Chapter 97
The village held its silence like breath before a storm.
Kael stepped into the frozen square, each footfall echoing across paused time.
He knelt before the boy.
His own face, but younger.His own flame, but colder.His own past, but forgotten.
"I didn't know you existed," Kael said softly.
The boy didn't answer.
He just stared at him. Calm. Unblinking.
Kael reached into the pocket of his coat and pulled something small—a fragment of fig bark, charred at the edges.
"I carried this ever since the fire… The night everything changed.I thought it was a scar."
He looked at the boy.
"But maybe it was a reminder.That something… someone… was left behind."
The boy's voice came at last. Barely audible.
"Why did they choose you?"
Kael didn't flinch.
"Because I screamed louder."
The boy blinked. Something in his shoulders slackened.
"So I was punished for being quiet."
Kael lowered his head.
"No. You were punished because they mistook silence for surrender."
The wind shifted.
Above them, the sky cracked faintly.A sliver of white flame flickered in the clouds.
Eliendara, still deep in the archives, felt it too.
She looked up from the scroll with horror.
"They're coming back…"
Back in the village, Kael reached out slowly.
"Let me fix what I can. Let me name you."
The boy stared at his hand.
Then, with quiet finality, he said:
"Only if I get to choose what it means."
Kael nodded once.
"Then choose."
The boy closed his eyes.
And when he opened them again, the fire in his pupils shimmered into something strange—not cold, not hot.
Balanced.
"My name is Vaern."
Kael repeated it with care.
"Vaern."
The world trembled.
As if acknowledging what the gods had buried.
And then…
From the sky, a crack split wide open.
A voice thundered across existence—
"You were never meant to meet."
A blinding white flame descended, cutting through time, burning toward the ground like judgment.
Kael grabbed Vaern and pulled him close.
But it was too late.
The gods had returned.
And this time…
they were afraid.
🔮 Next Chapter Preview – Chapter 98: The Flame Above the Law
The gods descend with one goal—separate the twin flames before they fuse into something beyond their control.
Kael must choose: protect the boy he abandoned…or kneel to the power that once made him.
But Vaern is no longer silent—and the fire inside him is ready to speak.