CHAPTER 4: THE SILVER LIGHT WITHIN
The night was unusually silent. The wind seemed to have stopped outside Daniel's window, as though the world itself was holding its breath.
He stirred in his sleep, his body twitching as faint streaks of silver lightning began to crawl beneath his skin, flashing like tiny rivers of light.
"Ahhh—!" Daniel's eyes shot open, his breath caught between pain and awe. The room was filled with blinding flashes—each pulse of light sent a sharp ache through his bones, as if the lightning was burning his very soul.
Then he heard it—a distant, echoing voice, ancient and deep, resonating within his mind.
> "Child of Lightning… The seal has broken. The storm remembers you."
Daniel gasped, clutching his chest as the silver lightning wrapped around him like chains before sinking into his skin.
"What… what is this?" he whispered, trembling.
Outside, thunder rumbled faintly even though the skies were clear.
When morning came, Daniel awoke weak but strangely renewed. His eyes carried a faint silver hue that faded whenever he blinked. He could still feel the lightning moving quietly inside him, like a heartbeat that wasn't his own.
At breakfast, his mother noticed his dazed expression.
"Daniel, you didn't sleep well, did you?" she asked softly.
He smiled faintly. "Just… strange dreams, Mother."
But inside, his heart pounded. He couldn't tell her what happened—not yet.
Later that day, while the other children practiced simple elemental exercises with their newly awakened powers, Daniel sat alone near the old temple ruins. He placed his palm on the ground, closed his eyes, and tried to sense the essence around him—just as the teachers had described.
But instead of warmth, water, or air, he felt… everything. A vast current of power flowing through the world, raw and ancient.
He reached for it—
—and pain surged through him again, his body crackling with faint silver sparks.
"Argh!" he clenched his teeth as small arcs of lightning flashed around him, scorching the grass.
The storm inside him was responding.
When the pain faded, Daniel was left gasping on his knees, but in his eyes burned a quiet resolve.
"So this is… my element," he murmured. "Lightning… but not just any lightning."
He stared at his trembling hand as a faint silver spark danced above his palm—beautiful, wild, and terrifying.
> "If this power chose me… then I'll master it."
And deep within his soul, a faint whisper of thunder answered him.