My last memory was the screech of tires, the shattering of glass, and the crushing impact of metal. A stupid, mundane end on a rainy highway. My name was Leo. I was a nobody. A retail worker, an orphan, a ghost in the machine of a world that wouldn't miss me.
The darkness that followed was absolute. A silent, timeless void.
Then, a voice. Not a sound, but a feeling, immense and ancient, woven into the fabric of reality itself.
"A soul adrift. A vessel empty. A will, unbroken by an unjust end. You are needed."
Light. Not the sterile fluorescence of a hospital, but a golden, living radiance that poured into me, rebuilding me atom by atom. I felt myself being pulled, woven into a new tapestry of life and energy. I had a body again. Small. Weak. Helpless.
I heard new voices, frantic and worried. "He's not breathing! Goddess Eva, please!"
A sharp slap on my back, and I drew my first breath in this new world, my scream joining the cacophony of life around me.
They named me Kaelen. I was left on the steps of a modest church in a quiet town, a child of unknown origin. An orphan, again.