The sky fractured like glass.
High above the mountains, something ancient tore its way through the clouds — not a meteor, not a dragon. A being.
Wrapped in robes that shimmered like starlight. Wings like sharpened silver blades. Skin carved from marble, expression carved from nothing.
His name was Myrren.
The first Reclaimer.
Sent not to judge. Not to ask. Not to punish.
But to erase.
---
Below, the wind died.
Birds scattered. Trees bent in the wrong direction. Every living thing for miles felt it — the weight, the presence. Not evil. Just order. Absolute, god-crafted, irreversible.
In the village of Velnar, mothers clutched children. Priests knelt at altars already burning. Scribes tore pages from prophecy books, hoping some verse might stop what was coming.
None did.
---
Myrren touched down in the temple square with no sound. He stood unmoving as the high priest approached, shaking.
"Reclaimer... what do you seek?"
Myrren turned his head. Slowly.
> "The flame."
> "The boy?"
> "The mistake."
Then he raised one pale hand.
A column of pure white fire erupted, spiraling upward. Not hot. Not wild.
Precise. Surgical. Holy.
And when the light vanished, so did the temple.
Every soul inside… gone.
No ash. No scream. Just absence.
---
Far away, Elliot fell to his knees.
He felt it — like a chain pulled tight inside his ribs.
Kaelith ran to him. "What happened?!"
He gritted his teeth. "Something just found me. Or… found where I was."
She looked to the sky. Clouds shifting. Birds fleeing.
> "A Reclaimer?" she whispered.
Elliot nodded, trembling.
> "The first one."
---
That night, the wind didn't stop howling.
Elliot sat alone by the fire, holding the shard Vaelion had left in his heart. It pulsed faintly — but it didn't guide him.
It warned him.
Kaelith crouched beside him.
"You can't outrun gods," she said.
He looked at her, voice low. "I'm not going to."
She blinked. "Then what?"
> "I'm going to find one that hates them more than I do."
---
She didn't stop him.
She just whispered, "Then we need to leave now."
Because somewhere in the east, the sky was beginning to burn — but not with light.
With judgment.
---