A heavy silence fell over the room, broken only by Thomas's ragged breathing. The father looked down at his calloused hands, then raised his grief-stricken eyes toward Ryn.
"Her name was Elara," Thomas said in a low voice, as if the name itself carried a curse. "That blind crone who appeared out of nowhere on the night the sky birthed you. It was she who placed you in our arms, and she who etched that mark onto your shoulder. She told us you were the 'Son of Shadows,' and that protecting you was the only burden that would either save this world or destroy it."
Thomas paused, a lump forming in his throat. "She said she would wait for you in the 'Abandoned Temple of Eclipse' beyond the Black Mountains... when the time of your awakening finally came."
As soon as his father finished, Ellen rushed toward Ryn. She didn't see the terrifying black eye; she only saw the child she had raised for seventeen years. She threw herself into his arms, weeping bitterly, clutching his tattered shirt as if trying to shield him from the entire world.
"Don't go, Ryn! Please!" she cried, her tears soaking his chest. "We'll hide... we'll go somewhere far away where no one knows us. Don't leave us! You are our son no matter what happens. I don't care about the prophecies!"
Ryn felt her hot tears, and for a fleeting moment, his resolve wavered. But the mark on his shoulder pulsed violently, as if the darkness within him rejected this tenderness. Slowly, with a calm firmness, he pushed his mother away. It wasn't a push of hatred, but the push of someone who realized he had become a danger to everything he loved.
Ryn retreated toward the door and flung it open, the cold night wind biting at his skin. He stood at the threshold, looking back at his parents who had collapsed in the center of the room. His features were drowned in sorrow, but his voice was as decisive as a blade's edge.
"The time for hiding is over, Mother," Ryn said, his violet eye shimmering in the dark. "Look at me... look at what I've become. There is no place for someone like me here... among humans."
Ryn stepped out into the night, leaving behind the only home he had ever known, taking his first steps toward the Temple of Eclipse.