Chapter 2: The Ashen Mark
The world felt too vivid.
Kaien stood beneath the cold light of dawn, wrapped in the same servant's robes he wore before the massacre. His fingers tightened into fists. Each heartbeat echoed louder now—not in fear, but in awareness.
The mark pulsed beneath his skin, like a second heart.
He wasn't the same boy anymore.
---
"Kaien!" a voice called from behind.
He turned slowly, eyes narrowing. A girl with messy auburn hair and soot-stained cheeks sprinted toward him — Lira, the blacksmith's apprentice. In his old life, she had died protecting him during the final siege.
"Where the hell have you been? You were supposed to deliver the embers to the forge!" she scolded, panting.
Kaien blinked. The past and future blurred.
"I… got lost."
She frowned. "You've lived here your whole life. You can't get lost in your own shadow."
He let out a weak chuckle. "Guess I'm full of surprises."
Lira gave him a suspicious look before shoving a wrapped bundle into his arms. "Hurry up. The Flame Guard will be passing through the lower gates soon, and we can't risk another delay. Not after what happened last year."
Kaien's breath caught.
Last year—the attack that claimed dozens of innocent lives. The clan had called it a rogue demon incursion. But he knew better. Thalor had arranged it to cull the weak.
This time, Kaien would stop it.
He nodded. "Leave it to me."
As Lira rushed off, Kaien turned his gaze to the horizon. Smoke rose beyond the spires of the city. The same smoke that once signaled the fall of everything he loved.
Not this time.
---
Meanwhile…
Deep within the Flame Clan citadel, Lord Thalor stood atop the balcony of the Hall of Embers. His crimson cape danced with the wind, runes glowing faintly across his armor. His gaze scanned the training grounds, then rose to the twin moons.
"Seven years," he muttered.
Behind him, a figure cloaked in black knelt. "The demon gates stir, my lord. The gods remain silent."
Thalor smirked. "Good. Let them tremble. When they beg for salvation, it will be I who ascends."
"But what of the bastard?" the shadow asked.
Thalor's expression darkened. "He's dead. Ash scattered in the wind."
The shadows behind him didn't answer.
---
That night, Kaien sat alone atop the cliff behind the servant quarters — the only place that ever felt like peace. He held the medallion again, now glowing faintly.
"I have seven years to rewrite fate," he whispered.
"Seven years to awaken my power, expose the clan, and destroy Thalor."
He clenched the medallion tighter.
"I will become the storm that ends your fire."
And beneath him, in the depths of the world, something ancient stirred — awakened by the return of the Ashen Mark.