Opening – Smoke and Silence
The battlefield is quiet now.
The sun has risen, casting golden light over a land soaked in blood. The once-proud clearing where they made their stand is now strewn with the bodies of both friend and foe. Smoke rises from shattered trees and burnt siege engines. Crows circle above, as if summoned by the scent of death.
Kaelen stands amid the wreckage, sword lowered, blood drying on his armor. Around him, the survivors of their side move slowly, in shock or grief. Some tend to the wounded. Others bury the dead. Every face is marked by loss.
And Kaelen… Kaelen is numb.
He sees the Awakened speaking to a group of warriors. Giving orders. Keeping morale steady. But even they look shaken, their usual calm cracked by what they've seen. Kaelen's mind is still echoing with the weight of the battle—and the moment he felled the enemy commander.
"So, the heir of Vael'Ruun finally arrives…"
The words repeat, over and over.
Middle – The Weight of the Past
Kaelen walks alone to the edge of a hill overlooking the battlefield, away from the noise of survivors. His hands tremble when he wipes his blade clean. The memories of Vael'Ruun are getting sharper now. Less like dreams. More like commands. He remembers tactics he never studied, faces he's never met, and a woman with golden eyes whispering war songs in a language older than Earth itself.
And he remembers Zarxes.
Not as a myth.
But as a traitor, once seated beside Vael'Ruun. A betrayer who survived what should have ended him. The one orchestrating these new wars from the shadows.
Kaelen sinks to his knees.
"I killed a man who knew me better than I know myself."
His whisper is barely audible. The wind answers only with silence.
An Unexpected Comfort
Footsteps approach. Kaelen tenses—but it's the Awakened. The same one who sat with him at the fire before the battle. Their armor is scraped, their face streaked with soot, but they are alive.
They sit beside him without a word, watching the horizon. After a time, they speak:
"You saved us. Whether you believe it or not."
Kaelen shakes his head. "I led people into slaughter. That commander… he knew who I was. Not Kaelen. Vael'Ruun."
The Awakened exhales slowly. "You carry his legacy. That doesn't mean you lose your own."
Kaelen turns to them, eyes haunted. "What if there's nothing left of me to save?"
A long pause. The Awakened finally replies:
"Then we'll remind you who you are. Every step of the way."
For the first time since the battle, Kaelen looks someone in the eye.
A Message from the Shadows
As the camp is reassembled, a scout returns—bloodied but alive. In their hands is a sealed scroll, recovered from the enemy commander's tent before the retreat.
The seal is Isu in design. Ancient. Real.
Kaelen opens it.
Inside is a single phrase, written in a forgotten dialect he shouldn't know—but somehow, he does.
"We are not finished. The Eye watches. The Coil stirs."– Z.
Kaelen's breath catches. The words carry more than a warning—they're a trigger. Somewhere deep within, another layer of memory shifts awake. A cold awareness. A hidden signal.
The Eye.The Coil.Zarxes is planning something far worse.
Closing – The Road Ahead
That night, the camp mourns the fallen and tends to the wounded. There is no celebration, only quiet reflection and whispered fears. The war is not over. This was only a battle—one won at great cost.
Kaelen stares into the flames once again, but this time he isn't alone. The Awakened sit nearby. Others pass by and nod to him—not with fear, but respect.
The storm is still coming.
But Kaelen is no longer a frightened boy caught in the wave.
He is the eye of it.
And when the time comes to face Zarxes…he will remember everything.