after some time I fell, sinking into the darkness once more, but this time not with fear.
This time, with hope.
Death
The pain was unbearable
Mom… I'm sorry…
The darkness enveloped me.
And then… nothing.
Rebirth
The first thing I felt was warmth.
Not the piercing cold of death, but an enveloping warmth, like being submerged in lukewarm water. It was comforting in a way I couldn't explain. There wasn't much pain, I wasn't afraid.
I couldn't see. I couldn't move my limbs in a coordinated way. It was like being trapped in my own body, conscious but unable to interact with the outside world. Panic would have been the normal response, but something in my mind remained strangely calm.
Am I dead? Is this the afterlife?
But no. I could feel. I felt hunger, I felt when they moved me, I felt the touch of soft hands holding me. And more importantly, I heard muffled voices, as if I were underwater.
The days—or what I assumed were days—passed in a haze of confusion. I slept most of the time, woke up to feed, and went back to sleep. But with each cycle, the voices became clearer, the sounds more defined.
Finally, I opened my eyes.
My vision was blurry at first, only shapes and undefined colors. I blinked repeatedly, and slowly, the world began to come into focus.
A face appeared above me. A woman of ethereal beauty, with platinum hair that fell in soft waves and turquoise-colored eyes that shone with tenderness. But what really caught my attention were her ears: long, elegant, pointed.
Elf ears
My infant mind struggled to process this information. Then she smiled warmly and spoke to me with a melodious voice that echoed in my chest.
"Good morning, my little Kael," she said softly, stroking my cheek with a finger. "Did you sleep well?"
Kael?
The woman lifted me carefully, holding me against her chest. I could smell something floral, mixed with something deeper, like fresh earth after the rain. She rocked me gently while humming a melody I didn't recognize.
"Your sister Tessia is eager to see you," she continued, walking through what seemed to be a spacious room. "She's been asking about you all morning. She's so protective of you, my love."
The name struck me like lightning.
Tessia.
No. It couldn't be.
Tessia Eralith. The Beginning After the End. TBATE.
My mind panicked as memories rushed in. The web novel I had been reading before… before dying. The elven princess. Arthur Leywin. The war. The Asuras.
The woman—my mother, apparently—opened a door and we entered another room. There, sitting on a tall leather chair, was a small girl of perhaps three or four years old with the same platinum blond hair and turquoise eyes. Her pointed ears twitched slightly when she saw us enter.
"Mom! Kael!" the girl smiled widely, her eyes lighting up.
Tessia Eralith. In person.
"Come here, sweetheart," my mother said affectionately. "You can hold your brother, but carefully."
Little Tessia approached with careful steps, her hands outstretched. My mother gently placed me in her arms, supervising closely. Tessia looked at me with absolute adoration, her eyes shining with tears of happiness.
"Hello, Kael," she whispered. "I'm your big sister. I'm going to protect you always, okay?"
If I had been able to answer, I wouldn't have known what to say. My mind was still trying to grasp the impossibility of my situation.
I was reborn. I was reborn as the brother of Tessia Eralith. I am in the world of TBATE.
Realization
The following weeks were a whirlwind of mixed emotions.
On one hand, there was the pure wonder of being alive again, of having a second chance. On the other hand, there was the crushing fear of knowing exactly what world this was and what was to come.
I quickly learned the names of my parents. Alduin Eralith, my father, was a tall and distinguished man with the same platinum blond hair but with more severe eyes, though they always softened when he looked at me. He was the King of Elenoir, the kingdom of the elves.
Merial Eralith, my mother, was the Queen. Her love was palpable in every interaction, every gentle word, every soft caress.
And then there was Tessia. My older sister in this world, who adored me with an intensity that was both touching and overwhelming. She spent every free moment with me, telling me stories I couldn't fully understand but whose melodious tone soothed me.
But while I enjoyed this new family affection, my mind couldn't stop thinking about what I knew.
Arthur will arrive soon. The war begins. Tessia will be… possessed by Cecilia.
The knowledge was a heavy burden for a baby.
But it also gave me something Arthur never had at the beginning: preparation.
I vaguely remembered how Arthur, in his first months, had begun to absorb the mana particles from the environment into his core, accelerating his development as a mage. It was something children normally couldn't do until years later.
If I'm going to survive in this world, if I'm going to protect my family, I need power.
And so, during my moments of calm, when I was alone in my crib or resting after feeding, I began to try.
I closed my eyes and tried to feel… something. Anything.
At first, there was nothing. Just darkness and the sound of my own breathing. But I didn't give up. Every day I tried, attempting to visualize the mana particles as I had read in the novel: small motes of light of different colors floating in the air.
Weeks passed. A month. Two months.
And then, one night while the full moon shone through the window of my room, I felt it.
It was subtle, almost imperceptible. Like small sparks of static electricity brushing against my consciousness. I opened my eyes slowly, and there, floating in the moonlit air, were small points of light.
Blue. Green. Red. Yellow. White.
Mana.
My heart—or whatever I had in this baby body—raced. I extended my consciousness toward them, as if trying to touch them with invisible hands. The particles trembled.
Come on. Come to me.
Slowly, almost shyly, a blue particle floated toward me. I felt it enter my body, warm and comforting. Then another. And another.
But then something strange happened.
Not only the blue particles were coming to me. The green ones too. The red ones. The yellow ones. All of them began to converge toward my small body in a constant flow.
What…?
In the novel, Arthur had mainly had affinity with all the elements, but this… this was different. It was as if my body were attracting mana indiscriminately, regardless of the element.
The flow intensified. More and more mana particles began to spiral toward me, creating a small vortex of colorful lights. It was beautiful and terrifying at the same time.
Too much. It's too much.
I tried to stop it, but the particles kept coming. My body began to feel hot, as if a fever were taking hold of me. The air around my crib began to ripple.
And then suddenly, just as it had begun, it stopped.
The mana particles dispersed, returning to their normal floating throughout the room. I lay there, gasping (if a baby can gasp), my body trembling slightly.
What was that?
I didn't have time to dwell on it because the door to my room burst open. My mother rushed in, her eyes full of concern.
"Kaël!" She hurried to my crib, lifting me carefully. "I felt a disturbance in the mana…"
She examined me carefully, her hand glowing with a soft green light as it passed over my body. Her eyes widened in surprise.
"Impossible," she whispered. "Your mana core… is beginning to form. But you're only a three-month-old baby…"
Behind her, my father appeared in the doorway, his expression serious.
"What is happening, Merial?"
My mother turned to him, holding me close to her chest. "Alduin… our son… is a prodigy not seen in centuries."
I saw my father's expression change from concern to astonishment, and then to something more complex. Worry, yes, but also… fear.
"We must keep this secret," he said finally, his voice low. "If the other kingdoms discover that we have a child with this level of talent…"
"I know," my mother replied, rocking me gently. "We will protect him. Whatever our Kael is destined to be, we will protect him."
As she held me, feeling the steady beat of her heart against my cheek, a thought crossed my mind.
I am not only the brother of Tessia Eralith. There is something more in me. Something that not even Arthur had the Legacy has infinite potential and I will know how to use it not like Cecilia.
And in that moment, while my parents whispered plans of protection and secrecy over my crib, I made a decision.
I am not going to be just a spectator in this story. I am going to change the destiny of this family. The destiny of this world.
Because now I know something that no one else knows the Legacy not only exists in Grey's world.
It exists here. In me.
To be continued…