The morning sun lit the church hall, but Kael didn't feel it. He stood before the altar, his gaze hollow. The congregation prayed, but their voices seemed to come from another world.
Inside him, the world cracked.
> "I… don't know who I am."
The voice wasn't spoken aloud. It emerged from within, flowing like cold water.
---
In recent days, Kael felt something had changed. Not physically — but like… something dormant had turned toward him. Invisible eyes. Strange pressure in the air. The sense that he was no longer just an orphan raised by a church.
He began to dream — not ordinary dreams, but vivid visions. In one, he saw the sky cracked open and a massive black hand pointing at him. In another, the city he lived in floated like a tiny island in a void of dead stars.
---
Anselm grew more worried.
> "Kael… you barely speak. You've forgotten meals."
"What do you see?"
"What do you hear?"
Kael answered simply:
> "I saw a world burning. But the one burning… wasn't this one."
---
One night, Kael stood before a mirror. He looked into his own face.
> "Who am I?" he whispered.
The reflection… smiled. But it wasn't his smile.
He stumbled back but didn't scream. He just stared, then whispered again:
> "You are the mask. But who wears you?"
---
Beneath the church, Father Eluon stood in a secret chamber filled with symbols and ancient texts.
He opened a sealed tome.
> "The Stair has appeared again," he murmured. "And if that boy is true… then the old grief will rise again."