Elion Raen Velarion was not yet a year old.
And yet… strange things had begun to stir around him.
At first, it was subtle. Flowers blooming faster when he passed by. Small insects gathering around his cradle, silent and unmoving, as if listening to something ancient.
Then came the dreams.
Nyra often found him staring out the window in the dead of night—his silver-crimson eyes wide open, watching stars she couldn't see. His fingers would twitch in soft patterns, mimicking the glyphwork of ancient runes neither she nor Iden had taught him.
"He knows," Rael murmured, during one of her visits. "Even if he doesn't understand it yet… he knows this world."
On the day of his first steps, the sky shifted.
Literally.
Clouds warped overhead into a spiral, revealing a ring of pale gold light that pulsed in time with Elion's tiny heartbeat.
The mana sensors embedded across Sanctum's towers and defense lattice went haywire.
"Mana resonance spike, Class-Sigma," Arlen reported. "Localized to the Heir's location. No external interference."
Iden stood in silence, watching his son toddle across the garden.
"This isn't just inherited mana," he said quietly. "He's forming a new signature."
Kael narrowed his eyes.
"Or he's drawing from something even deeper. This isn't Velarion energy. It's… Earthborn. Fracture-born."
Beneath the Eternis Tree, where Elion had been named, something ancient awakened.
The roots cracked and realigned, forming runes across the bark. A soft humming echoed from the soil, drawing Iden and Nyra to the site.
Elion, already there, was giggling.
A sphere of light hovered before him—no larger than an apple. Within it swirled what looked like entire galaxies.
Rael arrived, breath catching in her throat.
"That's a memory sphere," she whispered. "But one forged… naturally."
Kael shook his head. "Naturally? No. This is instinct."
"He's creating them."
Later that night, Iden received a rare alert.
[SYSTEM NOTICE – UNTRACKED ENERGY ANOMALY]Subject: Elion Raen VelarionClassification: Unassigned Tier – Origin Fracture Residual Signature DetectedWarning: Energy profile exceeds standard mortal classification.Recommendation: Begin isolation-level observation protocols or await Divine Echo judgment.
But Iden didn't fear the message.
He watched his son sleep peacefully in his arms, feeling the warmth of something pure and boundless pressing just beneath the child's skin.
One week later, the first incident occurred.
A minor quake struck Sanctum's southern range—unusual, but manageable.
Except that Elion, just shy of saying his first sentence, walked calmly into the central plaza where the people had gathered in panic… and raised his small hand.
The quake stopped instantly.
He turned back to his mother, tugging on her cloak with a smile.
"Safe," he said.
One word.
It shook Eden more than any war had.
Unseen in the skies beyond the newly stabilized Eden, across veils of power older than the fractures of Earth and the Abyss, the gods stirred.
"The child has awakened," said one."A soul born not of prophecy, but of choice," said another."The Architect's echo lingers in him…""And still… he chose to protect. To rebuild. The cycle may yet be broken."
Their attention shifted toward Eden.
"Let us watch, then. For if this flame endures—Eden may rise beyond even our reckoning."