Time did not move forward; it folded in on itself.

  Darkness pressed in around his vision, not as night but as something heavier. The world distorted and pulled him into a vast blackness.

  Memories surfaced in fragments.

  Not his, not entirely.

  Voices overlapped at first, words half-formed and slightly muted. A laugh echoed in the distance that did not belong to the present. Then stone appeared beneath his feet.

  A courtyard.

  Bright flowers spread throughout the courtyard, and the air smelled faintly of rain and roses.

  He looked down at his hands; they were small, and his feet were too. He felt something tighten in the back of his throat.

  “Mother!”

  The words came out before he could stop them, and his feet ran toward the fountain in the center.

  A figure turned near the fountain; white fabric shifted in the wind. She knelt before he reached her and wrapped him up in her arms. His eyes felt wet with tears from a feeling he couldn’t remember.

  “Soren,” she said softly, her hands warm at his back.

  “Where were you?” he asked. “I couldn’t find you.”

  “I was right here,” she whispered. “These flowers don’t grow themselves, you know.”

  He pulled back just enough to look at her face. It was her, and she wore a light grin. How could he have forgotten? Her blue eyes were bright and steady. Her long white hair brushed against his cheek when she leaned closer. She was beautiful.

  But something felt distant, as if the world stood between them.

  “Why is everyone yelling?” he asked.

  Her smile faltered for just a moment.

  “No one’s yelling,” she said gently.

  But he could hear it, low voices muffled beneath the castle walls.

  He turned and saw his father standing near the archway, speaking to someone he couldn’t quite see. The words were thick and distorted, as if they carried from somewhere beneath him.

  And near the doorway stood his brother.

  He stood perfectly still, watching and quietly assessing. He wasn’t smiling; he was frowning.

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  “Is he coming with us?” Soren asked.

  His mother’s hand tightened slightly on his shoulder.

  “Yes,” she said. But she didn’t look at him when she answered.

  His brother finally stepped forward.

  “You shouldn’t be out here,” he said calmly. His voice sounded older than it should have.

  “I wanted to find Mom,” Soren replied.

  “You always do,” his brother said.

  There was something in the way he said it that made Soren’s stomach twist, though he didn’t understand why.

  The courtyard shifted and shook.

  The sky above flickered from gold to gray, and his father’s voice grew louder.

  “They’re closer than we thought.”

  Soren looked back at his mother.

  “Who is?”

  She cupped his face gently and spoke.

  “If you ever feel lost,” she said quietly, “remember the sound of water beneath stone, and it will lead you home.”

  He frowned.

  “What does that mean?”

  “You’ll understand someday.”

  His father stepped closer then, the tension in his shoulders sharp even to a child’s eyes.

  “Is it time?” his mother asked.

  His father nodded once.

  Near the courtyard entrance, their house attendant hovered anxiously, wringing her hands, eyes darting toward the outer gate.

  His father crouched in front of him. For a moment, he just looked at him.

  Even lowered to one knee, he felt tall. Broad shoulders, straight spine, a presence that filled the space around him without raising his voice. His coat hung perfectly from his frame, the silver clasp at his collar catching the light. He always looked like he belonged at the head of the room. A thin chain hung around his neck, and at its center rested a simple ring carved with a faint spiral.

  Soren had seen it before. His father never took it off.

  Across the courtyard, his brother’s gaze dropped to the ring.

  For just a moment, there was something in his eyes that did not belong there.

  Not fear, not confusion, but something sharper.

  The sky flickered from gold to a strange, bruised gray.

  A tremor ran through the stone beneath his feet.

  Soren’s father turned sharply toward the outer wall.

  “That’s not possible,” he muttered.

  A crack split the far archway.

  Not from the outside, but from within.

  The stone did not shatter outward. It folded inward, collapsing silently as if erased from the center.

  His mother pulled Soren behind her. The house attendant screamed near the colonnade, dropping the bundle she had been carrying.

  “No one breaches these walls,” his father said, but there was something brittle in his voice.

  The courtyard doors were sealed. The sigils along the perimeter still glowed faintly against the marble.

  It should have been impossible.

  A second fracture tore through the far pillar. Black lines crawled across the stone like veins spreading beneath skin.

  His brother did not move.

  He stood near the fountain, eyes fixed not on the breach—

  But on his father, on the ring resting against his chest. His gaze then drifted down to Soren. Soren thought, for just a second, that his brother’s eyes caught the light wrong. There was no fear in those eyes.

  The outer gate exploded inward, and blue flame erupted beyond the smoke.

  A figure stepped through the rupture in the wall, crowned in blue light and shadow. Creatures followed, tall and narrow, their limbs slightly too long for the space they occupied. Their outlines shimmered, never fully settling, as if the world struggled to hold their shape. The air around them tightened, pulling inward toward their presence.

  His father surged forward, purple mana flaring along his arms.

  “Take him!” he shouted.

  His mother shoved Soren toward the inner corridor.

  “Run!”

  Stone split again, this time beneath the fountain.

  Water, or what should have been water, poured out black.

  The air screamed.

  Soren stumbled, hands scraping against marble.

  He looked back once.

  His father clashed with a figure wrapped in blue fire.

  His mother’s crest flared.

  And his brother—

  His brother stood perfectly still.

  Watching.

  As if waiting.

  Then the world cracked in half, and the courtyard folded inward like paper burning from the center.

  The sound vanished.

  Darkness swallowed the rest.