chapel.
It burned with an unnatural flame violet and black, not of this world. Screams followed. Then came the soldiers, cloaked in black steel and marked with a crimson dragon across their chests: the crest of the Velkar Empire.
Chaos erupted like a dam had burst. Buildings caught fire within seconds. Horses trampled fleeing peasants. Soldiers cut down anyone who resisted, their blades flashing beneath the hellish glow of the burning sky.
Kael stood frozen, clutching a bucket of water, unable to comprehend the nightmare unfolding around him.
"Kael! Run!" his mother screamed, shoving him aside just as a burning beam collapsed from their home's roof. She pushed him hard so hard he rolled into the dirt.
When he scrambled up, the house was collapsing in flames. He never saw her again.
Kael ran. He didn't think. He didn't cry. His legs carried him to the forest as shouts and screams echoed behind him. From the treeline, he watched the only home he had ever known consumed by fire.
He would never forget the silence that followed. The kind of silence that fills your lungs when your soul has nowhere left to scream.
He wandered for three days.
No food. No water. No sleep. Just the whispering wind and the ache of emptiness where his heart used to be. Something inside him had broken, and what remained was hollow, cracked, and waiting to be filled.
On the fourth day, Kael stumbled into a strange mist deep within the Elderglen Woods a mist that shimmered despite the sunlight above. It was cold and thick, curling like fingers. The deeper he walked, the quieter the world became.
And then he saw her.
A lone cottage sat in a clearing at the center of the mist, crooked and ancient, surrounded by statues of grotesque beasts carved from black stone. At first he thought it abandoned, until the door creaked open and a voice like velvet over steel called out:
"You should not be alive, boy."
He turned to face the figure in the doorway. She was draped in midnight blue, her long silver hair flowing behind her like water. Her eyes were violet, glowing faintly, and her gaze pierced through him.
Kael fell to his knees.
"I don't care if I die," he whispered. "But before I do, I want the power to burn the Velkar Empire to ash."
The woman stared at him, and for a moment, silence reigned once more.
Then, she stepped aside. "Then come inside, Kael of Valen. If it's power you seek… you will find it here. But threshold once you walk this path, there is no return. You will never be that boy again."
Kael rose without hesitation.
He stepped across the threshold.