The rain started before sunset fine and cold, the kind that soaked through skin and memory alike.
Aiden sat by the narrow window again, the city lights blurring into streaks of gold and grey. The blade from Elias lay on the table, glowing faintly whenever lightning flashed.
Every time he looked at it, her face his face appeared behind his eyes.
Lady Ariselle.
The woman he once was.
He tried to breathe, to focus, but the memories pressed against his skull like waves against glass.
A field of fire. A man with silver eyes kneeling in the blood-soaked earth. A promise.
He clenched his fists until his nails drew blood.
The pain grounded him. Barely.
A noise from outside made him flinch a soft scrape against the balcony railing.
When he turned, he saw a silhouette through the curtain.
Tall. Still. Watching.
His pulse jumped. "Elias?"
No answer.
The shape tilted its head slightly, and even through the rain, Aiden could feel it a presence cold and vast, as if the air itself bowed to it.
Then, without sound, it vanished.
He stumbled backward, heart racing.
The air in the room had shifted. A scent of iron and ozone hung heavy the same as the battlefield in his dreams.
"You shouldn't be alone," a voice said.
Elias stood in the doorway again, soaked from the storm. His coat clung to him, droplets running down the sharp lines of his face.
"They've found you," he said simply.
"I saw someone"
"Not someone. Something."
Elias closed the door, locking it this time. His movements were calm, but the tension beneath was unmistakable.
"They're called the Watchers. Agents of the Celestial Order. They can't step fully into this realm not yet but they're close."
Aiden swallowed. "Why me?"
"Because you're the last fragment of what they couldn't destroy," Elias said. "Your soul carries the remnants of the Divine Flame the same power that once defied them."
"You make it sound like I'm some kind of… weapon."
Elias's eyes flickered, unreadable. "You were."
Thunder boomed, shaking the glass.
The lights flickered once, twice then died completely.
In the sudden darkness, Aiden felt it again: the presence. Closer now. Whispering in a language older than stars.
The blade on the table pulsed in answer, its golden glow cutting through the shadows.
"Aiden, listen to me," Elias said, stepping closer. "Whatever happens, don't let them speak your true name."
"My true?"
Before he could finish, the window shattered inward glass and wind exploding into the room.
Shapes formed in the storm faceless, made of shadow and rain, their bodies flickering like broken reflections.
One of them spoke its voice echoing from everywhere and nowhere.
"Child of Flame… return what was stolen."
Aiden stumbled back, the glow beneath his skin flaring in panic. The room trembled.
"Elias!"
"Focus!" Elias barked, drawing a blade from beneath his coat black steel that seemed to drink the light. "They can't take you if you don't yield!"
The shadows surged. Elias met them head-on a blur of motion, steel slicing through mist. Each strike scattered the forms, but more took their place.
Aiden's heart pounded. The golden light inside him roared to life, spilling from his hands in wild arcs.
The shadows screamed. The air itself burned.
He didn't remember the words but his mouth spoke them anyway:
"By oath and blood… I awaken."
A burst of radiant light erupted, swallowing everything.
When the glow faded, silence reigned.
The apartment was in ruins walls scorched, glass melted into strange patterns.
The rain outside had stopped.
Elias stood amidst the wreckage, his blade still humming, his eyes glowing faintly.
"You did it," he said quietly. "You remembered the language."
Aiden collapsed to his knees, trembling. "What… what am I?".
Elias looked down at him, face unreadable. Then, after a long pause:
"A miracle," he said softly. "And a curse the gods still fear."
Outside, on a rooftop across the street, three figures watched in silence.
Cloaked in white, eyes glowing with divine light.
"The Flame stirs again," one murmured.
"And so does the Forsaken Knight," said another.
"Then," the third whispered, "Heaven will burn once more."
Lightning split the sky and the Watchers vanished into the storm.