The Hall of Radiance was bathed in gold.
Light filtered through stained glass, painting the marble floor in shimmering blues and silvers. Priests stood in silent formation, their hands raised, humming ancient hymns. At the center of the circle, she stood barefoot, eyes closed, heart steady.
Her fifteenth birthday. The day her soul core would awaken.
"Princess Lysira Valenheart," the high priest called. "You may begin."
She took a deep breath.
She felt it first in her chest, a slow, rising pulse. Like a second heartbeat. Heat spread through her ribs, climbing her throat, filling her skull with pressure. Then,
It hit.
A surge of power exploded behind her eyes. And with it, came visions.
A slum.
A boy with grey hair and burning red eyes.
A scarf, stolen and tied around her wrist.
Rain falling on blood-soaked streets.
A war.
A sword through her chest.
His voice, trembling: "If there's another life…"
She gasped,
And collapsed.
Priests rushed forward. She barely noticed.
Memories poured into her mind like a tidal wave. Ten years, twelve, then twenty. Every moment. Every breath of a life she had once lived.
Her first life.
The girl she used to be.
The man she loved.
The war that tore them apart.
The battlefield where she died in his arms.
Lysira trembled on the marble floor.
Her hand clutched her chest, not from pain, but from the weight of truth.
Tears spilled silently.
So warm... even now, I can still feel him.
And then, soft words fell from her lips, barely a whisper.
"If there's another life... don't run from me this time."
______
Thunder cracked over the ducal estate.
Black clouds churned as lightning split the sky.
Inside the ritual chamber beneath House Drevan's keep, servants stood in a circle of obsidian runes. At the center, Kael Drevan knelt alone, shirtless, eyes shut. Rainwater dripped from his silver hair.
The awakening was underway.
A sharp stab.
Heat burned up his spine.
Then, the rupture.
His body convulsed as power surged from his soul. For a heartbeat, he felt like his body wasn't real anymore, just fire and thought and screaming light.
And then it came.
Memory.
A girl with white hair, blue eyes, laughing in the slums.
A scarf, stolen and tied around her bruised wrist.
Years of blood and smoke.
Her sword against his.
Her dying breath in his arms.
His final scream.
Her final smile.
Kael's eyes flew open, red, glowing.
He fell forward, catching himself with trembling hands.
Breathing hard.
Heart pounding.
Not from pain. From grief.
Memories of a life the world had taken from him.
A girl he loved more than himself.
A war he never wanted.
A death he never truly recovered from.
The rain outside had stopped.
And for a long moment, Kael stared at his reflection in the polished obsidian floor.
The same face. The same eyes. But now, with the soul of a fallen villain behind them.
He touched the center of his chest, where the core still pulsed.
It was real. She was real.
And then, he whispered:
"If there's another life… let me choose you this time."