Chapter 54: The Road of Memory

The journey home was slow.

The land between the Heartland and his old village was a patchwork of abandoned fields, crumbling farmsteads, and long-forgotten battlefields.

Kaelen rode in silence.

Every mile was a memory.

The stream where he and Riven once fished — now dry.

The oak tree where Lyanna carved secret maps — now dead.

The stone marker where his father once promised him a better future — cracked and moss-covered.

Kaelen's chest tightened with each step closer.

He had changed.

The world had changed.

But some things, he prayed, would remain.

Reflection

At night, camping under the broken sky, Kaelen stared into the dying fire.

He thought about all he had lost.

All he had won.

The faces of the Pathbreakers.

The faces of the fallen.

The dreams he carried like scars.

And above it all —

the memory of a mother waiting by the door.

A father sitting at a worn table.

Siblings running through fields that never grew enough.

He closed his eyes.

And whispered:

"I'm coming home.

Not as a shadow.

Not as a failure.

But as their Sovereign."

The stars flickered above —

as if watching.