Kaelen was running.
Dust kicked up beneath his feet as laughter echoed ahead bright, careless, painfully familiar. It was the kind of laughter that made your chest feel lighter, that pulled a grin onto your face before you could stop it.
"Kaelen! Hurry up!"
He pushed himself faster. The wind whipped past his ears.
The training yard came into view. He pushed himself further, lungs burning, heart pounding.
And then he stopped.
Ryn who was supposed to be behind him was somehow already at the training ground, arms crossed, that infuriating smile on his face.
"I thought I won this time."
Ryn approached and roughly rubbed his head. "You're about twenty years too early for that."
Kaelen pouted, moving aside, and the rest of the hunters laughed.
"And he says he's not a child."
"How cute."
"Let him win just once, Captain."
"Not happening."
More laughter. Hands reaching in to ruffle his hair. He batted them away, but warmth spread through his chest the warmth of belonging, of being part of something that asked nothing of him except that he be present.
Then the scene paused.
The laughter cut off mid-chord. The hands froze in the air. Ryn's smile became a mask, painted and hollow.
[System Notice: Host is in imminent danger.]
His eyes snapped open.
He was in his chambers. The fire had burned low. The window showed a sky the color of bruises. And the hum, the bond was screaming.
Danger?
His gaze shot forward.
A young boy stood at the edge of his bed.
At the sight of him, something deep inside Kaelen recoiled. Not fear at least it was not quite it. It was a quiet, instinctive rejection like his body knew something his mind hadn't yet grasped.
The boy tilted his head, then broke into a wide grin.
"Brother! You're finally awake!"
His voice was light, playful. Completely normal.
"You really slept like the dead today," the boy laughed, stepping closer. "It's already lunchtime. We missed you at breakfast!"
The words were harmless. The tone was warm. But the feeling remained a faint, crawling unease.
"…Aliar," Kaelen said slowly, the name surfacing from his memories like a stone from deep water.
The boy beamed. "Who else would come drag you out of bed?"
He reached out and grabbed Kaelen's sleeve, tugging him upright with surprising strength. "Come on! If we're late, Father's going to say you've gotten lazy again."
Something was wrong. But the more Kaelen tried to think, the foggier his mind became.
The bond was quiet, infact it was too quiet. He was used to constant humming as he move on through out his day the sudden quite was jarring. For some reason it grated his ears more than the hum ever did.
"Brother?"
[....]
The system flickered at the edge of his vision, but when he tried to focus on it, the words blurred.
Then...
Tap.
A soft sound. Behind him. From the door.
He froze.
"…Did you hear that?" he asked.
"Hear what?" Aliar replied, already halfway to the door.
The knocking came again. Slow. Deliberate. Three beats, then silence.
His instincts screamed at him to turn around. To open the door. To check. But Aliar laughed again, pulling at his sleeve.
"You're still half-asleep! Come on!"
The sound stopped. And somehow, the unease did not stop with it. He missed his hum.
"…Right," Kaelen muttered.
---
The dining hall was already alive with conversation when they arrived.
Sunlight streamed through tall windows. The scent of food filled the air. Rich, warm and comforting. And at the long table, his family was sitted.
[System Scan Initiated…]
[Individual Identified: Seraphine — Status: Unknown. Threat Level: Unassessed.]
[Individual Identified: Liora — Status: Seraphine's Child. Threat Level: Minimal.]
[Individual Identified: Caelum — Status: Seraphine's Child. Threat Level: Minimal.]
[Individual Identified: Aldric — Status: Brother. Threat Level: Moderate.]
[Individual Identified: Marius — Status: Father. Threat Level: High.]
He looked at Aliar.
Waiting. Expecting...
Nothing.
Silence.
No notification. No identification. No system acknowledgment at all.
"…?"
A flicker of confusion crossed his mind. He looked at the boy again, at his too-wide smile, his too-bright eyes. But the system said nothing.
Maybe… he's just a child.
Kaelen exhaled slowly and took his seat.
---
The meal passed in fragments.
He sat cross-legged on the floor of the training yard or was it his chambers? The confusion was making his head ache. He could feel something was wrong but could not pinpoint it.
In. Out. In. Out.
[System Notice: Physical stability improving. Emotional stability degrading.]
The world faded slightly as he sank deeper into stillness. His senses stretched, expanded.
And then the long lost hum woke him. Instead of shock due to the sudden sound he felt joy, sudden and incontrollable joy, like seeing a long lost friend.
Before he could react, something touched his forehead. Warm. Dry. Heavy with a presence that did not belong to any human he had ever known. But it was familiar.
His eyes snapped open.
A shadow stood before him. Not fully shaped just an outline of something that did not fit inside human biology. The air warped around it. The hum sharpened as his eyes met the void of the shadow's.
He blinked and the shadow moved. Pressing its forehead against his.
His vision blurred. His body grew unbearably light. The system crackled with static.
[WARNING]
[CONNECTION EVENT DETECTED]
[—NODE EXPANSION—]
[ERROR—ERROR—ERROR]
The hum surged. Kaelen's thoughts fractured, the boy... No the creature claiming to be his brother, the room, the family, all of it slipping away like water through his fingers.
Then a voice spoke. Not from the shadow. From somewhere else. Somewhere close.
"How weak," the voice said, cold with detachment. A snapping sound echoed through the illusion. "To fall for such an easy trap."
The world shattered.