In the ancient halls of the Astro estate, where marble pillars reached toward the heavens and the air was thick with the scent of old wood and wealth, Nathan von Astro's fate was sealed by a moment of unintended consequence. Born to a noble family, his childhood was filled with the grandeur of power and the weight of responsibility. He was a promising young man, destined to lead his family and leave his mark on history, but that history would soon twist into something far darker than anyone could have imagined.
One evening, during a rare celestial event, a gathering of nobles was held in the heart of the capital. The event centered around an ancient artifact, a relic said to be imbued with the very essence of divinity. No one truly understood the artifact's power, nor did they question why it was kept sealed beneath a shrine of towering statues. It was tradition to hold such gatherings, more for pomp and spectacle than any true reverence. But on that night, as the moon bathed the city in an otherworldly glow, the relic reacted.
Nathan, ever the curious youth, was wandering through the grand hall when the first tremor shook the earth. The statues trembled, and the relic, glowing faintly from within its casing, pulsed with energy. A wave of light, ethereal and warm, washed over him as the ground cracked beneath his feet. In the confusion, he stumbled forward, his hand brushing the relic as it unleashed its full power. His body was enveloped in the divine light, and his very soul was steeped in its essence.
By the time the chaos subsided, Nathan was left standing in the center of the wreckage, unscathed but forever changed. What had once been a boy filled with dreams of a fleeting future was now an immortal being, cursed to watch time march forward without him.
At first, immortality seemed like a blessing. Nathan's family marveled at his youth as the years passed, his face unchanging, his strength unyielding. His friends admired him, his influence grew, and he became a legend within his own lifetime. Decades passed, then centuries. But with each passing year, the truth of his condition sank deeper into his soul. His parents, proud and kind, withered and aged before his eyes. His siblings, with whom he shared countless childhood memories, grew old, had families, and left the world one by one. Nathan buried them all, his heart growing heavier with each grave.
In time, he realized that no matter how much love or joy he felt, it would all turn to ash. His friends, those he laughed and fought beside, aged and passed, leaving him behind with nothing but memories. He tried to seek solace in those who lived longer—elves, for example, whose lifespans stretched into the thousands of years. For a time, it brought him peace. He traveled with them, explored distant lands, and formed deep bonds. But even they, with all their longevity, were not eternal.
The worst was watching his dearest friend, an elven warrior named Elira, fall victim to time. For nearly a thousand years, they had journeyed together, facing trials and wars, building a friendship that Nathan thought might soften the pain of loss. But when her time came, when her once-vibrant eyes dulled and her ageless face creased with the marks of time, he was left to mourn her as he had all the others.
Nathan sat alone on a cliff overlooking the ocean, his cloak billowing in the wind, his eyes fixed on the horizon. He had not wept for centuries, but for Elira, the tears came freely. "Even the long-lived perish," he whispered to the wind, his voice hollow.
In his solitude, he tried to distance himself from the world, building walls around his heart. He wandered from kingdom to kingdom, refusing to form new bonds, refusing to let others get close. But even in isolation, he could not escape time's cruelty. He watched empires rise and fall, the once-glorious cities he had known reduced to ruins by the relentless march of years.
Everywhere he went, memories haunted him. Faces of those he had loved, those who had once stood by his side, flickered in his mind like fading dreams. He could hear their voices in the wind, their laughter echoing through the empty halls of his past. But they were gone—dust on the wind, while he remained.
As centuries turned into millennia, Nathan began to question the purpose of his existence. What was the point of an immortal life if it was spent watching everyone and everything around him wither and die? He tried to end it once, climbing the tallest mountain and casting himself from its peak, but even death rejected him. His body healed, time after time, leaving him trapped in an endless loop of despair.
He sought out gods, begged them to release him from his curse, but they turned their faces from him. "You have been touched by divinity," they said. "This is the price of eternity."
The weight of those words sank deep into his bones. This was his fate—to walk the world alone, never aging, never dying, forever burdened by the memories of those he had lost.
One day, as he wandered through a forest older than most kingdoms, he came across a village of humans. They were simple folk, content in their brief lives, and they welcomed the strange traveler with kindness. Nathan, weary of solitude, allowed himself to live among them for a time. He watched their lives unfold, from birth to death, in what seemed like the blink of an eye. He helped raise their children, knowing full well he would outlive them all.
And as he sat by the bedside of an old woman, the last of his friends in that village, he held her hand as she passed into the next life. Her final words were a soft whisper: "Don't be sad, Nathan. You gave me a beautiful life."
Tears filled his eyes as he watched her take her last breath. He had given her a life, but she had given him something more—another painful reminder of his loneliness.
Nathan von Astro stood by her grave for hours, the village around him silent in mourning. He had buried so many, yet each loss was as sharp as the first. As the sun set and the sky darkened, he whispered to the wind, "How many more must I lose?"
The wind carried no answer.
And so, Nathan continued to walk through the endless expanse of time, the immortal boy who had once been a noble, now a man burdened with eternity. His heart, once filled with hope and love, was now a vessel for grief and sorrow. He was a traveler without a destination, a soul without rest, cursed to watch the world change while he remained the same.