"Huh... that dream again. Who is that man?"
Daniel sat up hard, breath coming fast. Sweat clung to his neck and arms, and the echo of thunder still trembled in his bones. The little room was quiet, just the steady creak of the rafters and the pale light creeping through the shutters.
For a while, he didn't move. His hands were still shaking.
The same dream, every night. Always the same man wrapped in living lightning.
He rubbed at his eyes and muttered, "Maybe I should stop eating stew before bed."
But even as he said it, he knew the dream wasn't just a dream.
The smell of bread baking in the street below faded, replaced by the sharp scent of rain and smoke. His vision swam. The floor seemed to dissolve under his feet.
---
The void opened.
Stars burst like shards of glass. Giants of flame and shadow tore at each other in silence, their blows shaping whole worlds. And at the heart of it all was him.
The man.
Lightning rolled across his body, each spark burning like a newborn sun.
Daniel couldn't move. Couldn't breathe.
> "Enough!" The man's voice shook the cosmos. "Must the children of creation always destroy what they were meant to protect?"
Around him, other beings appeared: Flame, Frost, Darkness, Time. Titans, their power rippling through galaxies.
"You've gone too far, Arkarion!" the Primordial of Flame shouted. "Your storm devours everything!"
"It does not devour," Arkarion's reply rumbled. "It creates. Lightning is the breath of life, the spark that began all things."
Their clash split creation itself. Worlds flickered into being and died in seconds.
Daniel watched, helpless, as the storm turned toward him.
> "You… carry my spark."
Pain tore through his chest. Light consumed everything.
"You cannot bind what was never born!"
The roar shattered the void.
---
Daniel woke with a sharp gasp. His sheets were twisted around his legs. Sunlight pressed through the shutters.
For a heartbeat, faint arcs of light flickered across his fingertips, then faded, leaving only the smell of wood and dust.
He stared at his hand, heart hammering.
"What was that…?"
A knock jolted him.
"Daniel! You'll be late for the Awakening!" Rio's voice came muffled through the door.
Daniel took a slow breath. "Yeah, I'm coming!"
He stood, wiped his face, and glanced once more at his palm — empty, ordinary.
Almost.
Outside, the wind shifted. Somewhere in that soft breeze, he could almost hear a voice — quiet, distant, familiar.
> "The storm never dies… it only sleeps."