The morning sun bled weakly through the fractured glass of the crumbling building where Cael found himself. Dust motes drifted like errant spirits in the stale air, settling softly on shards of memory that fluttered in the recesses of his mind—fragments too stubborn to vanish, yet too blurred to grasp.
His fingers traced the faded scar curling along his forearm, the only proof that the dreamscape's call was not mere hallucination. The world outside, or what he remembered of it, felt more like an echo—disjointed and haunting.
"Why can't I remember?" The question slipped from his lips, a whispered plea swallowed by the silence.
Suddenly, the sharp clang of metal interrupted his solitude. Instinctively, Cael crouched behind a rusted beam, heart hammering as shadows shifted in the distance. Figures—indistinct yet undeniably human—moved with purpose. Hunters.
His breath slowed, every sense coiled like a spring. If they found him, it wouldn't be for mercy.
A memory flickered—his sister's voice, fragile but urgent. "Find the Vestige. It's the key." But what was the Vestige? And why was it so crucial that it tore through their lives like a phantom?
Cael's eyes scanned the shattered room, landing on a cracked mirror propped against the wall. He edged closer, each step deliberate, wary. In the reflection, his gaze met his own—unfamiliar yet undeniably his. The scar on his arm, the hollow depths of his eyes, the exhaustion etched into his features—all whispered a story he was desperate to reclaim.
His fingers brushed the mirror's edge, and for a moment, the surface rippled like water, distorting the room behind it. Images flashed—shards of a reality both foreign and intimate: a forest ablaze with unnatural fire, a city swallowed by mist, a shadowed figure cradling a child.
The vision shattered as abruptly as it came, leaving Cael breathless and more lost than before.
He pocketed a jagged shard from the mirror—something tangible amid the intangible chaos.
The distant footsteps grew louder. Time was bleeding away.
With a final glance at the broken reflection of himself, Cael vanished into the labyrinth of ruins, clutching the fragment as if it were a lifeline.