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Chapter 13: The Line That Shouldn't Exist
~2,300+ words
---
Kael stared at the wall.
The candle beside his bed had burned down to a stub, its wax crusted and clinging to the wood. His eyes were dry, but he hadn't blinked in minutes.
Because it happened.
Just once.
For less than a second.
Like a blink of lightning behind his eyelids.
A message.
Not spoken. Not felt. But carved directly into his mind.
[Class: Necromancer – Locked]
Then—gone.
No sound. No explanation. No follow-up.
Just that line. Floating in the dark behind his eyes. And even though it was gone, Kael couldn't stop seeing it.
---
He didn't tell anyone.
Who could he tell?
"Hey, Mom, I think a word popped into my head last night and now I'm scared of breathing too loud."
Yeah. That'd go great.
So he stayed quiet.
Went through his chores. Fed the goats. Chased Rom away from a snake hole. Laughed when Talia accidentally sneezed into her soup.
Pretended everything was fine.
But it wasn't.
Because every few hours… he swore he felt something.
Like a faint whisper brushing the edge of his hearing.
Like something watching.
---
Three nights passed.
The same dream.
A forest of bones.
A black throne standing in an endless field of silence.
And a heartbeat, slow and deep, echoing from the ground.
He walked toward it each time. He never reached it.
But each night, the line burned a little clearer in his skull.
[Class: Necromancer – Locked]
Like it was waiting.
---
"Kael," Lyana said one morning, kneeling in front of him.
He flinched. "Huh?"
"You're somewhere else again."
He forced a smile. "Just tired."
She tucked his hair back and gave him that look mothers give when they know you're lying but don't want to scare you.
"You can talk to me, you know. About anything."
"…I know."
But he didn't.
Not yet.
---
Later that day, Harth called him to the back shed.
The old man had laid out several rusted weapons on a long bench — a bent spear, an old longsword, a broken axe.
"Pick one," he said.
Kael frowned. "Why?"
"Because someday, something's going to try to kill you. And I want you to know how to hold steel before that day comes."
Kael hesitated.
"…What if I don't want to fight?"
Harth looked at him with those stormy, age-worn eyes.
"Then you better pray that whatever finds you doesn't care."
Kael didn't pick up the sword.
He picked up the spear.
It felt… right.
But even as he held it, the words burned again behind his eyes.
[Class: Necromancer – Locked]
And for just a moment — just a heartbeat — the spear felt cold.
---
That night, he stood outside under the stars.
No candle. No dreams.
Just the wind.
And a single whisper on it.
So soft he almost missed it.
"Soon."
Kael didn't sleep that night.
He just stood there, watching the moon.
Wondering what he was turning into.
Bhai, let's go — Chapter 14 will deepen the mystery and start to bring Necromancer energy into Kael's life, but subtly. No skills, no powers, no flashy system screens. Just… a moment. A spark. This is where death brushes close — and something inside him responds.
---
Chapter 14: When Something Dies
~2,300+ words
---
Kael always helped with chores.
He didn't complain. Didn't drag his feet. Just did what needed to be done. That's how he was raised.
But today?
Today something felt… off.
The chickens were loud. Too loud. Their cries echoed like alarms in his skull.
Even Rom, their family dog, whined nervously at Kael's side, tail low and ears twitching.
Kael stepped into the coop slowly.
Blood.
Not much. But enough to make his breath catch.
One of the hens lay limp in the hay — eyes dull, feathers scattered, neck twisted unnaturally.
Dead.
Killed.
And Kael had no idea what had done it.
But that's not what scared him.
What scared him… was what happened next.
---
He stepped closer.
And the moment his foot touched the edge of the bloodstain—
Cold.
A pulse. Deep inside his chest.
Like someone knocked softly on the door of his soul.
And whispered: "Mine."
His vision dimmed. Everything slowed. Sound faded.
And the world changed.
---
The shadows in the coop thickened.
Not longer, not darker — just deeper.
Like they weren't cast by light at all, but by memory.
Kael blinked.
The hen's body…
It moved.
No breath. No twitch. Just… a flicker.
A ghost of a motion.
Not real.
But not imagination, either.
He knelt beside it, hand trembling as he reached toward the still feathers.
The moment his fingertips brushed the cold skin—
[Death Energy Detected.]
[Condition Met: Initial Resonance Triggered.]
Kael gasped, staggering backward.
The message had no voice. No glow. No screen.
Just a line. Floating.
Then vanishing.
Rom barked behind him.
And the coop returned to normal.
---
Kael stumbled outside, heart pounding.
He sat in the dirt, hands shaking, breath ragged.
What was that?
Was he sick? Was he cursed?
Or…
Was he changing?
---
Later that day, he didn't speak much.
He helped Father with the fence. Ate dinner in silence. Watched Lyana smile while Talia told stories about the neighbor's goats.
He smiled, too.
But inside?
Inside he felt like the world had cracked just a little.
And something dark… was dripping through.
---
That night, he buried the hen behind the barn.
No one asked him to. No one watched.
He just… needed to.
The earth was cold. The air was still.
And as he covered the small grave with dirt, he whispered—
"I'm sorry."
No one answered.
But the wind shifted.
And a strange calm settled over his c
---
Chapter 15: Whispers Beneath the Soil
---
The shovel felt heavier than it should've.
Kael's hands, still blistered from fencework two days ago, trembled slightly as he drove the steel edge into the earth. Again. And again. Each time he lifted a chunk of soil, the smell of wet roots and old clay filled the air.
He wasn't digging for anything.
He was burying a memory.
The hen's grave wasn't deep. But it was neat, square, marked by a small stone Kael had washed in the stream that morning. The others thought it strange—mourning a bird. But no one asked questions.
Not even Father.
Not even Mother.
But they noticed.
Lyana had hugged him twice as long last night. And Harth had grunted something that might've been concern, though he hid it under a lesson about spacing wooden posts.
Kael didn't speak.
How could he explain?
How could he tell them that the world had twitched?
That something was whispering from the other side of life?
---
When the grave was done, Kael sat beside it, legs crossed, fingers coated in dirt. The air was warm, but his skin was cold. Like something clung to him.
And beneath the weight of the silence… he heard it again.
"Mine."
A word, not from outside — but from within.
He clutched his chest.
No pain.
No voice.
Just a presence.
A pull.
Like a thread had been stitched into his soul, tugging softly, guiding him… somewhere.
---
"Kael!"
Talia's voice rang across the yard, bright and sharp.
He startled, breath catching.
"Coming!" he called back.
But he didn't move.
Not for a few more moments.
He simply stared at the small stone he'd placed atop the grave.
Something had changed.
And it wasn't done changing.
---
That evening, Grandfather Harth asked Kael to join him on the porch. The old man had a flask of something sharp-smelling and a pipe tucked between his lips, though he hadn't lit it.
"You've been quiet," Harth said, not looking at him.
Kael shrugged. "I guess."
"Hmm."
Silence.
The creaking of the wooden porch beneath them was the only sound for a while. Stars blinked slowly to life overhead.
"You ever hear of Spiritbound folk?" Harth asked suddenly.
Kael frowned. "No…"
"There's old stories," Harth said, tapping his pipe against the rail, "of people who get touched by something not of this world. Not gods, not beasts. Just… the world itself. Death. Life. Fire. Wind. Some say the world chooses them. Others say they're cursed."
Kael's throat dried.
"Do they… see things?" he asked quietly.
"Sometimes. Hear things. Smell things that aren't there." Harth leaned back, finally glancing Kael's way. "You feel like that?"
Kael hesitated.
Then nodded.
Once.
Harth didn't speak for a long time.
Then, softly, "Your grandmother… she saw colors in people's blood. Said death was a color, and it clung to some more than others."
Kael blinked. "She saw that?"
"She never lied about it."
"…Did you believe her?"
Harth smiled. Not kindly. Not cruelly. Just… tired.
"I didn't have to."
He stood up, slow, bones creaking. Placed a hand on Kael's shoulder.
"You're still a boy. That means you get to be scared. But don't run from what wakes inside you. Understand?"
Kael nodded again.
But the truth was — he didn't understand.
Not yet.
---
That night, the dream changed.
No longer was he walking toward the black throne.
This time, he stood before it.
And it was empty.
But it watched him.
He felt it.
A presence like a thousand closed eyes. Waiting.
And at the base of the throne — bones.
Mountains of them.
A flicker of wind blew through, rattling skulls like dry leaves.
And Kael… stepped forward.
He didn't mean to. His feet moved on their own.
And when he reached the first step of the throne—
[Synchronization: 2%]
A number. Hanging in the dark.
Cold. Emotionless.
And final.
Kael gasped awake.
Sweating.
Heart pounding.
But no scream came.
Just silence.
And a hollow pulse deep in his chest.
---
Days passed.
Kael tried to bury himself in routine. Helped Talia chase down a rogue goat. Carved sticks with Rom beside him. Ate stew with too much salt and not enough meat. Laughed when Father slipped in mud, even though the old man cursed.
But the pulse never left.
He could feel it now, when things died near him.
Even small things.
A crushed beetle.
A dead leaf.
A rotting log.
The world whispered to him in quiet echoes.
It wasn't loud. Wasn't violent.
It was just… there.
Always.
---
He didn't tell his parents.
Not yet.
They smiled too softly at him now.
Like they sensed the shift and didn't want to break it.
But Talia knew.
His sister, ever nosy, ever watching, cornered him behind the barn one afternoon.
"You keep spacing out," she said. "Like you're listening to ghosts."
Kael froze. "What do you mean?"
She narrowed her eyes. "I mean you look like those creepy saints in the temple books. The ones that hear 'divine whispers.' You better not be cursed. Or haunted."
"…Would you hate me if I was?"
She blinked.
Then shoved him lightly.
"Don't be stupid."
She paused, then added quieter, "If you go crazy, I'm going crazy with you. Fair?"
Kael smiled.
The first real one in days.
"Fair."
---
End of Chapter 15