Chapter 1: Born Under Ominous Skies
The night the stars fell sideways, Kael was born. The midwinter sky shimmered with an eerie light, silver and violet streaks tearing across the heavens, and the villagers whispered that such a night could not bring good fortune. In the small, crumbling house at the edge of the village, a baby cried—a sharp, piercing sound that seemed to echo from the shadows themselves.
His mother, pale and trembling, held him with hands that shook. His father's eyes were hard, cold, and unyielding. His siblings looked on, eyes wide, mouths twitching with unspoken mockery. For Kael's first moments, no warmth greeted him. Instead, he felt fear, suspicion, and the weight of prophecy pressing against his tiny chest.
The midwife frowned. "This child… he is different. His eyes… one gold, one violet. Such things are ill omens."
His mother clutched him tighter. "He is my son," she whispered, though even her voice wavered.
The villagers outside had already begun murmuring. "Cursed," they said. "Marked by shadow." And when the candlelight flickered strangely, casting dancing shadows that seemed alive, the whispers grew louder.
By morning, the decision was made. Kael's father would not hold him. His mother avoided him. His siblings—jealous, cruel, and fearful—pushed him aside. Even the midwife, who had once delivered many healthy babies, refused to care for him.
From that day forward, Kael was an outcast.
But the shadows did not reject him. They clung to him, curling around his small frame like protective wings. When he cried, the wind seemed to soothe him; when he slept, moonlight bathed him in warmth. The villagers may have seen a cursed child, but in the night, the child felt a presence older than time itself, whispering secrets only he could hear.
Years passed, and Kael learned quickly. Rejection became survival. Hunger taught him stealth. Loneliness taught him to watch, to listen, to move unseen. The villagers would curse him, but he would remain, silent and unnoticed, observing the world they had barred him from.
And yet, even in isolation, the boy could not escape the pull of the stars that had marked his birth. They called to him in dreams: visions of shadow and light intertwining, of a destiny far greater than simple survival, of a prophecy that whispered his name across time.
"Born of shadow… born of light… he will either save us or doom us all."
Kael did not yet understand the meaning of the words, but he would. One day, he would rise from the rejection, from the fear, and the boy who had been cast away would become something far more powerful than anyone had dared to imagine.