Kael Ardyn learned early that the world had rules.
You stayed quiet in class.You didn't stare too long at strangers.You ignored the feeling that something was watching you when you walked home alone.
Those rules kept life simple.
They didn't protect him.
The first sign came on an evening like any other gray sky, heavy air, the kind of silence that made the city feel distant. Kael had just stepped off the bus when everything around him seemed to pause, as if reality hesitated for a breath it never finished taking.
A stray dog froze mid-step across the street.
Streetlights flickered once, twice, then steadied.
Kael felt it then.
A pressure not on his chest, not on his head, but inside him. Like something unseen had turned its attention inward and found him lacking.
He took another step.
The pressure sharpened.
Kael stopped.
People continued moving around him, unaware. Cars passed. Laughter drifted from somewhere behind him. The world hadn't stopped after all.
Only him.
"Get a grip," he muttered, rubbing his arm.
That was when he noticed the mark.
Just beneath his collarbone, barely visible through the thin fabric of his shirt, the skin darkened. Veins,no, lines,branched faintly outward, glowing for a split second before fading.
Kael stared.
His heartbeat stumbled.
He lifted his shirt fully.
The mark remained.
It wasn't a bruise. It wasn't a scar. It looked deliberate, like something etched beneath his skin rather than onto it.
Cold spread through his fingers.
This wasn't the first time something strange had happened to him.
It was just the first time it had stayed.
That night, Kael dreamed of doors.
Endless doors stretching into darkness, each one sealed with symbols he didn't recognize but somehow understood. Some were cracked. Others were chained shut. One only one stood slightly open.
Something on the other side breathed.
When Kael woke up drenched in sweat, his room felt smaller. The shadows clung too closely to the walls, stretching where they shouldn't.
He reached for his phone.
3:17 a.m.
As his screen lit up, his reflection stared back at him.
A half-second too late.
Kael's breath caught.
"Okay," he whispered, forcing a laugh. "Enough."
He turned the phone face-down and rolled onto his side, pulling the blanket over his head like a kid afraid of the dark.
Sleep didn't come back.
The next morning, the city felt wrong.
Not broken. Not hostile.
Alert.
People's shadows moved before they did. Reflections in windows lagged, twisted, corrected themselves when Kael looked too closely. Every time someone brushed past him, the mark beneath his skin pulsed faintly, responding to something invisible.
By lunchtime, his head throbbed.
That was when he noticed the man across the cafeteria.
He wasn't doing anything unusual. Middle-aged, neatly dressed, eating alone. But his shadow didn't touch the floor beneath him. It hovered, thin and sharp, symbols crawling across it like veins of ink.
The man looked up.
Their eyes met.
Kael's scar burned.
Not pain recognition.
The man's expression didn't change. He finished his drink calmly, stood, and walked away without another glance.
Kael sat frozen long after the crowd thinned.
Whatever that was… it had seen him.
And it had decided not to act.
Yet.
That night, Kael confronted the mirror.
He didn't know what he expected monsters, maybe. A voice. Some dramatic revelation that made everything make sense.
Instead, the mirror stayed silent.
Until he pressed a pin against his skin.
Just enough to draw blood.
The moment red surfaced, the room temperature dropped.
The mirror darkened, swallowing his reflection entirely. Symbols spread across the glass, forming patterns that hurt to look at directly.
Then text appeared.
Not carved.Not reflected.Remembered.
FORBIDDEN BLOOD DETECTEDSEAL STATUS: STABLEERROR — RECORD DOES NOT EXIST
Kael staggered back, nearly slipping.
"What… what is this?" he whispered.
The mirror responded with a final line:
INHERITANCE CONFIRMEDELIGIBILITY: UNAUTHORIZED
The symbols faded. The room returned to normal.
Kael stood shaking, blood still beading on his finger.
Inheritance.
That word echoed louder than the rest.
Whatever lived inside him wasn't a gift handed down with pride.
It was something the world had tried to erase.
And it had failed.
Somewhere far beyond Kael's awareness, ancient mechanisms began to move. Records long sealed flickered back into existence. Watchers opened eyes that should have remained closed.
For the first time in decades, the forbidden blood had been acknowledged.
And Kael Ardyn was no longer invisible.