Ashen did not sleep.
He sat in the candlelight of the Black Reliquary, the letter still in his hand.
The wax seal was ancient—older than most kingdoms, yet unmistakable. A sun torn by a blade.
It was the sigil of his former disciple.
The one who betrayed him.
The one who rose as Serathiel's chosen champion in the Age of Judgment.
The Heavenblade Prince.
And now, centuries before that fated betrayal would occur…
He had returned.
Ashen placed the letter on a burning censer.
He didn't need to read it again.
The words were burned into him.
"Your disciple lives."
"He walks among men again."
"And he remembers."
The next morning, Ashen summoned Lira.
He spoke softly.
"Send word to all agents: No direct action against anyone bearing the mark of the sunblade. Watch only. Record. Do not engage."
Lira nodded.
But there was worry in her eyes.
She could feel it.
Ashen's calm had cracked.
By nightfall, word arrived from Traln, the northern duchy now raising a holy army.
A foreign warrior had been seen at the head of their forces—a youth in gleaming armor, untouched by mud or time, bearing a sword made of song and a mantle of light that rejected all shadow.
He called himself Caelum.
The name meant nothing.
But Ashen knew the soul behind the name.
Elarion.
His brightest student.
His cruelest mistake.
Ashen stood before the Watcher's mirror that night, now dimmed but still whispering.
He pressed his palm to the glass.
And asked the silence:
"Does he know?"
The mirror cracked.
Meanwhile, in the frozen north, Caelum knelt in a frost-draped temple.
A priestess chanted. A choir wept. Candles flickered in rhythm with his heartbeat.
At the edge of his dreams, he heard a voice.
Ashen's voice.
"You were born of me. What will you do now?"
Caelum's eyes opened slowly.
He didn't answer.
But his blade hummed softly with divine echo.
🔸 Heavenblade Prince Confirmed: Reincarnated as Caelum
🔹 Status: Chosen Champion of Serathiel (Memory Fragmented, Slowly Awakening)
🔹 Divine Weapon: "Solstice" – Blade of Forgiveness and Judgment
🔹 Alignment: Unknown (Unstable between loyalty and doubt)
🔹 Last Seen: Northern Duchy of Traln
🔹 Echo Rank: A (Blessed, Divine Path)
Ashen returned to his sanctum and began to prepare.
Not for war.
Not yet.
But for revelation.
He drafted a false prophecy to circulate in Traln—one that mirrored Caelum's supposed destiny but twisted its outcome toward despair.
"The light that returns will be devoured by the shadow that remembers."
It was a gamble.
But Ashen knew his disciple.
Knew his pride.
If he saw himself in a prophecy…
If he began to doubt the gods who shaped it…
Then the real blade would begin to fracture.
Lira found Ashen hours later, half-buried in ash and sigils.
"You knew this would happen," she signed.
Ashen's voice was hollow.
"I hoped it never would."
In the heavens, Serathiel stirred again.
Not in rage. Not in fear.
But in preparation.
He whispered one command into the dreams of angels:
"He walks the path of ruin again.
Send the twins. Burn every shadow."