The rain fell in thin,cold needles across the broken streets of Nyxhaven
Many people hurried through the market square with cloaks pulled tightly around their shoulders, hastily trying to finish their business to return to their warm homes and lit hearths
Merchants shouted over the storm as they packed their stalls, guards patrolled causally as if it was just another boring day and adventurers-those blessed by the gods with power laughed loudly in the tarven doorways
No one seemed to notice the boy cleaning the blood from the stones.
Kael Verin knelt in the mud with a rusted bucket of gray water and a fraying cloth. His hands were numb from the cold but he kept on scrubbing anyway.
'FASTER!' A guard shouted at him from his side.
Karl didn't look up, he feared being whipped if he did.
The blood he was cleaning belonged to a slain monster-a horned beast that had wandered too close to the city gates earlier that afternoon. A group of hunters had slain it in a matter of minutes, their swords blazing with furious enchanted light. The crowd had cheered.
And Kael had been ordered to clean up the mess.'Worthless brat' the guard muttered.
'You should be grateful we are still allowing you to stay inside the city walls'
Kael dipped the cloth into the bucket again.
Grateful.
The word was worthless to and had no meaning towards him.
Nyxhaven was a city that worshipped strength. Warriors blessed with Aura, great mages born with Arcane marks, and nobles gifted with rare bloodline abilities, these people were treated like heros
Everyone else exists beneath them. But Kael was beneath even that. An orphan without any spec of talent, no family, no power. No guild would accept him into their ranks, no master wants to train him and no priest has ever sensed even a faint trace of magic in him.
Some people joked that kael had been forgotten by the gods before he was even born. So they called him "The forgotten"
The rain washed the last bit of blood down the street.'Done' Kael said quietly. The guard barely glanced at him before he tossed a small copper coin into the mud in front of kael.
Kael looked at the coin with fury barely contained but he had managed to stay calm and pick up the coin, it was enough for a piece of bread.
'Try not to starve tonight' the started laughing louder than the rain as he walked away while Kael simply ignored him.Kael slipped the coin into his pocket and stood up slowly, stretching his stiff arms and legs. The market square was nearly empty now,the torches flickering in the storm.
His stomach growled but bread could wait. Instead Keal turned towards the northern edge of the city. Where broken stone walls marked the oldest district of Nyxhaven. Few people went there anymore, the buildings were half collapsed and the street were deathly quiet. And most importantly no one bothered him there.
By the time Kael reached the ruins, the rain had slowed to a light drizzle. The old district had once been part of the city's outer defences centuries ago. Now it was nothing more than shattered towers that once held glory for their magnificent design and long lost alleys claimed by mother nature as weeds and vegetation swallowed them.
Kael slipped through a narrow passage between two crumbling walls. This was his place, a hidden corner where a collapsed roof created a small shelter beneath a leaning stone beams. He had been sleeping here for nearly a year now.
Safe.
Quiet.
Forgotten.
Kael sat down and pulled out the small copper coin from his pocket,he twisted it between his fingers, bread tomorrow tonight he would sleep hungry.
But as he leaned back against the cold and rough stone wall,something strange caught his attention.
A faint glow beneath a pile of rubble nearby. Kael frowned. The ruins were extremely dark at night. There were no lanterns, no magic lights, nothing. Yet the glow somehow remained persistently glowing.
Curiosity took over and Kael stood and walked to the pile of rubble. 'Probably nothing' he muttered as he walked.
Still, he crouched and pushed aside a rock,then another and another, the glow grew brighter as Kael pushed aside rocks. A bright light hurt his eyes as he saw a strange symbol etched into a strange silver metal slowly revealed itself from the rubble.
But it pulsed with a dim blue light. Kael hesitated. Magic items were dangerous, everyone knew that. But they were also highly valued. 'Could sell it' Kael whispered. Being extra careful he brushed off the remaining dirt until the object was full visible.
It wasn't a weapon, it was a bracelet. A heavy band of silver with strange runes that Kael had never see before covering it's surface. The blue light pulsed again, once, twice, almost like a heartbeat. Kael swallowed. 'This is ridiculous' Keal said, but his hand moved anyway.
The moment his fingers the the bracelet it's seemed as if the entire world exploded. Agonising pain surged through his arm as if lightning struck it. Keal screamed as blinding white light shot out of the bracelet,flooding the ruins. The rune ignited one after another, burning with long lost power.
A voice echoed in his mind, not loud neither soft but ancient. "At last" Kael collapsed to the ground, clutching his head as memories that were not his own tore through his fractured thoughts.
Cities being scorched to the ground.
Armies clashing in terrifying battles.
A magnificent throne of black stone.
And a name whispered across centuries
The Forgotten King.
The voice spoke again, "You have slept long enough, get up". The bracelet tightened itself around Keal's wrist. Light erupted all over his skin as the runes carved themselves into flesh like living fire.
Kael gasped. Something deep inside him, something buried his entire life-began to stir.
Power. Raw, ancient, terrifying, for the first time since the day he was born....
Kael Verin felt something within him awakening. Far away, deep beneath the earth ancient and powerful seals trembled.
Something opened its horror inflicting eyes.
The Forgotten King had begun to awake.