Kael's eyes snapped open. But there was nothing to see.
No sky.
No rain.
No street.
Only black.
Not the kind of dark you get at night—but a thick, endless void that pressed in on him from all sides. He couldn't feel the ground. He couldn't even feel his own body.
"Hello?" he called out.
His voice didn't echo. It didn't go anywhere. It just… vanished.
Then—something moved.
It was silent, but Kael felt it. A shift in the dark. A presence brushing against him, too close, too cold. He tried to back away, but his legs wouldn't respond. His heart pounded wildly, but it felt distant, like it belonged to someone else.
Kael…
A whisper.
Soft, yet it cut through the silence like a blade.
He froze. "Who's there?"
No answer. Just the darkness shifting again, this time in front of him.
Then—eyes.
Two faintly glowing eyes opened in the void, narrow and inhuman. They watched him. Studied him.
You've come back, the whisper said.
"I've never been here," Kael choked out.
The eyes blinked once. Slowly.
Not yet. But you were always meant to.
And with that, the pendant flared in his hand like fire, and the world exploded into blinding light.