It began with dreams that burned too brightly to forget.
In those dreams, Kael saw a boy standing in a meadow bathed in silver light.The sky suspended between dawn and dusk, a faint breeze carrying secrets through the tall grass.
And there — always there — was him.
A boy whose hair shimmered between moonlight and shadow, eyes heavy with a sorrow far beyond his years.He would turn, smile, and whisper words Kael could never catch before the vision shattered like fragile glass.
Each night it returned.Each morning, a name lingered on Kael's tongue — fleeting, elusive, gone with the sun.
"Are you real… or am I dreaming even when I'm awake?"
Time passed.Kael grew taller, sharper, more distant.The dreams did not fade; they sharpened, like knives against memory.
The boy grew too — no longer a child, but a young man whose eyes could drown a lifetime in their depth.
Sometimes Kael woke trembling, as though he had lived another life entirely within those dreams.Sometimes he swore he heard that soft, phantom voice echoing through the empty halls of the academy.
The dreams carried fragments of memories Kael could not place:
a laugh that felt like home
a touch that burned through time
a sorrow so deep it made his chest ache before he even knew why
Until the day he could no longer deny it.
Morning sunlight spilled across marble spires, gilding them in gold.Kael stood among the crowd of students, arms folded, pretending to listen, yet his mind drifted in that liminal space between dream and memory.The chatter of his peers, the scrape of shoes against stone, even the faint scent of the academy gardens — it all blurred under the pull of something achingly familiar.
Until — a name was called.
A quiet figure stepped forward.
He moved with a grace that seemed to slow the world, silver hair catching the light, eyes unreadable yet agonizingly familiar.
Kael's breath caught.The noise of the courtyard dissolved.
It was him.The boy from the dreams.
The one who shouldn't exist.
"Those eyes… they've been burned into my soul before this life."
The boy's gaze met Kael's for a fleeting second.Something ancient, electric, and terrifying surged in Kael's chest — recognition, grief, longing, obsession.
I've seen those eyes before… in another time. Another life.
The words slipped from Kael's lips before he realized he had spoken them.The boy blinked once, a subtle pause, as if feeling the invisible thread tightening between them.The world stilled. Even the air seemed to hold its breath.
Every heartbeat screamed in Kael's ears.Every shadow and light felt drawn toward this singular, impossible presence.
Deep inside, a voice murmured:
"You've finally found him."
And then the moment broke.The crowd shifted, voices returned, and the boy turned away — unaware of the storm that had just awakened.
Kael stood frozen, fingers trembling, the ghost of memory clawing at him.The dreams had been a warning. A promise. A fragment of something unfinished.
For the first time, he realized:Fate had never been a story of chance.It had always been a countdown, written long before either of them drew breath.
—By Aurea; even eternity breathes a name called "Love."