The wind that night carried the smell of rain and smoke.
Kael noticed it before anyone else.
He was sitting on the wooden fence outside the village, watching the dark forest beyond the fields. The sky was painted with slow moving clouds, and the moon looked pale, like something sick.
The village of Drevan Hollow was quiet.
Too quiet.
Most nights, laughter spilled from the tavern. Farmers argued about crops. Dogs barked at shadows.
Tonight, there was only wind.
Kael frowned slightly.
Something was wrong.
He jumped down from the fence and started walking toward the village road.
Then he heard it.
Hoofbeats.
Not one horse.
Many.
Fast.
Too fast.
The sound rolled through the valley like thunder.
Kael's chest tightened.
"Riders?" he murmured.
No merchant caravans passed this late.
No patrols either.
The Iron Kingdom's soldiers rarely visited forgotten villages like Drevan Hollow.
The horses appeared moments later.
Black shapes cutting through the mist.
At least twenty riders.
All wearing dark armor that swallowed the moonlight.
Kael stepped back into the shadows near a barn.
Something about them made his stomach twist.
They weren't ordinary soldiers.
Each rider carried a long spear tipped with metal that glowed faintly blue.
Magic.
And then Kael saw the symbol on their cloaks.
A silver circle split by a vertical line.
His blood ran cold.
Even a village boy knew that symbol.
The Order of the Veil.
The king's secret hunters.
They didn't chase criminals.
They hunted things that should not exist.
The riders stopped in the center of the village.
Doors opened.
Villagers stepped outside, confused.
Kael's foster father, old Bren, came out of the tavern wiping his hands on a rag.
"What brings royal hunters to Drevan Hollow?" Bren asked cautiously.
One of the riders dismounted.
His armor was darker than the others.
A commander.
His voice was calm.
Cold.
"We are searching for something."
Bren frowned.
"This is a farming village. You won't find much."
The commander stepped forward slowly.
Then he said something that made the air feel heavier.
"We are searching for a child."
The villagers looked at each other in confusion.
"A child?" Bren asked.
"Yes."
The commander reached into a pouch and pulled out a small object.
A shard of black crystal.
The crystal suddenly began to glow.
Not bright.
But wrong.
Like darkness trying to shine.
Kael felt something twist inside his chest.
Pain exploded behind his ribs.
He gasped and grabbed the barn wall.
The crystal in the commander's hand pulsed violently.
The man's head snapped toward the barn.
Toward Kael.
Their eyes met across the dark village square.
For a moment, the world became silent.
Then the commander smiled.
A slow, terrible smile.
"There he is."
Everything happened at once.
The hunters moved.
Villagers shouted.
Bren stepped in front of Kael.
"Run!" the old man yelled.
Kael didn't move.
His body felt frozen.
The pain in his chest was growing.
Burning.
Like something inside him was trying to break free.
The commander raised his spear.
"Kill the witnesses."
The hunters attacked.
Screams filled the village.
Houses burned.
Steel flashed in the night.
Kael stumbled backward as Bren shoved him toward the forest path.
"Run, boy!" Bren shouted again.
"But—"
"RUN!"
Kael turned.
His legs finally obeyed.
He ran into the forest.
Branches whipped against his face as he sprinted through the dark trees.
Behind him, Drevan Hollow burned.
He could still hear screams.
His home.
His only family.
Gone.
The pain in his chest grew worse.
His vision blurred.
Something inside him was waking up.
Something ancient.
Something angry.
He collapsed near a riverbank, gasping for air.
The moonlight reflected on the water.
For a moment, Kael thought he saw something strange in the reflection.
Not just his own face.
Another pair of eyes.
Watching him.
From inside him.
Then a voice whispered inside his mind.
Ancient.
Cold.
Almost amused.
"So… they finally found us."
Kael's heart nearly stopped.
"Who… are you?"
Silence.
Then the voice spoke again.
Soft.
Terrifying.
"I am the god they erased."
The river suddenly turned black.
And far away in the burning village…
every hunter from the Order of the Veil fell to their knees at the same moment.
Because for the first time in one thousand years—
A dead god had opened his eyes.