Kael's vision blurred as the golden lines under his skin brightened, crawling up his chest like molten veins. His breath turned shallow, caught between fire and panic.
"M-Mother—what's—"
Seris grabbed both sides of his face, forcing him to look at her.
"Kael. Listen to me. You must breathe. Slowly."
"I—can't—"
Another pulse hit him.The table shook.The bowls shattered across the floor.
Seris dragged him into the center of the room, her hands glowing faintly with a warm, greenish-white light. Kael had seen healers produce sparks, simple warmth… but nothing like this.
Her palms pressed against his chest.
"Hold on," she whispered. "I can still suppress it—just a little longer—"
She pushed mana into him.
And for a moment, the golden light beneath his skin dimmed.
Kael gasped, sucking in cold air. "W-What are you doing?"
"Trying to stop your blood from killing you." She grit her teeth. "Or tearing half the valley apart."
Kael's eyes widened. "The valley?"
BOOM.
A deep throb rolled through him—a resonance that didn't stop at his bones. It rippled outward, into the walls, the floors, the mountain, the sky.
Seris flinched as the floorboards rattled.
"Kael—Calm down—you need to resist—!"
"I'm trying!" he cried. "I can't—there's something inside—pushing—"
His body arched forward as another pulse burst from under his ribs. The glow flared so bright it washed out the room's color.
Seris stumbled back, sweat dripping down her brow.
"This isn't a normal awakening," she whispered. "Its much stronger then anything … not like his… this is—"
Before she could finish, every loose object in the cottage lifted an inch off the floor.
Herbs twisted in the air.Wood shivered.The fire guttered sideways.
Outside, a gust of unnatural wind tore down the valley.
Seris's eyes widened in horror."They'll feel that. They'll feel all of it."
Kael's knees buckled. He clutched his chest, gasping as if he were drowning."Mother—it hurts—I can't stop it—what's happening to me?!"
Seris cupped his face again, her voice cracking with fear."Kael, listen. Your blood… is waking. And the pulse is too strong."
Another tremor hit him.CRACK—Lightning split across a clear sky.
The valley shouted back with echoing thunder.
Seris moved fast—faster than Kael had ever seen her. She shoved the small table aside, reached beneath a loose floorboard, and pulled out a thin iron band covered in dust.
Kael didn't even recognize it.
She whispered a command under her breath.
The iron band shimmered, melting into a silver ring etched with faint symbols.
Kael blinked through the pain."What… is that?"
"A storage ring I thought don't need ...."She seized the ring, touching each glowing rune in rapid succession.
Around them, items began vanishing.
His hammer.
The quenching bowl.
His spare clothes.
His boots.
The wooden practice sword he carved at seven.
Every sign he had ever lived in this home.
Each one dissolved into faint trails of light and streamed toward the ring.
Kael stared through the dizziness."Mother—my things—where are they going?!"
she said, not meeting his eyes. "Somewhere they cannot use to track you."
"Track me?!" Kael's breath hitched. "Who would track me?!"
She didn't answer.
Because the answer came from outside.
A distant hum.Low.Cold.Spreading across the valley like frost.
Seris froze.
"…They're here."
...
d in morning mist.
Their purple flame flickered at their fingertips.
The leader pressed his palm against the stone.Sparks of dark violet light spread outward like veins, mapping invisible pathways across rock and earth.
"The resonance is unmistakable," he said quietly."Dragon Blood. Pure —Then annthing we have seen."
A third scoffed. "Impossible. The purge wiped out the originals."
"Then something survived."
Another figure knelt. "The pulse was strong enough to wake even dormant sigils."
"Then the source is powerful," the leader said. "And close."
The leader stood."We move now. Before the Kingdom notices. Before the echo fades."
They stepped off the cliff—and dissolved into mist.
....
Kael clutched his chest."Mother—what do we do? How do we stop this—?"
"You don't," she whispered. "Not anymore. The awakening is too strong."
She grabbed the ceremonial dagger from the wall.
Kael froze."What—what are you doing—Mother—?"
"Forgive me, Kael.."
"Mother—?"
She sliced his palm—quick, precise, drawing glowing blood that shimmered gold-red.
Kael cried out. "Mother!"
Seris caught the drops and pressed them to the jade pendant at her throat.
The pendant screamed with light.
She sliced his palm—quick, precise, drawing glowing blood that shimmered gold-red.
Kael cried out. "Mother!"
Seris caught the drops and pressed them to the jade pendant at her throat.
The pendant screamed with light.
The glow surged into her arms, down her fingers, wrapping Kael in a curtain of shimmering power.
"Mother—stop! What—"
"Please," she whispered, her voice cracking."Let me save you. Even if you will hate me for it."
The spell thickened into frost-like threads that crawled across Kael's limbs. His breath slowed, then stuck.
He couldn't move.Couldn't shout.Couldn't reach her.
"By a mother's sacrifice…" she whispered, tears falling,"…let the world forget him."
She began reciting something kael does't understand.
Kael's entire body froze in place.
Her fingers released the dagger; it fell soundlessly to the floor. The air around Kael thickened,
slowing, turning heavy. Frost formed on his skin, but it did not bite—it silenced.
He tried to shout her name, but no sound left his throat. His body wouldn't obey. He could see, hear,
feel—everything—but he was trapped . Frozen , Invisible as if only his intangible soul remains in the
mortal world.
Seris looked at him once more. "You'll wake when it's safe."
Just as the door blew inward.
...
Six figures moved through the smoke—cloaks like ink, faces hidden behind veils scored with runes. They stepped like predators that knew the exact moment to strike: silent, precise, cold.
Purple flame crawled along the leader's arm—cold enough to frost the floorboards, hot enough to sear breath.
The tallest of them pressed his hand to the stone artifact and spoke.
"Resonance confirmed. Pure pulse. Source: within."
Seris stood in the center of the ruined cottage, breath shallow, sweat slick on her skin. She looked near-broken, but steel showed in the way she met them. For a second she even managed a crooked laugh, weak and dangerous.
"You're surprisingly late," she said, voice thin but sharp. "The Umbral Pyre I knew was faster."
"You know us," the leader said. "Then you know why we're here."
The leader's mask tilted. He smelled of old things—old laws, old duty. "We sensed an undiluted signature across the ridge," he replied. "We sensed enough power to split a mountain. Yet you—"
His gaze swept over her shaking form. "You look too weak to have produced it."
Seris flinched inward at the words, then forced calm. "You presume a lot."
Seris didn't blink."You felt my restraint failing," she said, tone clipped and steady. "Containing a pulse of that magnitude drains life. When control breaks, the backlash burns through the vessel."
Her mouth twitched in something that might've been pride—or defiance."This house holds only me."
The hunters hesitated. Their detection orbs flickered, confused by overlapping signatures—the echo of Kael's awakened blood hiding beneath the fading veil of Seris's false resonance.
But the deception cost her.
The light under her skin spasmed violently—breaking, shuddering—as if her very life-force were tearing itself apart to maintain the lie. A faint scorch-sweet smell filled the air.
The leader stepped closer."You're lying," he said softly—yet even he sounded unsure.
Seris whispered, "Or is your order finally afraid of someone who's already dying?"
The leader's voice dropped to a flat edge. "Then the Umbral Pyre clan has work to do."
That was as far as she got.
The orb flared inside his palm.Runes ignited one by one.
"Containment," the leader commanded.
Cold violet light unfurled from his palm—wrong and bright and quiet. It crawled up his arm and braided itself into chains as it moved, a fire that smoked like winter and seared like iron: the Umbral Pyre's signature. Where it touched the air it left frostflowers, and when it lashed across a beam the wood hissed and blackened in an instant.
Seris didn't resist at first. She let the chains bite in.
Then she smiled through the pain."You think this ends here?"
"It always does," the leader replied.
Her laugh was almost nothing—a breath, a memory of laughter.
Pain carved deeper lines in her face, but her eyes found the corner where Kael crouched hidden by her seal. For a heartbeat she was simply a mother who had failed to keep time on her side."Then you've learned nothing since the old wars."
Her mana flared.
A surge of white- green fire burst from her body, flooding the room. Two hunters stumbled back as their sigils flickered under the force of it. A wind like the breath of mountains rushed across the cottage, scattering ash and upending chairs.
She moved once—no spell, no gesture—just will.Two hunters staggered as if struck by invisible force.
But the power ripped through her.The glow dimmed.
But the cold chains tightened. They bit deeper. Seris's knees hit the floor. Her voice thinned. Sweat fell into the ash on the ground.
Still, she remained unbowed.
The leader approached."Containment achieved."
Seris lifted her head.Her eyes searched the corner.
They found the shimmer—barely visible, like a warped patch of air—where Kael knelt trapped within the frozen veil.
Somehow, she smiled.
Her lips formed a single word:
Live.
The orb flashed.Light folded inward.Her body dissolved into it, pulled into a tight point of cold fire.
Then—nothing.
Only the empty chains remained.
Silence settled over the room.
The hunters swept their sigils across the cottage."No life detected."
"Neutralize the site," the leader ordered.
Violet fire rolled across the walls, devouring everything it touched. Wood, cloth, memories—all of it burned with cold flame until only blackened cinders remained.
Then the hunters vanished into the mist, leaving ruin behind.
Kael saw all of it.
He couldn't move.Couldn't scream.The frost locked every muscle, forcing him to witness his mother's end in brutal silence.
The home he'd grown in—the only world he knew—collapsed in smoke and violet fire.
Time stopped meaning anything.
Rage tried to rise.Grief tried to follow.
Both froze inside him.
....
Only when dawn reached the valley did the frost begin to crack. Shards fell off his arms and knees, drifting like quiet snow.
He looked down slowly.
In his hand lay the ring Seris had slipped to him before the ritual. It glowed faintly—pulsing with the same rhythm as his heart.
The jade pendant hanging against his chest still shone, its veins whispering with dim light.
A voice brushed his mind—soft, fragile, fading.
"Live, my son…"
The frost on his lips splintered.
Kael dragged in a breath, raw and painful, as if inhaling broken glass. The air tasted like smoke and ruin.
He forced his frozen gaze toward the wreckage of their home—the collapsed beams,the scorch marks,the spot where her light had vanished.
Something inside him cracked open.
Grief first.Then rage.
A cold, cutting rage sharper than flame.
He tried to scream but only a broken whisper escaped.
His fingers closed around the ring. Hard. Harder. Until blood welled between them.
"You wanted me to live…"
The frost binding him shattered completely.
The world's silence fell away.
Kael rose slowly, voice low and unrecognizable.
"Then I'll live."
His breath trembled with fury.
"Long enough to make them pay for what they did."
As dawn bled across the broken walls, painting the ashes gold—
the boy who had knelt among cinders did not rise.
Something else did.