The rain had stopped sometime before dawn.
Kael noticed it only when the silence became too loud.
No wind. No dripping water. No distant footsteps.
Just stillness.
He stood at the edge of the abandoned courtyard, the stone beneath his boots cold and uneven. The place had been sealed for decades—at least according to Elder Rowan. No patrols. No witnesses. That was why Rowan had insisted Kael come alone.
Lyra was already gone, sent away before sunrise with a warning not to follow.
Some truths aren't meant to be shared yet.
Kael clenched his jaw at the memory.
"You're late."
The voice came from behind him.
Kael turned instantly.
She stood beneath the broken archway where the shadows pooled unnaturally deep—a woman wrapped in a gray cloak that seemed untouched by dust or rain.
She had been there the entire time.
The Woman in Gray Appearance:She was tall and slender, her posture perfectly balanced, as if gravity itself bent slightly around her. Her hair was ash-gray, long and straight, falling freely down her back. Her eyes were pale silver—sharp, ancient, and unsettlingly calm. Her face showed no clear age; neither young nor old. The gray cloak she wore bore no insignia, no wear, no sign of origin
I didn't hear you approach," Kael said.
"That's the point."
Her gaze moved over him—not inspecting, not judging, but measuring. As if weighing the worth of something already broken.
"You look disappointed," she continued. "Did you expect a legend?"
"I expected answers."
A faint smile touched her lips. It vanished as quickly as it appeared.
"Answers are dangerous things," she said. "Once you have them, you can't pretend anymore."
Kael felt the familiar pressure in his chest—the one he'd carried since the night everything changed.
You know what I am," he said.
"I know what you will become if you survive long enough."
She stepped forward.
The air shifted.
Not violently. Subtly. As if the world had inhaled.
Kael's instincts screamed.
He reached for the power he barely understood—the thing that slept beneath his skin—but the moment he did, her eyes narrowed.
"Do not," she said quietly.
The pressure vanished.
Kael staggered back a step, breathing hard.
"You just suppressed it," he said.
"Yes."
"That shouldn't be possible."
"Many things shouldn't be possible," she replied. "Yet here you are."
She circled him slowly.
"You've been watched since the day you were born, Kael Ashborne."
His blood ran cold.
Only three people knew his full name.
"Who are you?"
She stopped in front of him.
"For now," she said, "you may call me Seris.
"I'm not here to train you," Seris continued. "Not yet."
"Then why am I here?"
"To decide if you're worth saving."
Her words struck harder than any blow.
Kael laughed bitterly. "You sound like the Warden."
At that, something changed.
Just for a fraction of a second.
Cold flickered behind her eyes.
"Do not compare me to him."
Silence fell again.
Far away, a bell rang—morning signal.
Time was moving.
"You have three paths," Seris said. "Ignore what you are and die quietly. Embrace it recklessly and become a weapon. Or—"
She met his gaze fully now.
"—learn control."
Kael swallowed. "And you help me with the third?"
"If you survive the next seven days."
"What happens in seven days?"
Seris turned away, already fading into the shadows.
she said"The city burns," "Or it doesn't.
Her form dissolved—not vanishing, not
teleporting—simply ceasing to be there, like a thought forgotten mid-sentence.
Kael stood alone once more.
The courtyard felt smaller now.
More fragile.
He exhaled slowly.
Seven days.
For the first time since his power awakened, Kael wasn't afraid of what he was becoming.
He was afraid of what would happen if he failed.