The room was dark, save for the flickering candlelight casting long shadows on the walls. Kael sat before the fireplace, the insignia in his hand still cold, still a constant reminder of everything he had lost.
The memories came flooding back, unbidden, and the house seemed to close in around him.
Flashback
The year was distant, and Kael was just a boy, sitting cross-legged in his grandfather's study, surrounded by the smell of aged paper and ink. The old man's voice was a gravelly whisper, filled with caution, as he spoke of the Fang, an order Kael didn't fully understand yet but was already beginning to feel the weight of.
His grandfather's strict face was softened only when Kael's mother, the woman who had raised him like her own son, entered the room. She was a quiet force in their lives, always watching, always protecting. Her gaze often stayed on Kael, as though she could see the weight he carried even then.
"They won't stop coming, you know," his grandfather had warned, rubbing his temples. "Once you're in the Fang, they never let you go."
Kael's mother, who had been silent until then, spoke with a calm that sent a chill down Kael's spine. "We will protect him. We've already broken away. He's not involved in this."
But even as she said the words, Kael could feel the tension between them. He didn't fully understand it, but he could sense it. A betrayal was in the air, just waiting to unfold.
...
The night his mother died was the night the Fang caught up to them.
Kael remembered the sound of screeching tires in the distance, the cold rush of air, and his mother's warm hands on his shoulders as she shoved him out of harm's way. "Run, Kael!" she had shouted, but it was already too late. The world twisted in a blur of red and black as he saw her, lying motionless on the ground, her body broken by the relentless violence that followed her.
His grandfather had stood beside him, his expression unreadable. His hands, which had once been steady and strong, now trembled as he placed his hand on Kael's head, a silent apology for the destruction he had brought upon them.
"She knew too much," he said, his voice breaking for the first time Kael could remember. "The Fang doesn't forgive those who leave."
...
End of Flashback
Kael's grip tightened on the insignia, his nails biting into his palm. The rage that had simmered in him since that night, the pain of losing his mother, felt like a slow burn, but it was steady and growing.
He heard the soft footfall of footsteps behind him. His grandfather's words echoed in his mind "The Fang never forgets".
A voice broke the silence, low and distant, but somehow familiar.
"You can still run, Kael."
It was Jun Sera, standing in the doorway of the room, his shadow cast by the dim light from the hallway. His words, so simple yet so sharp, were a reminder that Kael had a choice. He could disappear, leave everything behind.
But he didn't. Not anymore.
"I remember all their names," Kael muttered again, as if to reassure himself, his voice thick with the weight of his memories.
Jun's lips curled into a thin, almost imperceptible smile. "Then make them fear you."
Kael stood, the insignia still clenched in his hand. The shadows of the past were long, but they no longer controlled him.
And for the first time in years, he felt a fire in his chest a fire that would never be extinguished