The sun hung high, burning gold across the endless stretch of sky. But Kael felt the chill before the shadow even touched the land.
He stood alone on the cliff's edge, the wind tugging at his pale cloak. Below, his village—Eldenreach—bustled with the final preparations for the harvest festival. Laughter echoed faintly from the square, mingling with the smell of roasting bread and autumn spice. Yet Kael's mind was far from the celebration.
The feeling had returned.
A pressure behind his eyes, like light bending wrong. A voice in the silence, whispering in a language he didn't understand.
He reached up and pressed his palm to his temple, trying to steady his breath.
"Not now," he muttered.
Behind him, soft footsteps crunched over gravel. "Kael?"
He turned to see Lira, the blind seer who had raised him, her clouded eyes focused somewhere just over his shoulder. Her cane tapped the earth, guiding her careful steps. She tilted her head slightly, as if listening to something only she could hear.
"It's happening again, isn't it?" she asked.
Kael hesitated. "I saw the sky split. Just for a second. And I heard… something."
"The eclipse draws near." Her voice was quiet, reverent. "It stirs what sleeps inside you."
Kael's hands curled into fists. "You said I was blessed. But it doesn't feel like a blessing."
Lira came closer, placing a hand over his. "Blessings and curses are the same to those who fear their power. What matters is the choice you make when the shadow comes."
He looked into her sightless eyes and felt the question pressing against his heart—What if I don't have a choice?
Suddenly, the wind shifted. The light dimmed, not with the coming of dusk, but as if the sun itself blinked. Villagers below gasped, pointing skyward.
Kael turned and froze.
A dark curve was eating into the sun.
A solar eclipse.
"No…" Lira whispered. "It's too soon."
The world fell into twilight.
And Kael screamed.
Light burst from his chest in golden spirals, clashing with rising threads of cold, violet mist. The sky above twisted unnaturally, clouds swirling in a perfect circle above him. His body lifted from the ground, his eyes wide with fear as both light and darkness erupted from him at once.
The blessing had awakened.
And nothing would ever be the same.