"Sometimes it is the most broken souls that bear the greatest destinies."
They say that the gods departed from the world, when mankind forgot to fear them. But there was one family that never stopped. Not out of faith... but out of terror.
The Draelith were once noble sages of the Kingdom of Alleria, custodians of hidden knowledge and guardians of the balance between magic and soul. But their ambition drove them beyond human limits. Desperate to heal the death of his firstborn, Aelar Draelith, the ancestral patriarch, performed a forbidden rite: a communion with the Void.
The Void responded.
In exchange for returning his son, the Void devoured his lineage... forever.
Since that day, every member born of Draelith blood carries a curse impossible to purify. There is no physical mark or visible deformity... only a dark echo that manifests itself as they grow: a voice whispering from deep within their mind, a cold that cannot be sheltered, a slow and cruel drive to destroy what they love most.
But that's not the worst part.
The curse is not limited to their blood. He who stays near a Draelith too long... changes. Becomes tainted. He loses memories. He dreams of things he never lived. And, over time, his will is twisted, as if the Void is rewriting his soul.
That is why the Draelith are feared. That is why, though many of them have committed no crime, they are hunted and isolated.
But the story does not begin with Aelar. Not even with the first victim of the echo.
The story begins much later...
They say the world is full of light, of hope, of dreams just waiting to be achieved. But there are corners where darkness is not a visitor: it is the only resident.
Kael didn't know it yet. He was just a child.
They lived in a lonely hut, on the edge of the last forest before the desert. They didn't have much, but it was enough — firewood, bread… and stories. His mother cared for them tenderly, though her gaze was lost more and more often in the silence of the afternoon. Sometimes, when she thought her children were asleep, she would talk to herself in front of the mirror. Or to the emptiness.
"If someday I don't wake up... don't look for me. I'll be too far away by then."
Kael laughed when she said strange things. Vael didn't. He always listened in silence.
Curses were tales to frighten children, so they said in the village. But his mother didn't laugh when they talked about them. Hers was not visible. It left no marks on the skin, no blood on the sheets. But she would take it away, little by little. Sometimes she forgot words. Sometimes her hands trembled. Sometimes she would stand still for minutes at a time, staring into the fire as if it could speak to her.
"I promise... to take care of Kael," was the last thing he said to Vael one night, with a broken smile.
The next morning, she didn't wake up.
Vael found her. Cold. Gone. Yet still beautiful… She did not cry. He did not cry. He just closed the door, prepared a blanket, and that same night walked into the deepest forest, carrying her in his arms.
He did not build a grave. He didn't say words. He just left her in a clearing where the shadows were so thick that not even the sun dared to look.
When Kael asked about her, Vael answered without hesitation:
-She left. She said she needed to leave. That someday she will return.
Days passed. Then weeks. Kael ached, but wanted to believe. Until something in the wind changed.
One day, while scouting, he came to the clearing. There, under old leaves and twisted roots, there were still traces: a lock of hair, the fabric of a dress, the pendant his mother never took off.
-No... -he whispered. But he already knew.
Vael appeared behind him, not seeking to hide.
-Why did you hide it from me? -Kael cried, tears burning hotter than the sun.
-Because you still needed something to protect, answered Vael, his voice as cold as the night.
-She was our mother! I had a right to know!
-And I had a duty to keep you whole. I didn't do it for me, Kael.
Silence.
Kael fell to his knees. The leaves rustled under his clenched fist.
-I swear... -I swear I'll end it all. All of it. The curse... no one else should have to carry this.
Vael did not answer. He just looked at him. Because he knew that, even if he didn't notice it yet, the curse had already reached him too.