The night air was cold. The stars looked strange, like they were watching.
Kael Daris ran across the desert. The wind pushed hard behind him. In his bag, the small stone he found in the old temple glowed softly. It felt cold. Almost alive.
He didn't know what the stone was, but it had power. He had touched it, and now he couldn't forget the voices and pictures it had shown him.
Suddenly, someone stood in his path.
A tall man, wearing dark robes and a mask, waited in the sand. He had two curved swords on his back. His eyes were black and still.
"You should not be here, Kael," the man said.
Kael stepped back. "How do you know my name?
"I know many things. You touched the Echo Stone. That was a mistake."
Kael reached for his knife. "I didn't steal it.
"You woke something that should have stayed asleep," the man said. "That stone is cursed."
Lightning flashed in the sky. For a second, Kael saw something under the man's mask- a strange glowing symbol on his face.
Kael's heart dropped. "You… you're one of the Hollow King's people."
The man nodded. "I was. My name is Thayen. I left him… because I learned the truth."
Thayen threw something into the sand. It was a burned medal with a mark—Kael knew it from his dreams.
"They are coming for you, Kael. You are not just a treasure hunter. You are the last Echo. And the King wants you dead."
Kael shook his head. "Why? What does he want?"
Thayen looked at the sky. "Not the stone. The memories inside it. The truth about what he did long ago. The truth he doesn't want anyone to know."
Kael didn't know what to believe.
"Why should I trust you?" he asked.
Thayen cut his hand with his sword. Black blood came out—but when it hit the sand, it turned gold.
"I followed the King once," Thayen said. "Then I saw what he really was."
Later that night, they sat by a small fire. Thayen gave Kael old bread and water.
"You said I'm from the First Voice," Kael said. "I don't know anything about that."
"They erased your past," Thayen answered. "But the Echo Stone remembers it. It shows you what they tried to hide."
Kael frowned. "So, the Hollow King will keep coming?"
"He already sent someone," Thayen said. "Her name is Neriah. She is very dangerous. And she is my sister."
At that moment, a strange sound came from the wind. A soft whistle.
"She's close," Thayen said, standing quickly.
"We must go."
That night, Kael dreamed again.
He saw a throne made of sand, and people calling his name. He saw his hands covered in blood. He heard someone say, "All of this will be yours… if you survive."
When Kael woke up, the fire was cold. Thayen was gone.
On the ground, Kael found a blood-stained piece of metal—part of Sahira's blade. Next to it was a scroll wrapped in cloth.
Kael opened it. The message said:
"Do not trust anyone.
Go to the Temple of Mirrors before the King finds it.
Your past will destroy you if you wait."
Kael closed his hand around the Echo Stone. He looked at the sky. The sun was rising.
"I don't know who I really am," he said to the wind. "But I will find out."
Then he started walking toward the east, where the old maps showed the Temple of Mirrors.
End of Chapter 2