The world trembled the moment he was born.
Thunder split the sky with a scream not of lightning—but of something older, something awake. Deep beneath the mountains of Velthera, the leylines pulsed like veins caught in a heartbeat.
The midwife stumbled back, her hands shaking. "The mana—it's… it's flowing into the child!"
Caelum Veylor cried out, not like a babe seeking warmth, but like a song being drawn from the void. Outside, the forest groaned as ancient trees bent under an unseen wind, and wolves howled without reason.
His mother, pale with exhaustion, stared at the bundle pressed against her chest. He looked normal—soft brown skin, a faint trace of silver in his hair. But his eyes… his eyes were open.
Infants weren't supposed to open their eyes within minutes of birth.
And they certainly weren't supposed to glow.
The glow was faint—barely more than a shimmer of starlight—but the room dimmed in comparison. The child blinked once, then locked his gaze with the midwife's. And though she would never admit it aloud, she flinched.
She swore—swore—she had felt him looking through her. Not at her, through her. As if she were little more than paper, held up to light.
The village priest was summoned.
He arrived under a sky still crackling with static, accompanied by two grim-faced guards and an old artifact that pulsed blue whenever it sensed corrupted mana.
They made the mother step back. They lifted the child.
And the artifact—did nothing.
No light. No pulse. No recognition.
"He's clean," the priest declared, confusion buried beneath cold certainty. "And yet… something is wrong."
He leaned closer, squinting at the baby. Caelum's eyes met his—and for a moment, just a moment, the priest saw stars. Not just lights, but constellations he didn't recognize. Spirals. Webs. A cosmos unfolding behind mortal flesh.
He dropped the child.
That night, as Caelum slept wrapped in his mother's arms, something stood at the edge of the woods.
She was silent. Silver-furred, eyes like twin moons, breathing slow and shallow. Aelira, last of the Vaelari.
She had waited lifetimes. She had crossed oceans of stars. And now, she stared at the flickering soul within that wooden cabin with something like awe… and fear.
"The Veil… has thinned."
She took one step forward. The earth beneath her paws shimmered.
"The star has returned."
End of Prologue.