Echo of the Last Kingdom

The pain came first. It always did. A dull throb in his chest, as if someone had plunged a dagger into it and left it there, rusting. Kael blinked, but the world refused to come into focus. Everything was a blur: a ceiling of rotting wood, the smell of damp and ashes, the echo of a scream he wasn't sure was his own. His hands, small and trembling, rose before his eyes. A child's hands? Confusion crashed over him like a wave, followed by a piercing memory: the sting of a dagger in his back, the laughter of a friend who wasn't, blood pooling on the cold floor of a military base. He had died. He knew it with the certainty of someone who had planned a thousand battles and lost the last one."Arion! Arion, breathe!" A woman's voice, cracked with panic, yanked him from his thoughts. A woman leaned over him, her gaunt face etched with scars that looked like ritual burns. Her rough, soot-stained hands pressed a damp cloth to his forehead. Mother? No, she wasn't his mother. His mother had died decades ago, in a life that no longer belonged to him. But the woman's eyes, stormy gray, held a mix of love and terror that anchored him to the present."I'm… alive," Kael murmured, his voice high-pitched and foreign in a child's throat. The name Arion echoed in his mind, a sound that didn't belong to him but fit like broken armor. Arion Vaelis. That was who he was now."Don't do that again," whispered the woman, Lirien, her hands trembling as she adjusted the cloth. "The Éther… it nearly killed you." Her voice broke, and Kael noticed the bloodied bandages on her arms, the bitter scent of herbs clinging to the hut. Éther? The word stirred something in him, an instinct he couldn't explain. It was as if his soul knew more than his mind.He tried to sit up, but a searing pain shot through him, as if his veins were filled with embers. He groaned, and Lirien held him firmly. "Don't move, little one. You're not ready." But Kael wasn't a child, not truly. He had commanded armies, crafted strategies that toppled nations. He wasn't going to lie there like some weakling."What is the Éther?" he asked, his voice steadier than his body allowed. Lirien paled, her eyes searching his as if afraid of what she might find."Don't ask questions you can't bear," she replied, almost in a whisper. "Not here. Not now."Before Kael could press further, a tremor shook the hut. The ground quaked, and the air filled with stifling heat, as if someone had opened a furnace. Screams erupted outside, mingled with the crackle of burning wood. Lirien staggered to her feet and rushed to the door. "Stay here!" she ordered, but Kael was already rising, ignoring the pain tearing through his chest.He dragged himself to a crack in the wall and peered out. The village—a handful of miserable huts surrounded by parched fields—was in chaos. Men and women ran, some with torches, others clutching children. In the center stood a tall man wrapped in obsidian armor, glowing like a living torch. Flames licked the air around him, and his laughter cut through the silence like a blade. "Hand over the children with the gift!" he roared, his voice amplified by a power Kael didn't understand. "Or this village will be ashes!"Lord Varkis, someone called him amid the screams. An emissary of the Fire Kingdom. Kael clenched his fists, his military mind analyzing the scene: one man, but his presence was an absolute threat. The villagers had no weapons, no magic to face him. They were prey, and he was the hunter.Lirien burst back inside, slamming the door shut. "Arion, hide. Now." Her voice was a hiss, but her eyes brimmed with tears. Kael looked at her, and for a moment, he saw his mother from another life, begging him to run before the bombs fell. He hadn't run then, and he wouldn't now."Why does he want children?" he asked, his tone cold, calculating. Lirien stared at him as if seeing a stranger."For the Ember Academy," she said, almost spitting the words. "They turn them into weapons… or break them." She knelt before him, taking his face in trembling hands. "They can't know what you are, Arion. The Éther is a curse. If they find you, they'll hunt you to the ends of the world."The Éther. That word again. Before he could ask more, the door exploded into splinters, and heat flooded the hut. Lord Varkis stepped inside, his armor creaking with each step. His eyes, like burning coals, fixed on Lirien. "You," he growled. "The heretic healer. Where is the child?"Kael froze, but not from fear. His mind was already forming a plan, assessing the enemy. Varkis was a mage, likely of fire, but his confidence made him predictable. Kael just needed a moment, an opening. But Lirien gave him no time. She stepped between Varkis and him, raising a trembling hand. "There are no children here," she lied, her voice steady despite her fear.Varkis laughed, and with a gesture, a tongue of flame engulfed Lirien. She screamed, collapsing to the ground, her skin charred. Kael felt something snap inside him—not love, but rage. He had seen too many die at the hands of arrogant men like this. Not again."Enough!" he roared, and something ignited within him. It was as if the world slowed, the air growing thick and heavy. His veins burned, not with pain, but with power. The Éther. It surged through him, a dark river promising to destroy everything in its path. And then, a voice echoed in his mind, cold and ancient, like the whisper of a tomb: "Release me, Echo. And the world will be yours."Kael didn't understand, but he didn't need to. He pointed a hand at Varkis, and the Éther answered. The air fractured, a purple flash illuminating the hut, and time itself seemed to freeze. Varkis, eyes wide with shock, stood motionless, his flames suspended in the air. Kael stepped forward, his small body trembling with the effort. Every heartbeat was agony, but he didn't stop. With a cry, he unleashed the Éther in an explosion that tore the hut apart. Varkis's head rolled across the floor, his flames snuffed out like a candle.The silence that followed was deafening. Kael fell to his knees, his hands burned, his vision blurred. The villagers, gathered outside, stared at him in horror. "Cursed!" a woman screamed. "He's a heretic!" Torches rose, and Kael knew there was no going back.Lirien, still alive, crawled to him. "Run," she whispered, pressing a broken amulet into his hand—a circle of black stone etched with faintly glowing runes. "The Éther is your strength, but also your chain. Don't let it consume you." Her eyes closed, and her body went still.Kael stood, ignoring the villagers' glares. There was no time for grief. No time for anything. He ran toward the forest, the amulet clutched in his hand, as the voice of the Umbral laughed in his mind. "The first step is taken," it said. "Now, claim what is yours."At the forest's edge, Kael paused and caught his reflection in a puddle. His eyes, once brown, now shimmered with a purple glow, like a portent of what was to come. "If the world wants me dead," he muttered, "I'll bend it to my will first."