Kael's eyes fluttered open to the dim light of dawn, the aftermath of exhaustion still lingering in his muscles. He wasn't sure if he had even slept or if the darkness had merely swallowed him whole, leaving him suspended between exhaustion and dreamless void. His mind was still cluttered with the veiled message from the soul imprint—the whispers that had clawed at the back of his mind since the encounter. "Beware, Kael. Your greatest trial approaches. The marks are not what they seem."
He scoffed and rubbed his eyes, forcing himself upright. "Of course, it's not what it seems. Nothing ever is. Can't a guy just sleep in peace?"
The room around him was silent, save for the quiet crackle of firewood in the corner. The flickering shadows seemed to mock him as he swung his legs off the bed and stood, the cold air biting at his skin. His body screamed in protest, but his stubborn nature won out.
Kael staggered to the window, pushing aside the heavy curtain to let in the gray morning light. The landscape stretched out before him, vast and unnerving, as if it were holding its breath—waiting for something. Perhaps waiting for him. The thought gnawed at him.
He turned, pacing back to his cot. "Alright, enough moping. I'm not going to let some cryptic prophecy screw with my head. It's just more of that nonsense the soul imprint likes to throw at me. No big deal."
But even as he muttered the words, the weight of the message lingered. The soul imprint was never wrong, even when it played with his mind. And this time, something felt... different. The unsettling feeling gnawed at him like a predator lurking in the shadows.
Kael couldn't help but chuckle at the thought. "Maybe I'm losing it."
As if on cue, a voice cut through his thoughts, sharp and tinged with amusement.
"I'm not sure you ever had it, Kael."
Kael turned to find Saria leaning against the doorframe, arms crossed, an eyebrow raised. Her tousled hair framed her face, and her eyes were as unreadable as ever. The way she stood—so composed—always left him with the feeling that he was the one constantly trying to catch up.
"What do you mean by that?" Kael smirked, playing it off as he wiped his face with a towel. His usual sarcasm was a comfortable armor.
"You're a mess," she said flatly, pushing herself off the door. "We need to talk."
Kael raised an eyebrow. "About what? My charm? My unrivaled genius? Or perhaps how utterly irresistible I am?"
Saria's lips curled into a slight smile, though it didn't quite reach her eyes. "The imprint, Kael. You haven't said anything about it. You're letting this whole 'chosen one' thing get to you."
Kael froze for a moment. Saria's words cut deeper than he was willing to admit. But he recovered quickly, throwing a grin her way.
"Chosen one? Please, Saria. I'm just a guy who happens to get dragged into this mess because some people think I've got potential. They're probably regretting that by now."
Saria sighed, stepping forward. "You can play the fool all you want, Kael. But you're going to have to face it eventually."
"I'm not playing the fool," he muttered under his breath, his sarcasm failing him for a moment. He didn't want to admit that Saria might be right. That the weight of the soul imprint's words was starting to sink in.
The imprint's message had been clear—"Your greatest trial approaches. The marks are not what they seem." But what did that mean? What were the marks? And why did it feel like a storm was brewing just beneath the surface?
"You're not the only one who's struggling with this," Saria continued, her voice softer now. "But you can't keep pretending you're not important. The imprint isn't just some random thing. It's leading you somewhere."
"Yeah, to my doom, probably," Kael muttered sarcastically. He couldn't help it. It was the only way he knew how to cope. "But thanks for the pep talk, Saria. Really inspiring stuff."
Saria's expression hardened. She had been around Kael long enough to know when he was deflecting. The sarcasm was a shield, one he hid behind when things got too real. And for all the banter they shared, she knew this time was different. She could see it in his eyes. He wasn't as certain as he pretended to be.
"Kael, stop it," she snapped. "You're not invincible. You can't just keep brushing this off. The trials are going to get harder. And if you're not ready—"
"I know, alright?" Kael's voice was tight, a rare break in his usual confident demeanor. "I'm not stupid. But I'm not going to let this... imprint, or whatever it is, control me. I'm not going to be some puppet on a string."
Saria opened her mouth to respond, but before she could speak, a distant sound caught both of their attention. It was faint at first—almost like a whisper in the wind. A voice, like the soul imprint itself, seemed to vibrate through the very air around them. Kael's blood ran cold.
"They are watching."
"Do you hear that?" Kael asked, his voice low. Saria nodded, her eyes narrowed in concentration.
"Yeah. It's the imprint."
"No," Kael said, his jaw tightening. "This isn't the imprint. It's something else."
The voice returned, sharper this time, and this time it came with an image, a flickering vision of a figure standing in the distance, just beyond the horizon. A shadowy figure that seemed to ripple in and out of focus, like an illusion.
"Kael, time is slipping away. The truth is hidden, and you will have to fight for it. Beware the ones who seek to control your path."
Kael's hand clenched into a fist. "Who the hell was that?"
Saria stepped closer, her expression intense. "The imprint? Or something else? This is... strange."
Kael shook his head. He felt like the world around him was shifting, and not in a way he could control. It wasn't just about the trials anymore. It was about something much bigger—something he wasn't prepared for.
"Great. Another cryptic message," Kael muttered. "You'd think by now I'd be used to this. But nope, it still makes no sense."
Saria glanced at him, then turned her gaze to the window, her thoughts far away. "It's not just the imprint, Kael. We're in a dangerous place right now. The power you're about to face... it's unlike anything you've ever encountered."
"Wonderful," Kael sighed, turning back to face her with a sardonic grin. "More existential threats. Just what I needed."
The sarcasm didn't quite mask the tension in his voice. He was trying to hold on to the only thing that kept him grounded—his humor. But even Kael could feel the weight of what was coming. He wasn't sure how much longer he could keep pretending.
"We need to find out who sent that message," Saria said, her voice serious. "It's not just the trials. Someone is manipulating this situation."
Kael nodded, his mind already turning. "Yeah, well, if someone thinks they can play me, they've got another thing coming."
Saria didn't respond immediately, but Kael could see the concern in her eyes. She knew, just as he did, that the path ahead wasn't going to be easy. But there was something else there too—something Kael had seen before. That feeling of inevitability. That feeling that they were on the cusp of something much larger than themselves.
"I'm not in this alone, right?" Kael asked, his voice almost a whisper now.
Saria smiled faintly, though it was tinged with sadness. "Of course not, Kael. You never were."
With a heavy sigh, Kael turned back to the window. "Then let's find out what the hell is going on."
As the day began to break, the shadows stretched longer, and Kael couldn't shake the feeling that something was moving just beyond his reach. Something that would change everything.