NOVPUBThe embers in the forge glowed low now. The sparks that once danced in the air felt frozen in place, like the whole room was waiting for someone to hit "play" again. Everyone stood still—like statues with too many questions jammed into their throats.
Kaiden stood at the center of it all, hands tucked into his belt, trying not to look too awkward.
Aria narrowed her eyes. "Okay. How? When? How did that even happen?"
Alfred waved both hands in the air like he was conducting a panic symphony. "No, seriously—when did this happen? Where was I? How long has this been going on?"
Aurora stepped forward, voice calm as always. "It didn't happen here. It happened… in the future."
Jordan nearly choked. "I'm sorry—what?"
"The future," Aurora repeated. "Seventy-eight years from now."
Draken blinked. "You're telling me you two—" he pointed from her to Kaiden—"hooked up in the future, had a kid, and then sent him back in time like some divine Amazon delivery?"
Aurora shrugged. "Roughly."
Kael'Thar rubbed his temples. "I regret not staying asleep."
Kaiden cleared his throat. "Okay. Everyone calm down before someone faints."
He stepped forward, and for the first time, the room quieted on its own. Not because they were forced to. Because there was something in Kaiden's tone—calm, real, like someone who's been holding something heavy for too long.
"I'm from seventy-eight years into the future. My father—Adam Dhark—sent me back here. To this time. Said I needed to learn. Said I was getting soft."
He gave a small bitter smile.
"Said I'd been protected too long by the things he built. That I wouldn't survive what's coming unless I saw what the world was like before it shattered."
Alfred raised an eyebrow. "Before what shattered?"
Kaiden looked at him. "Everything. The cities, the skies, the borders. The Realms don't just fracture—they fall. The Spiral… it wins. Or something worse does. I never got the full story. I just lived in the ashes."
He took a breath. The forge hissed behind him like it was listening too.
"My dad… he's not just a powerful mage or whatever you think he is. He's an Omnicron. Top of the chain. Beyond Archmages, beyond Celestials, beyond anything with rules. He built empires with a flick of his finger. Stopped wars by just showing up. The kind of man that made time itself hesitate."
Jordan leaned forward, eyebrows high. "And he still couldn't save the future?"
Kaiden looked down. "Maybe he could've. Maybe he tried. But the future… it was messed up. You couldn't tell who was leading anymore. Who was fighting what. The Spiral infected reality itself. And my dad said if I was going to earn my place—if I was going to understand what we were protecting—I had to do it the hard way."
Alexandria asked, "So he sent you back… and then what?"
"He stripped me," Kaiden said. "Took everything. My arcana. My strength. My divine aura. Even the Sigil of Dhark."
Veyrion's head snapped up. "He took your Sigil?"
Kaiden nodded. "All of it. Said I needed to start raw. The only thing he left me with was a bit of celestial blood, just enough to keep me from dying outright."
Alfred muttered under his breath, "That's cold."
"Yeah," Kaiden agreed. "But he said it was necessary. Said if I didn't understand life without power, then I'd never be able to protect those without it."
He paused.
"I landed forty miles outside this timeline's Eastern Ridge. Half-naked, unconscious, zero magic, zero memory. Would've died in a ditch if a couple hadn't found me."
He smiled again. This one was softer. Real.
"They were farmers. Simple people. The kind that didn't ask where you came from if you were bleeding. Just gave you soup and a warm bed and told you to hush. Their names were Toma and Lira."
Jordan scratched his head. "Wait. Eli's parents?"
Kaiden nodded. "Yeah. They were already raising Eli when I showed up. We were the same age, kinda. Well—technically I was seventeen and he was, like, nine, but the timeline warped that fast. Eventually we were just… brothers."
A beat of silence.
"They didn't have to take me in," Kaiden said. "But they did. And for three years, I was just a kid. We fixed walls, fed horses, got yelled at by Lira when we came back muddy."
Kaiden's eyes drifted to the floor, voice dropping.
"Then the hunters came."
Alfred leaned forward. "What hunters?"
"The Black Spiral Remnants. They found out who I was—maybe by scent, maybe by blood. I don't know. They wore masks. Fired hex-loaded rifles that could tear through soul barriers. They weren't there for questions. Just blood."
Draken cursed under his breath.
"They burned the farm," Kaiden said, jaw clenched. "Toma died trying to stall them. Lira was gone before we even saw her fall. Me and Eli ran. For days. Slept in hollow trees. Drank from swamp puddles. Ate bark."
His voice cracked a little.
Kaiden's hands balled into fists at his sides, jaw tight. The firelight caught the edge of his expression—old grief behind new strength.
"I don't even remember what I did," he said. "We were cornered near the cliffs outside Grath Hollow. They had us surrounded. Guns raised. I told Eli to run, but he wouldn't. He never does."
He let out a shaky breath. "Then one of them shot. I remember turning, screaming his name, reaching for something—anything—and that's when it happened."
Aria stepped closer, brow furrowed. "What happened?"
Kaiden looked up, eyes glowing faintly. Not with heat. Not with mana. With memory.
"I felt something break open inside me. Like glass shattering under water. And then…"
The forge groaned behind him, a low metallic creak that didn't match the room's silence.
"…the world slowed down."
He looked at his hand, fingers curling slightly, like he could still feel it.
"I remember seeing the bullet. Just… hanging in the air. I moved. Not fast. Just… before everything else. My body wasn't even mine anymore. My veins lit up like starlines. Celestial blood ignited. And my memory—my real memory—snapped back like a steel whip."
Jordan whispered, "You awakened?"
Kaiden nodded. "A piece of it. Not everything. Not even close. But just enough to push the first wave back."
He exhaled slowly, staring into the floor like it held ghosts. "I burned one of their guns to dust with my bare hand. One of them exploded—like, literally. Just a flash of black fire and gone. I don't remember much after that. Eli said I screamed something in a language he didn't understand, then passed out."
Alfred leaned on a railing, arms crossed, voice lower. "And you woke up here."
"Yes."
