The path down from the Forgotten Vale was steep, jagged, and unforgiving. Loose rocks shifted beneath Kael's boots, and gusts of cold wind clawed at his cloak. But he descended without hesitation. With every step, the towering cliffs behind him faded, and the veil of isolation that had protected him all his life was left behind.
He had crossed the threshold.
And the world was waiting.
Echoes of a Kingdom
The first signs of civilization came not in cities or banners but in ruins.
Half-buried stone watchtowers lay crumbled across the edges of the great valley basin. Broken spears, scorched steel, and shattered armor littered the ground. Trees had grown through old walls, and vines covered the crumbling remnants of what was once a kingdom's outermost defenses.
Kael moved carefully through the ruins, his hand brushing across the faded markings of a fallen banner its emblem worn down by time. He couldn't read the sigils, but the remnants of powerful wards still lingered faintly in the air.
Magic had once thrived here. But it had not been enough.
A Village in Fear
By midday, Kael reached the edge of a village his first encounter with human life since his birth. The village was small, encircled by wooden fences sharpened into crude spears, and guarded by tired, pale-eyed men clutching rusted weapons.
The villagers noticed him at once.
A stranger with piercing blue eyes, wearing no noble house sigil, no armor, no blade… just a dark cloak, loose-traveling leathers, and a quiet, focused presence.
Suspicion flared instantly.
A young boy whispered, "Look at his eyes… like lightning."
An old woman nearby murmured a prayer and quickly turned away.
Kael didn't stop them. He understood fear. He had lived his entire life surrounded by it. But he had not come to harm them.
He had come to understand.
The Tainted Wind
As he passed through the village, he caught whispers of something deeper.
"Another farm swallowed by shadow."
"Whole patrol disappeared last week no trace, not even blood."
"They say the Demon Lord's influence spreads again."
Kael stopped in front of the inn, where a grizzled man with one arm stood watch over a map nailed to the wall. Dark smudges marked the surrounding forests.
"Shadow beasts?" Kael asked quietly.
The man eyed him, unimpressed. "What's it to you, boy?"
Kael met his gaze. "I've seen signs cracks in the land, magic bending unnaturally. It's spreading faster than they know."
The man narrowed his eyes. "And how would you know what magic looks like? You one of the Academy's runts? Some failed noble bastard?"
"No," Kael replied calmly. "I was born without magic."
A beat of silence passed. Then the man laughed bitterly. "Then you're useless."
Kael said nothing.
But the air behind him whispered in response.
Not loudly. Not threatening. Just… present.
The Flame and the Shadow
That night, the village was attacked.
Dark creatures spilled from the forest twisted forms with blackened flesh and glowing red eyes. They didn't roar. They didn't hiss. They moved with chilling silence, like shadows given shape.
The guards barely had time to scream.
Kael moved before thought could catch him.
He didn't need spells.
He didn't need incantations.
He simply stepped into the chaos and the shadows bent away from him.
A swipe from one of the beasts met a barrier of pure force, an invisible wall that shattered the creature's claw. Another lunged and Kael extended a hand. A wave of compressed space pulsed forward, erasing the thing mid-leap.
Villagers watched, stunned, as he moved like a ghost untouchable, but devastating.
When the last beast fell, silence returned. Smoke curled in the distance. Fear still hung heavy in the air. But the village stood.
And Kael stood at its center, unmoved.
A Name Not Yet Known
The next morning, as the villagers cleaned the blood from their homes and buried the fallen, whispers followed Kael wherever he walked.
Some called him cursed. Others called him a guardian.
None knew his name.
But all would remember what he had done.
Sylara's words echoed in his mind:
"Go not as the abandoned boy. Go as the Sovereign the world forgot."
And so, as Kael stepped out of the village and continued west toward the heart of the continent, he knew one truth:
The world had forgotten him.
But soon…
It would remember.