Deep beneath the capital in an obsidian chamber known only to the seven elders of The Veiled Circle, a single name echoed:
"Jayden Ochieng."
Silence followed. The kind of silence that meant fear.
An elder in a bronze robe finally spoke. "That name was erased. Burned from records. Buried in war."
Another leaned forward, voice trembling. "Not just buried. Forbidden."
A third slammed her staff. "Then why is he walking in light? Why is the heir of the Ochieng bloodline breathing?"
They knew what it meant. The bloodline once thought to be destroyed—had awakened. And worse, it had taken a name from the future and stitched it with the past.
Jayden.
Ochieng.
The child with two legacies.
---
Jayden sat in the secret archive below Maggy's manor. Dust coated the air, and every step echoed through time. In front of him: a carved black box left by his father—untouched for 17 years.
He opened it.
Inside: an old journal. A broken locket. And a torn scroll.
"My son..."
The voice felt real. Like a whisper from the grave.
The scroll told the story of his father's escape during the Great Massacre of the Ochieng clan, how he survived by faking his death, and how he renamed his bloodline to protect it.
"You were to be named Ochieng," the letter said, "but we hid you in the Jayden orphan protocol to avoid detection. You are both."
Jayden Ochieng.
Light and vengeance.
Silence and roar.
---
Tielen, in another city, interrogated an old assassin named Kovo. The man was chained, bruised, but smiling.
"You think your young master knows who he really is?" Kovo laughed. "He's wearing a crown forged in blood. And soon, it'll burn his head off."
Tielen struck him hard.
"Say the name again," he growled.
Kovo spat blood. "Jayden Ochieng."
Even the guards flinched.
Tielen walked out in silence, a war raging behind his eyes. If the world knew... if the families knew... they'd come not just for Jayden.
They'd come to kill the name itself.
---
In Jayden's body, the slow poison left by the Crimson Assassin began to burn.
But instead of weakening him, something strange happened.
His blood boiled gold for a moment. His veins lit up.
The scroll had one final warning: "If you're attacked with Void poison, and your blood resists it, it means the seal is breaking. Your body will remember. Your name will return."
Jayden looked in the mirror, eyes glowing faintly.
He whispered to himself:
"Jayden Ochieng."
The mirror cracked.
---