Warmth.
It wrapped around him like a memory, yet felt far too vivid to be one.
Before he could think clearly, a woman's face came into view — soft, glowing in the light. Her long golden hair flowed gently across her shoulders, glimmering like threads of sunlight. Her skin was pale and smooth, untouched by time or hardship. Her lips, red and full, curled into a peaceful smile as she cradled him close to her chest.
Her arms were gentle. Her touch warm.
He could feel her heartbeat. Smell the faint scent of flowers in her hair.
"Is this... how I was born?"
"No... no, this feels far too real... too vivid. This isn't a glimpse of the past."
The air felt different. The sensations were too sharp, too present.
He tried to move — his arms were weak, his body small and soft. Something was at his lips... warm. He was being fed.
"Who is this woman...? Is this my mother?"
The question lingered in his mind, but no answer came. Only more silence... and her soft humming.
He didn't know her.
He didn't know where he was.
All he knew was that he was alive again — reborn into a fragile form, in a world he didn't understand.
As the days passed — or maybe weeks — Suvo began to sense more around him.
There were other voices. A man's voice — strong and reserved. A child's voice — playful and curious.
A family.
His new family.
But to him, they were strangers.
He didn't feel warmth in their touch. He didn't feel joy when they smiled. He didn't feel... anything.
"I don't hate them. But... they're not mine."
They were kind. Gentle. Loving even. But he couldn't connect. Not yet. His heart was locked, his thoughts still tangled in the chaos of death and rebirth.
"Was it all a dream? The war? The Raksa? Lela? The fall of my kingdom?"
"Or was this... the dream?"
"What if none of it was real?"
But then, on nights when the world was quiet, he would look up at the stars from his cradle — and one would shine differently.
That one... I remember that star...
A flicker.
A memory?
Or a sign?
"You are no mortal..."
The whisper returned — faint, gentle, yet impossible to ignore.
Not painful this time. Just... present. Watching. Waiting.
"Who am I really?"
"Was I only King Suvo… or something else?"
And still, he watched.
He listened.
He lay silent in a world full of noise.
He did not cry for his new mother. He did not reach for his sister. He did not smile at his father.
"I will learn about this world."
"And when the time comes... I will remember who I am."
[End of Chapter 3]