The cave air thickened, stale and heavy as a tomb. Kaelion moved first, stepping in front of Aelric with his sword raised. Evren's eyes scanned the trees, fire dancing at his fingertips.
Another step, another crunch of dead leaves. Then-
A boy appeared.
Small, pale, and barefoot, with long white hair that shone like tarnished silver in the weak light. His clothes were torn, his eyes wide and unnervingly vacant. But what stilled the breath in their lungs was his face.
Young, too young.
And beautiful in a way that felt deeply wrong.
Aelric's breath hitched. "No... It can't be."
The boy tilted his head, his gaze fixing on Aelric. "You left me," he said, his voice flat.
Kaelion and Evren exchanged a single, tense glance.
Aelric's voice was broken. "Seryn...?"
The boy's lips curved. "You remember me."
Evren muttered low, "Who in the abyss is Seryn?"
Aelric's legs gave out, and he dropped to his knees. "He was my brother."
Seryn drifted closer. "Was?"
"You died," Aelric whispered, eyes glassy with resurrected grief. "You drowned. I tried to save you- I swear I tried."
The boy's smile was a cold, bloodless thing. "You let go."
Kaelion stepped between them, his voice a blade of steel. "This is not right."
Evren nodded, his stance coiled. "He's too calm. This forest doesn't give back the dead."
"I'm not dead," Seryn said, looking past Kaelion. "I'm just... borrowed."
A gust of wind screamed through the cave, extinguishing their fire in a single, hissing breath.
Seryn looked back at Aelric, his voice dropping into something distorted and deep. "And now I'm here to return what was taken. You, brother."
Aelric cried out, grabbing his head as magic raw and chaotic erupted from him in jagged sparks. Kaelion caught him before he could collapse.
Evren stepped squarely in front of the apparition. "You are not his brother."
Seryn blinked then smiled again, this time too wide, too sharp, splitting his face.
"No," he whispered, "but he'll remember me that way. And when he breaks so will you all."
Aelric thrashed in Kaelion's arms, his face a mask of agony, as if a thousand stolen voices screamed inside his skull.
Evren dropped to his knees beside them, grabbing Aelric's wrist. "He's caught in a mental entrapment spell. Memories twisted into chains."
Kaelion's growl was pure fury. "Can you break it?"
"I need time," Evren said, his own eyes glowing as his hands lit with a soft, golden light. "Keep that thing away from us."
Seryn watched them, his head tilted with an eerie, predatory calm.
"You're hurting him," Kaelion hissed.
"I'm not hurting him," Seryn replied softly. "He's just remembering the truth."
Kaelion raised his blade, the point aimed at the thing's heart. "You are not his brother. And you will not touch him again."
Seryn's voice dropped, unnatural and sharp as shattered glass. "I'm already in him."
Then he lunged.
Kaelion blocked just in time the boy's delicate-looking hands were now tipped with obsidian claws. Steel clashed against something unseen, and a pulse of dark energy threw Kaelion back against the cavern wall.
Evren cursed, pressing his hands harder against Aelric's chest. "Come on... fight it..."
Inside Aelric's mind, everything was fire and water.
Memories warred real and fabricated. He stood at the edge of a raging river, a boy drowning, a small hand slipping from his grasp. But now there were whispers behind him, a cold presence pushing him forward, telling him to let go, to forget, to obey.
"No," Aelric choked out, the word a spark in the darkness. "You're not Seryn."
The water twisted, forming a liquid, smiling face. "But you want me to be."
He screamed- and woke up.
Evren jerked back as Aelric sat bolt upright, panting, his eyes wild but clear.
Seryn whatever it was- froze. "That's impossible."
Aelric stood, his voice trembling but strong. "You're not my brother. And I'm done letting the dead haunt me."
Light pure, searing, and blinding surged from his palms.
Seryn shrieked, a sound not of a child, but of a thing never meant to have a voice. It vanished in a flash, leaving behind only the acrid scent of ozone and smoke.
Kaelion rushed to Aelric, catching him as he staggered.
"You okay?"
"No," Aelric rasped, leaning into the support, "but I will be."
Evren looked between them, his expression grim. "We need to move. That thing will come back."
Kaelion's jaw tightened, his gaze sweeping the dark trees. "Let it."
The forest had stilled into an unnerving reverence after Seryn vanished. They moved deeper, led by Evren's silent instincts, the silence between them heavy with unspoken truths.
"We'll make camp here," Evren finally said, pausing in a moonlit clearing encircled by ancient, moss-covered stones. "It's safe. For now."
As Kaelion set down his sword and began rebuilding the fire, Aelric wandered, drawn by a strange pull a feeling of being watched, but not with hostility. With curiosity.
Then he saw him.
A boy, small and delicate, maybe thirteen, curled up beneath the roots of a great oak in a nest of dry leaves. His long lashes fluttered as he slept, and his silver-blond hair shimmered like frost. His clothes were simple and torn, his skin marked with faint, pulsing blue sigils.
Aelric knelt. "Hey... are you alright?"
The boy's eyes blinked open wide, bright, and glowing the softest lilac. He smiled, slow and sleepy. "You found me."
Kaelion and Evren were at Aelric's side in an instant, both instantly wary. The boy didn't flinch.
"Who are you?" Kaelion demanded, his hand resting on his sword.
The boy sat up, stretching like a contented cat. "Name's Lumi."
"Are you human?" Evren asked, his eyes narrowed.
Lumi tilted his head. "Not exactly. But I'm not your enemy either."
Aelric, against all reason, believed him.
Lumi grinned, leaning forward as if sharing a delicious secret. "I've been waiting for you. You'll need me soon. The forest chose me."
"The forest?" Kaelion echoed, skepticism dripping from the word.
Lumi nodded. 'It speaks, you know. In dreams. It told me someone like you would come." His lilac eyes settled on Aelric. "With fire in his heart," then shifted to Kaelion "and a curse on his soul."
The clearing seemed to grow colder.
Kaelion stepped protectively between them. "He's just a child."
Evren murmured, "Or something wearing one."
But Aelric said, his voice soft but final, "He's staying."
And just like that, Lumi was woven into their journey smiling, skipping, humming little melodies to the wind. A flash of laughter in the encroaching dark.
A flicker of warmth they hadn't known they needed.
And in time... something they would come to love.
And lose.
They traveled quietly the next morning.
Lumi trotted alongside Aelric, barefoot and unbothered by the forest's chill, pointing out birds and flowers with a grin that seemed untouched by the world's darkness. The others, however, watched him Kaelion with open suspicion, Evren with a calculating wariness.
"He's not normal," Evren whispered to Kaelion as they fell behind. "Those markings… they're not decorative. They're ancient binding runes."
Kaelion gave a slight, grim nod. "You think he's dangerous?"
"I think he was made to be dangerous."
Ahead, Aelric laughed a genuine, unburdened sound as Lumi poked fun at his clumsy footing. For a moment, it was almost peaceful.
But then the trees changed.
They entered a part of the forest where sunlight was a forgotten memory. The air grew thick, suffocating. Even Lumi slowed, his smile dissolving into unease.
"We shouldn't be here," he whispered, his voice suddenly small.
"Why not?" Aelric asked.
"This place remembers pain. Too much of it."
As if summoned by his words, a scream tore through the trees.
Aelric turned to Kaelion instinctively, and the prince's sword was already in his hand.
Evren's palm blazed with green flame. "We're not alone."
Figures emerged tall, hunched, faceless things that slithered more than walked, woven from shadow and despair. Forest wraiths.
Lumi pressed behind Aelric. "Don't let them touch me."
Kaelion pulled Aelric behind him, his snarl a promise of violence. "No one touches any of us."
Evren launched the first strike, his fire turning one wraith to smoke. But more came. Dozens.
Aelric held Lumi tight as Kaelion and Evren fought back-to-back, blades and spells searing the darkness. For the first time, they moved as one entity not prince and mage, but a single, devastating force.
When the last wraith dissolved into mist, Lumi collapsed to his knees, whispering, "It's getting closer."
Kaelion knelt beside him. "What is?"
Lumi looked up, his lilac eyes suddenly ancient. "The thing that cursed your bloodline."
Kaelion's heart stuttered to a halt.
Evren stepped closer, his voice dangerously quiet. "You know about that?"
Lumi didn't answer. He just closed his eyes and murmured, "We need to move faster. Or Kaelion dies before the truth comes out."
Silence.
Even the wind seemed to hold its breath.
Kaelion stood frozen, the weight of the words pressing down on him.
The others waited, but Lumi's warning had shifted the very air it felt as if the forest itself was listening, waiting for the fallout.
"You're going to explain that," Kaelion said at last, his voice low and dangerously controlled.
Lumi glanced at him, all traces of childish mischief gone, replaced by a solemn gravity. "I wasn't supposed to say it yet."
Evren stepped forward. "Then say it now."
Lumi looked between the three of them, then sat cross-legged on the moss. "Your bloodline Kaelion's is cursed. That's no secret. But what is hidden is the origin… and the price it demands."
Kaelion's fists clenched. "We were told it was a punishment for betrayal."
"It was never betrayal," Lumi replied, his voice soft as a requiem. "It was sacrifice."
Evren frowned. "Sacrifice?"
"Centuries ago, a prince of your line gave up his heart to stop a war. He gave it to the wrong power. That heart twisted into something ancient and hateful. It made a pact… a binding. And every descendant has carried the burden since."
Aelric crouched beside Lumi. "And how do you know this?"
Lumi looked at him with something akin to grief. "Because I was there. I saw it."
Kaelion took a sharp step back. "What?"
"I don't age like you," Lumi said, his gaze distant, seeing centuries past. "Not really. I am tied to that curse… to the first sacrifice. I was meant to be the vessel for its return. But I ran."
A heavy, profound silence fell over the clearing.
Aelric was the one to break it, his voice gentle. "And now?"
"Now it's hunting again. It knows Kaelion's heart is waking up. It will want it either broken or offered willingly. That is how it feeds."
Evren's hand moved, hovering protectively near Kaelion's arm. "And if we kill it?"
"You can't," Lumi said, his voice barely a whisper. "But maybe you can unbind it."
Kaelion stared at him, the prince finally laid bare before the truth. "How?"
Lumi looked from Aelric's worried face back to Kaelion's hardened one.
"You'll have to choose," he said, the words falling like a final verdict, "between power… or love."
Kaelion flinched as if struck, then turned away, his jaw a tight line of anguish.
Aelric rose and went to him, standing silently at his side.
The forest whispered around them, but this time, no one had anything left to say.