The orphanage glowerd with warmth,laughter bouncing off walls draped in paper stramers and banners .The scent of honey cakes and melted wax filled the air as benny twirled,clutching toy sword. Alex is gonna bring cake!"he cheered
Then the lights flickered.
Asingle spark hissed from the kitchen's overloaded circuit. Flames slithered up the banner — congrats Alex!—before exploding in a rush of heat and fury. The room became a furnace.
The fire roared,swallowing the decorations turning ribbons into ashe. Smoke choked the air.Benny's sleeves ignited. HIis Tiny voice shrieked —piercing, raw—before a second explosion threw thhim across the room
Maria shoved Leo toward the door, her face twisted in terror. Run! she screamed. Amoment later,a burning beam crashed down , crushing her spine spine with a sickening crunch.
Ellie clawed at the flames, her braids catching fire as she reached for Leo's outstretched hand . Her eyes melted first.Then her screams gurgled into silence.
Miss Evelyn hurled herself at the blaze. Batting at the children s burning clothes until her own dress caught fire. Her lips twisted in agony as her skin blackened,her screams rising to something inhuman before her throat seared shut.
By the time Alex arrived,it was hell.
Flames licked at the ceiling.The front door had caved in , the wood eaten by fire .Firefighters p pinned him as he thrashed. " Let me go! They're inside!"
Through the shattered windows, he saw—
Benny's tiny frame crumpled under fallen debris, his arms twisted, flesh curling like burnt parchment.
Diana's hand, slapping the smoke-blackened pane, her nails braking off against the glass before her body collapsed in a heap of scorched bones.
David's mouth mouth opened wide in a scream— then the roof caved in , and he was gone.
The walls twisted and melted around him.Their voices shriveled into silence.
In the present, Amon's mind shattered.
"You killed us!"
Benny's voice was wet,his charred face pressing from the darkness, eye sockets hollow,his lips peeled away from blackened teeth.
Maria's shattered skull oozed accusation.
"Why didn't you save me?"
Leo's small fingers clawed at Amon's skin,nails digging deep. " It burns... it burns...make it stop!"
Amon convulsed, bile rising in his throat.Guilt crushed his ribs, squeezing the air from his lungs.His feast,His banners, his fault.
End it, a voice slithered in his ear. Find.a knife.A cliff. Make it stop.
Then—Miss Evelyn.
Not burning now. Not screaming. Just standing before him ,whole." You carry our light,Alex. Don't drown it. "
The visions didn't vanish. Leo still screamed. Benny still burned.But beanth the horror, an ember glowed — not forgiveness, not yet but the chance for it .
Amon's tiny hands clenched in his swaddle, his small body trembling.His breath came in ragged ,gasping sobs .
'I am sorry '. He choked on thewords. 'I'm sorry,I'm sorry —'.
Something hardened in his chest – a blade forged from grief .
Amon's eyes snapped open.
His irises burned, deeper than blood.
A presence rippled from his small frame, invisible but suffocating. The air darkened. Pressure slithered into room, staining the very fabric of reality with something raw , primal — INTENT.
_____
Across the estate two figures jolted awake.
Klien moved before thought. His spear materialized in a swirl of shadows, its blade humming with suppressed rage. He tore through the palace like a hurricane, walls and ceilings disintegrating to ash in his wake.
Guards stationed across the grounds froze.
Instinct screamed at them — The Patriarch's Wrath. A force that had sundered the worlds now pulsed through the estate. Suffocating ,prssure dessended on the estate
Elara followed,her black hair crackling static. "Klein, stop!" she hissed, but he was already at amons door two shadow-cloaked figures materialized in front of him, trying to stop him. He didn't slow.The instant his aua slammed into them,they were thrown aside like ragdolls,crashing into stone walls with sickening cracks.
He stepped inside.
The room was a strom. Anastasia clutched Amon to her chest, her face pale. The child wailed,cries sharp with terror –not just from chaos,but from crushing weight of Klien's aura. A dark stain spread across his swaddle.
"You fool!" Elara snarled, striking the back of his head with enough force to rattle his skull. His spear vanished "look what you've done!"
Klien stood rigid,his crimson eyes scanning the room. The residue of Amon's awakened Intent lingered –faint, but unmistakable.
'Intent.At three years old'. Impossible.
His gaze flickered to the damp swaddle,then to Anastasia's trembling form. Shame cut through his anger. ." I... Didn't realize."
Elara knelt beside the bed,her voice softening to a lullaby." Shh,little star you're safe." Her fingers brushed Amons forehead, honeyed energy seeping into him.His cries dwindled to hiccups.
Klien exhaled sharply." What happened?"
Anastasia avoided his eyes. " Bad dreams. He's had them before, but tonight...it was worse.I was about to call Mother when you came."
Klien's jaw tightened. Intent awakening wasn't just rare in children –it was dangerous. The mind couldn't handle the strain.
He stared at Amon, who now slept fitfully,tears gleaming on his cheeks.
Outside two shadows knelt before Klien
"Report". His voice was cold.
Leo spoke first." The childs distress began an hour past. We sensed the shift in his aura but deemed it a night terror. Our oversight."
Selene's voice tightened " The intent surge was brief but potent. If others felt it..."
Klien fingers twitched. The Oltheros family had enemies- vultures who' would salivate at the rumor of a child prodigy. Or a threat.
"Ensure no word leaves these grounds "
"As you wish Patriarch " Both spoke in unison. Shadows engulfed the twins whole.
Back in the room Elara stroked Amon's hair. His tiny fists clenched even in sleep. 'What did you see little one?.'
She'd soothed his ,mind but the echoes she glimpsed - fire, screams,a guilt too vast for a childs soul –Clung to him like smoke.
Dawn crept over the estate, pale and wary.
Klien stood atop the eastern tower, watching the horizon. Below,the shadow Corps moved unseen, weaving spells of forgetting. Guards blinked dazedly, their memories fraying at the edges.
The wind howled, carrying the distant cry of a hawk.
Klien's knuckles whitened on the tower's edge. " If the Harbingers learn of this ..."
'I must tell Father'