Silence was not truly silence.
It felt like a deep breath drawn beneath the surface of a still pond—dense, heavy, almost alive.
Kael walked, though he did not know why.
His steps pressed lightly into the pale dust scattered with broken stones and fragments of forgotten walls.
Sometimes, beneath his boots, he felt something shift—an echo, a ghostly tremor in the ground, as if the ruins themselves were sighing.
To his left, the river moved with him.
It slid along the earth like a vast, watchful serpent.
Its surface was smooth and glassy, reflecting nothing but a dull grey sky that seemed stuck between dawn and dusk.
Faces sometimes drifted up, breaking the surface:
some twisted in silent screams, others peaceful as if dreaming.
Each time, Kael froze.
His heart jumped in his chest, aching with a recognition he could not name.
Then, in an instant, the faces would dissolve, swallowed back into the current.
Beyond a collapsed bridge, a black pillar rose from the ground.
Tall and thin, broken sharply at the top, like a bone splintering from a wound.
A pale crack of light ran down its middle, pulsing faintly, as if it contained a slow, tired breath.
Kael felt the fragment in his hand quiver.
At first, it simply vibrated, like a small bird caught in his palm.
Then the trembling deepened, stronger, as though something inside it was trying to escape.
Kael clenched his jaw.
A pull dragged him forward—an invisible thread hooked into his ribs.
The pillar seemed to exhale as he approached.
Every step echoed inside him, a low hum threading through his bones.
Up close, he saw that the pillar's surface was not smooth at all.
It was covered in countless fine lines, like veins beneath translucent skin.
He raised his hand.
A shiver shot through his arm and wrapped around his spine.
The fragment began to glow, casting a soft, wavering light over his fingers.
When he touched the stone, a sudden shock split his mind open.
A vision—
A narrow corridor, damp and breathing with hidden moisture.
Torches flaring to life one by one, guiding him toward a heavy, sealed door at the end.
Beyond it, something waited.
A heartbeat—or maybe a growl—echoing in the dark.
Then, a voice, clear but trembling on the verge of breaking:
"Kael… don’t open it!"
The vision shattered.
Kael gasped and fell to his knees.
A sharp metallic taste filled his mouth—blood.
Slowly, he forced himself to look up.
On the pillar, where only the faint lines had been, a word began to appear.
Not carved, but emerging, as if the stone were birthing it letter by letter.
The strokes glimmered weakly, following the rhythm of his breath.
KAEL
A name.
Not just a word—an anchor, a weight sinking through every layer of him.
As if each vein, each bone had always carried it silently, waiting for him to remember.
The river beside him rippled violently.
A long, dark wave rolled toward the bank, splashing droplets that scattered across the stones.
In those droplets, for a fleeting instant, he saw eyes staring back at him.
They held no judgment, no warmth—only quiet, patient observation.
Kael pushed himself upright.
Every muscle in his body shook as if he had been pulled back from a cliff’s edge.
He pressed his palm to the glowing word.
It was warm, almost alive beneath his touch.
Kael.
The name hummed through him like a low chant echoing in an abandoned hall.
A beginning—but also a wound.
He didn’t know who had first spoken it.
Didn’t know when it had been given to him.
But now, it could not be denied.
Above, the sky remained an unbroken sea of grey.
Yet inside him, something had shifted.
There was no longer only emptiness.
Now there was Kael.
Behind him, the river shivered again.
Kael turned sharply.
Across the misty water stood a dark figure, still and silent.
It did not move.
It had no face.
No color.
It looked like a shadow peeled from the edge of the ruins themselves.
When Kael blinked, it was gone.
Like a breath vanishing in winter air.
Silence returned—but it felt different now.
Not whole.
Cracked, as if barely holding back something hidden beneath.
Kael looked past the pillar, to the broken road winding ahead.
His legs trembled.
Each step felt like betrayal—toward something or someone he could not yet remember.
But he knew he could not stop.
The river flowed beside him once more.
Sometimes it glided forward, sometimes it lagged behind as if watching him from the corner of an unseen eye.
Kael clutched the fragment tighter.
It no longer shone, but a subtle warmth pulsed at its core, echoing each beat of his heart.
He looked back one last time at the pillar.
KAEL.
The name glowed faintly.
Carved.
An ancient secret finally spoken aloud to the dead wind.
He faced the path.
And the world, silent and waiting, walked with him.
Comments (0)
See all