Chapter 55: Home’s Gate
On the third morning, Kaelen crested a low hill.
And there it was.
His village.
Still small.
Still battered.
But standing.
Smoke rose from chimneys.
Faint voices drifted on the cold wind.
Children's laughter echoed faintly — the same as he remembered.
Kaelen's breath caught.
His hands trembled slightly.
He had faced armies.
He had shattered beasts born of forbidden magic.
But nothing compared to this.
To facing home.
The Gates
Two wooden gates marked the entrance — barely more than rotting planks hammered together.
A single guard — an old man he recognized faintly — dozed beside a spear too dull to matter.
Kaelen dismounted slowly.
He ran a hand over the cracked-crown sigil on his chest.
He wasn't here to conquer.
He wasn't here as a Sovereign.
He was here as a son.
A brother.
A boy who had left with dreams
and returned carrying a nation.
He stepped toward the gates.
Toward memory.
Toward family.
Toward the beginning of the next chapter of his Sovereign Path.