Orion had gone from a renowned surgeon, once praised as the golden boy of modern medicine, to a monster splashed across every headline in the country.
Then, from the most hated man alive to… this.
A baby?!
A baby who, against every shred of pride he still clung to, had no choice but to breastfeed.
No matter how fiercely he tried to turn his head, push away, or glare up at his mother with what he thought was righteous fury, hunger always won. The moment her hand guided him closer, his body betrayed him. Instinct overrode will, and he was helpless to resist.
It was, without a doubt, the most humiliating thing he had ever endured in his life.
Well, technically, his life had just begun.
The following months blurred together in a dull, degrading cycle of eating, sleeping, and defecating. Once, he'd held lives in his hands. Now he was the life being held, a helpless sack of baby fat and uncoordinated limbs.
'This is cosmic mockery,' he thought bitterly, lying in his crib. 'Of all the second chances out there, I get this one?'
There wasn't much he could do except watch, listen, and remember. And even through blurred vision and muffled hearing, he understood something fundamental.
'This isn't Earth.'
Or at least, not the one he had known.
The language was oddly familiar, English or something close enough, which he quickly picked up. But everything else felt off. The air was cleaner, sharper somehow, and there was an energy in the atmosphere he couldn't name.
He noticed other strange things, too.
The nurses would whisper words that seemed to ripple faintly in the air, and sometimes when they moved their hands, the light bent or shimmered as though reality itself responded to them.
'Magic?' he wondered. 'Or some form of energy manipulation? Whatever it is, it's something beyond science entirely.'
He couldn't help but remember the day he was born. More specifically, the old nurse's terrified expression and the heat he felt in his eyes. That memory stuck with him deeply.
But no matter how hard he tried, staring intensely at Marn and others, he couldn't replicate that feeling.
And then there was that voice while he was floating in that abyss - the prophecy still carved into his mind like scripture burned into flesh.
'Eyes of Dominion. Soul of Two Lives. Age of Dominion. Was it talking about me?' he wondered.
He wasn't sure. But he couldn't shake the feeling that he was being shaped toward something.
Still, he was trapped in a baby's body, and that limited his options, to say the least.
-
For the first few months, the world was painted in shades of grey and darkness. He knew enough about developmental biology to understand why, but experiencing it firsthand was… unsettling. The inability to see colour made everything feel lifeless.
Then, slowly, colour began to seep into the world.
It started faintly - muted reds and greens, then soft blues, then the deep glow of golds and silvers. By the third month, the world had bloomed into full, vivid life.
And that was when Orion noticed just how strange these people were.
Hair like molten copper, eyes of pale green or burning amber - it wasn't rare here. It was normal. And it wasn't just aesthetic. There was a subtle glimmer to them, a quiet vitality that hinted at something more.
'Fascinating,' he mused. 'Definitely not Earth.'
But while the world amazed him, his own body infuriated him. No matter how extraordinary this new realm might be, he wasn't growing faster or developing beyond human norms. Just the same miserable pace - drooling, crawling, and being at the mercy of everyone else.
He'd even been circumcised, which he'd have been content never to recall.
'At least it's done,' he thought bitterly, 'but I'd have preferred anaesthesia. Or better yet, amnesia.'
His mother, Selene Frostborne, was the only warmth he had in this cold new world, which was ironic considering her surname. Her beauty was ethereal even to his infant eyes. Snow-white hair, fair skin that almost glowed, and soft blue eyes that carried a quiet sadness.
She looked too fragile for the world around her, and that fragility only seemed to be worsening. Each week, her strength faded a little more. Her hands trembled when she held him. Her breath grew shallow when she sang to him.
Eventually, she struggled even to nurse him herself.
'Thank God,' he'd thought the day the nurse switched him to the bottle. The formula inside was sweet and floral, similar enough to keep him content.
But alongside the relief, something that made him uncomfortable crept into his chest.
It was a mix of concern and... care?
He couldn't remember the last time he felt something like this, or felt anything for that matter. The last time his emotions overcame him ruined his previous life and got him arrested and killed.
'Do I feel bad because my mother is unwell?'
Then, that familiar cynicism would whisper back.
'She's not really my mother anyway, just a vessel for me to start a new life.'
'Remember, you're Dr Orion Stone,' he would constantly remind himself.
And yet, every time Selene smiled weakly and brushed her cold fingers over his cheek, something deep inside him softened. Something beyond reason or cynicism.
He hated that.
'It's just the baby hormones,' he told himself. 'Attachment response. It is purely biological.'
But even then, he didn't pull away.
His days passed quietly in the Varyn estate - a sprawling fortress of marble and ice-veined stone that overlooked a frozen winter valley. It was beautiful in a severe, lonely way.
He'd overheard enough to piece together the landscape of where he was.
House Varyn.
A powerful northern noble family, one that held dominion over Frostveil, a small town, and the mountain passes beyond. The family name carried prestige, wealth, and influence.
But Orion didn't bear it.
He carried his mother's surname - Frostborne.
Not by choice, but by decree - the house had not claimed him.
And that suited him just fine.
'I don't want connections anyway,' he thought, watching the frost gather on the window. 'They complicate things.'
His supposed father, Lord Kael Varyn, had only appeared once. Tall, expressionless, radiating the cold composure of a man who commanded without needing to raise his voice. He'd stayed no more than five minutes, muttered a few clipped words to Selene, and left without even looking at the child.
Orion remembered the moment clearly - not from emotion, but from the way Selene's eyes had dimmed after.
The old nurse, Marn, still tended to them both. Stern, reliable, and still wary of him despite being an infant. Every so often, he'd catch her staring at him with a faint tremor in her hand.
It didn't bother him.
He was used to that look in his previous victims - fear.
Over time, his understanding of this world deepened. He heard speak of Ether, which he inferred was a supernatural force that allowed people to perform feats beyond the natural.
It had also been mentioned in that prophecy.
He compared it to mana, qi, or whatever else fiction had called it back home.
'Except this isn't fiction,' he thought with a slow grin. 'This time, I get to study and wield it for real.'
He'd been reborn into a world of power, mystery, and infinite possibilities.
His death was supposed to be a punishment.
'But maybe dying was a gift,' he thought one night, the moon spilling pale light over his crib. 'Or maybe it's just a delayed punishment from God, who is planning to torment me slowly in this life.'
Either way, he was just glad to be alive and would make the most of this second chance.
By the time his first year came, Orion could crawl, stand, and babble enough to pass as any normal infant. But he never spoke too clearly, never too intelligently. He needed to blend in and appear normal.
At least for now.
He waited.
Watched.
Plotted.
This body might be small, but his mind was still his own.
Then, one quiet night, as he stood wobbling beside his crib, he felt it again. That pressure. That heat crawling behind his eyes, building and pulsing like something trying to wake.
The air thickened. Candlelight flickered.
And in the silence of their humble quarters on the outskirts of the Varyn Manor, something inside him stirred.
The same power that had once terrified a nurse the day he was born began to awaken again...