The schoolyard was full of children. Kellen Varrick was sitting in the last seat of his classroom, looking out the window. From his bench near the cracked window, Kellen watched the children walk up and down the sunlit streets. His sharp, attentive eyes focused on the spot of light scattered on the ground where dust particles were lazily swirling in circles. There was a mark from his forehead to his neck, which was not very clear to see, but it was as if someone had tied it tightly under his flesh. This strange mark glowed dimly, as if someone's heart was beating. He always felt as if he could feel his own heartbeat through this mark.
Kellen had three strange marks on his body. The first was from his forehead to his neck and the second was on both his wrists. The wrist marks looked like bracelets. The mark was more prominent, as if there was some kind of device, but he still had no idea what it was and what it could do.
The other children in the class were talking to each other softly but his attention was somewhere else and he was unable to understand anything. Suddenly a loud bell was heard. Hearing the sound of the bell, Kallen suddenly became nervous as if he had woken up from sleep. As soon as he went, his friends started making different kinds of comments on him. Some called him "Ringside Ghost", some called him the emblem of a magic wand. People had given him different names. Sometimes someone called him the emblem of a strange animal, sometimes an alien, someone called him a joker. Hearing all this, strange thoughts came to Kallen's mind. He felt that being different was so bad. Was this all written in his fate?
He was the only boy in his class who had no friends and no one had shown interest in making friends with him. Kallen tried many times to make friends but he never succeeded. He had tried so hard that now he could not even remember. He had started forgetting his failed attempts. Now he had started getting used to all this. He was in the middle of the crowd and yet he was nowhere.
Now that the school bell had rung, he breathed slowly, calming the turmoil within him. Picking up his worn-out bag, he slipped out of the wooden door, his heart beating erratically. The golden dust-covered streets seemed to be closing around him like a cocoon. The shops were closing. It was evening. The shopkeepers were packing up their goods. Some were packing up their tents, others were closing the doors of their shops. He started moving out through the city streets.
It was a city by name, but the residents here saw it as a village because in today's times, if the population of a place is between five lakhs, then only it is called a village. Long, long ago, this used to be a city of some powerful empire. People have no information about it. No one knows which kingdom this city belonged to. How long has this city been in this condition? All around, one could see huge ruined buildings, huge monuments and ship wreckage.
About 450,000 people live in this city. If we look at the population, then in today's time it cannot even be called a village. The name of this place is Los. The elders who have been living here for a long time had discovered this name which was written on a big door attached to the city wall, and this door was the way to enter the city. No one knows whether this door was made of stone or metal. The robbers tried to break it but they could not break it. People tried to identify it in different ways but people only know that it was very strong and made a sound like something like iron but looked like stone.
Kallen's steps were slowly taking him out of the city. After walking some distance, he reached the bank of a river. A simple stone house was waiting nearby, from whose small windows a faint light was coming. Kellen slowly opened the door and walked inside. He had just put his bag down when he heard a soft voice from behind.
"Bad day?" Jorin asked softly.
Kellen's jaw tightened and he sighed and said as usual. I don't even expect to have a good day. I don't remember having a good day at school or having anyone talk to me in a nice way. They look at me like I'm some kind of alien that will attack them if they blink.
Zorin's eyes filled with tears and he just sighed and said nothing. After a pause, he said, "It is not a crime to be different. There are many things in this world that people do not know. No one can say that they know everything. You are different for all of them but I am also different. Not every person is the same." Zorin then brought Kallen to the image of food that he had read inside and said, "Sit down. The food is ready. I will bring it." Sitting on the wooden table, Kallen's fingers were touching the worn-out grains and his eyes were going towards the flickering flames of the stove. While looking at those flames, Kallen started looking at the ring on his hand and those marks. His attention was in some other world. He was thinking, "What is all this? Where did he get that ring? Who gave it to him? And who left him in this desolate place?" The original Kellen was found as a small child by Zorin outside the village in 1568 when he was out hunting. Since then, he has raised Kellen as his own son.
He brought him up and it had been almost 16 years now.
After having dinner, Kallen went out of the house for a while and sat on a stone lying outside. It was night. The sky was clear and the moon was giving off a faint light.
The taunts of the whole day felt like arrows that were wounding him in his heart. Yet, somewhere beneath that tiredness, he had a hope that someday all this will change, his life will be good and he will be able to live happily with his father. After looking at the sky for a while, Kallen went to sleep.
Kallen had just fallen asleep but suddenly he reached a large hall. There were three people standing in front of him who were standing behind a curtain of light. He was not able to see those shadows clearly. One of them said, "Soon we will be with you", the other said, "We have waited a lot for this day, in just a few days you will get your answers". Another voice came which was like a machine, he said, "Master, I have waited a lot for this day", "I will show you everything that I have learned till date and the big master has taught me, but for that you will have to wait for a few more days".
Suddenly Kallen woke up from his sleep as if a person was waking up from an unconscious state, he rubbed his eyes with his hand and sat up straight on his bed. He was sweating and his breathing was fast as if he had just escaped from some danger. He started thinking, I had slept for a short while, he was thinking about the dream he had just seen, was all this real or is it just a figment of my mind, am I going crazy? What different thoughts like these kept coming to his mind. While thinking about all these things, he did not realize how much time had passed. It was already morning now.