Victor Lara's birth was nothing special in the grand scheme of the world. On a chilly autumn evening in the small town of Evershade, his mother, Elena, held him for the first time. The midwife had assured her he was a healthy child—fingers and toes all present, eyes full of wonder despite the faint, sleepy veil that seemed to always surround newborns.
But what no one could have known that night was that Victor's entrance into the world was nothing but the beginning of a far larger story. The world into which he was born was only a sliver of the universe. And that universe, bound by time and space as it may have been, had other plans for him—plans that would soon unravel the very fabric of the life he knew.
The night of his birth, the wind howled outside. The air was sharp and biting, the kind that made the autumn leaves dance like ghosts in the streetlights. Elena, weary from hours of labor, lay in the quiet of her bedroom, the small house in Evershade just a dot against the vast dark expanse beyond. Only the flickering candle on the windowsill kept the shadows at bay.
Her husband, Marcus, had fallen asleep beside her, exhausted but relieved. He dreamt of nothing—until he awoke with a start, his eyes wide in terror, though he couldn't remember why. He turned to Elena and saw nothing out of the ordinary. But as his gaze moved to the crib where their son slept, a strange thing happened. The air in the room shifted—almost imperceptibly, like the pressure of a storm building miles away.
Victor stirred in his crib, his tiny hands curling into fists, and his face scrunched up as if in a deep concentration. The flickering candle on the windowsill began to glow brighter, its flame dancing erratically as though it had a life of its own.
Marcus leaned forward, heart pounding in his chest, and as he did, he thought he saw something—a shimmer, a glimmer of movement behind the crib. A strange swirl of light seemed to form in the corner of the room. His pulse quickened, but just as quickly, the light vanished, leaving him to wonder if he had simply imagined it.
He rubbed his eyes and turned back to his wife. She slept soundly, unaware of the strange sensation that had filled the room. Yet, despite the quiet peace, something lingered in the air, like the distant hum of a thunderstorm waiting to break.
Victor grew quickly, as children do. He learned to walk at the age of one and was speaking simple sentences by two. But by the time he was six, something was amiss. Not in his behavior—he was, in fact, a curious, cheerful boy—but in his perception of the world. There were moments when the world around him would seem... strange. As if it weren't quite real. He'd often find himself gazing at the edges of objects, at the shadows in corners, certain that something wasn't right, though he couldn't quite place it.
It was on his eighth birthday when the world truly began to unravel.
Victor was running through the forest near his home, a place he often visited to escape the noise and chaos of the village. The trees stretched high, their thick branches weaving together to form a canopy that filtered the sun into shifting pools of light. It was a place where the air felt fresh, alive, and full of stories, though Victor could never quite remember where those stories came from. Sometimes, when he wandered too far, he swore he could hear soft whispers riding the wind, like voices calling his name.
But that day—his eighth birthday—was different.
Victor had wandered deeper into the woods than usual. His feet carried him, almost instinctively, toward a patch of dense foliage that he had never seen before. There, in the middle of a small clearing, stood an archway. It was not made of stone or wood, but of shimmering light, as though it had been woven from the very fabric of the air itself. A door that was not a door.
Victor paused, his breath catching in his chest. The air around the archway hummed with an energy he couldn't describe. It was both foreign and familiar, as if something deep inside him recognized it, but he didn't know what it was.
"Victor," a soft voice whispered. His heart skipped a beat, and he spun around to see if anyone was there. But the clearing was empty.
He stepped closer to the shimmering arch, drawn to it, his instincts screaming at him to leave, but his curiosity pushing him forward. The voice had called his name again, but this time, it came from beyond the doorway.
Before he could think any further, his foot brushed against the edge of the arch, and the world around him blurred.
The next thing Victor knew, he was falling—no, more like floating. His body felt weightless, suspended in a vast space. Colors swirled around him—blues, reds, and golds—like the aurora borealis, but with an intensity that made him dizzy. There was no sound, just the endless, stretching void, and the sensation of being pulled in a thousand different directions at once.
Then, with a sudden jerk, he landed. Not gently, but as if the ground itself had caught him mid-fall and shoved him into it. He rolled to his feet, but as he did, he looked around, his heart pounding in his chest.
He was no longer in the forest. The trees, the familiar air, the village... all of it was gone. Instead, he stood in the middle of a grand, open courtyard. Towering stone walls rose around him, and a high stone castle loomed in the distance. The air was heavy with the scent of earth and iron, and the sky above was an endless expanse of deep, swirling clouds.
Victor's breath caught in his throat as he took in the strange new world around him. Was this a dream? No, it felt too real. Too... tangible.
A shadow moved across the courtyard, and Victor turned to see a figure emerging from the darkness. A man in long, flowing robes, carrying a sword at his side. His eyes locked onto Victor, and a strange smile crept across his face.
"You've arrived," the man said softly, his voice carrying an ancient weight. "It's time for you to remember who you truly are."
Victor had no idea what that meant. But something deep within him stirred—something ancient, something powerful. The boy from Evershade was gone. And in his place, a new version of Victor Lara had been born. One who would face magic, swords, and mysteries that would change everything he had ever known.
But first, he would need to survive the beginning of this strange, new world