The night felt wrong.
Not dangerous… Not peaceful…
Just waiting
A hush settled over the village of Astren, where lanterns flickered like frightened stars. Even the wind refused to breathe as the moon glided unnaturally into place, swallowing the sun in a silent eclipse.
Then the world held still.
At the valley's edge, inside a small wooden house, a newborn's first cry broke the silence – soft, fragile, yet carrying a weight no infant should bear. The cry rippled through the air like a stone dropped into an unseen ocean.
The midwife froze. Her candle guttered wildly as if trying to flee its flame.
The child's eyes opened.
Not black… Not Blue… But shifting twilight – dawn and dusk swirling together, as though two eternities fought inside a single gaze.
Light flared. Shadow followed. For an instant, wings of Radiance and void shimmered behind him – one burning gold, the other woven from living darkness – before reality snapped shut around the vision.
Thunder rumbled across a cloudless sky. The eclipse faded abruptly, as if forced to end.
The mother, weak yet smiling, touched the child's cheek with trembling tenderness.
"You came with the night… and the dawns", she whispered.
The father stood speechless in the doorway, staring at the windows as starlight dimmed – bowing toward the infant as though paying respect.
Beyond mortal sight, ancient seals cracked. A forgotten throne trembled. And far across the astral vastness, distant voices stirred after ages of silence:
"The Sovereign stirs…".
But here, in this quiet home, he was only a child wrapped in a cloth – sleeping, breathing softly, innocent to the weight of existence resting in his heartbeat.
And in his dreams, two whispered call echoed:
"Rise". "Remember".
He did not yet know the world. And the world did not know him yet.
But destiny had opened it eyes.