Chapter 26: The name I never chose
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Kael didn't run.
Not from fear.
But from what was beginning to awaken inside him.
the world around him turned into a foggy mixture, his body consumed with aftermath, not by some wound, but rather something touched primal and immeasurably deeper, Memory. Something scratching out of the crevices of his closed past.
He dropped to his knees beside a shallow creek, gasping.
His hands trembled.
The book pulsed, and without his command, a page flipped open.
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> [Vire Genealogy Recognition Triggered]
▸ Memory Seal Weakening
▸ Unlocking Fragment…
Kael screamed.
Visions lanced through his skull.
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He stood in a corridor of red velvet and silver banners, castle, ancient and cold.
A woman in crimson robes knelt before him, voice soft:
> "You mustn't speak your name, little flame. They're watching…"
The vision shattered.
He saw fire.
Screaming.
Knights with flame-crested helms dragging people by the throat.
He saw himself - smaller, bleeding, hidden beneath marble coffins.
Someone called him.
Not "boy."
Not "child."
But...
> "Kael Vire."
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The vision snapped.
Kael collapsed, gasping for breath.
> "Why… why did they call me that?"
"I didn't choose this name…"
The book glowed faintly.
Words scrawled across the inside of the cover.
> You didn't choose it… but you bled for it.
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Kael sat there as the sky darkened.
His reflection rippled in the water, and for the first time, he wondered...
> Am I even who I think I am?
He had held to the name Kael like a life-line.
Vire... that was not just a name.
It was a sentence.
A lineage.
The throne of silence dredged in blood.
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He stood.
A little slower.
A little colder.
And kept walking - toward Gravewinter.
Toward the truth.
Whether it wanted him or not.
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End of Chapter 26
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