The glimmer was faint, no more than a pinprick in the gloom where the torchlight didn't quite reach.
Kael's eyes tracked it instinctively. It didn't move like light should. It watched.
The captain was halfway through the door when Kael spoke.
"There's something behind you."
The captain stopped, glanced over his shoulder, and frowned at the bare stone wall. "Try a better trick, boy. You're not walking out of here with stories."
The door slammed shut. The iron lock clicked into place.
Kael was alone.
For a few heartbeats, there was only silence. Then...
You see me.
The voice wasn't a sound in the room. It was in his head, layered and strange — as if several people spoke at once but shared the same words.
Kael stiffened. His pulse quickened, but not from fear. It was… recognition.
"Who are you?" he asked aloud.
Names are for those who need to be remembered.
The golden light swelled slightly, stretching into the rough outline of a figure. Not solid — not even mist. It was like looking through a tear in the air itself, behind which something far older stared back.
Kael stood, chains clinking. "You've been following me."
Not following. The voice seemed to curl around the words, dragging his thoughts in directions they weren't meant to go. Waiting.
"For what?"
There was a pause, then something like a whisper brushing against the inside of his skull:
For you to remember.
Kael's breath caught. "Remember what?"
The figure's outline shifted, bending as though leaning closer. The golden light within it pulsed in time with his heartbeat.
How to walk between moments.
The words sent a shiver down Kael's spine not because he understood them, but because part of him already did. Like a locked door rattling under some unseen force.
The air in the room grew heavier, pressing against his chest.
Your enemies are already moving, child of the blade. They smell what you carry.
Kael's throat tightened. "I don't know what you're talking about."
You will.
The light dimmed slightly, as though retreating into itself.
When they come for you, do not fight time, cut it.
Before Kael could speak again, the light snapped out.
The weight in the air vanished.
Only the dull echo of the voice lingered, fading like the last ripple on still water.
---
Kael stood frozen for a moment before the door unlocked.
Two guards stepped in.
"On your feet," one ordered. "The captain wants you in the war room."
Kael moved, chains rattling. His mind was still on the golden light… and the strange truth it had left him.
Because deep in his chest, in a place words couldn't reach, he knew this wasn't the first time he'd heard it.