Kevin's eyes snapped open.
The air smelled of incense and polished wood. The walls glimmered black and gold, dragons coiling across them like silent sentinels. Candles flickered in gilded holders, casting shadows that danced along the marble floor. He was lying on a bed silk sheets cool against his skin but his body… was not his own.
He sat up abruptly. Panic clawed at him. Every limb felt unfamiliar. His hands were slender, his frame tall and lithe. He looked down at the black-and-gold robe, dragons embroidered across the chest, glimmering in the candlelight.
"Wh… who am I?" His voice was different regal, young, commanding, yet alien. "Where… where am I?"
The door creaked. A maid appeared, bowing low. Her hands trembled as she carried a tray of fruit and tea.
"Your Majesty… you are awake," she said softly.
Kevin's mind spun. Your… Majesty? Awake? He blinked, trying to understand, trying to grasp reality. "I… I am… Your Majesty?" he stammered.
The maid nodded. "Yes, Your Majesty. This is your chamber, in the palace of Vel Dragan. You… you are Emperor Silas Maximus."
Kevin froze. His golden eyes his eyes?reflected the flickering candlelight. Silas Maximus… The name felt foreign on his tongue, yet somehow natural, as though destiny itself had whispered it into his bones.
He looked down at his hands, flexing them. Tall, slim, and young… seventeen, if the numbers he remembered from Silas' life were correct. His mind raced. Strategy, law, politics… everything from his former life surged through him, clashing with the sensation of this new body, this new identity.
The previous Silas… he thought, heart tightening. He's gone. Dead. And now… I am him.
The maid curtsied again. "If there is anything you require, Your Majesty, please let me know."
Kevin swallowed hard. He could not speak, could not explain what had happened or that he was not truly Silas Maximus, that this life was borrowed, given to him by a twist of fate. No one could know. Not yet.
He rose slowly, the black-and-gold dragons on his robe shimmering like they sensed his awakening. If this empire is falling… he thought, jaw tightening, then I will hold it together. I will give it a name, a story… and I will survive where he could not.
The maid watched quietly as he straightened, unaware of the storm raging behind those golden eyes. Kevin now Silas looked out toward the palace halls, toward the throne that awaited him, toward the empire teetering on the edge of ruin.
And for the first time, he understood the weight of the crown.