Chapter One: The Night Everything Burned

The sky cracked open with fire.

Kael had never heard a sound like it before—like the heavens screaming. He turned just in time to see the old windmill at the top of the hill explode in a column of flame, splinters of wood and ash raining down like fireflies.

"Kael!" his mother’s voice ripped through the chaos.

He stumbled over the dirt path toward their home, smoke biting his eyes. Lyra was clinging to their mother’s hand, coughing, eyes wide with fear. Behind them, the village burned. Screams echoed through the air. And above it all—a terrifying banner flew from the hill, blood-red and torn.

The rebels had come.

Not the friendly kind—the kind who shared stories and stolen food from passing caravans. These were branded with high bounties. C- and B-rankers at least. Their leader—a man with a jagged axe and a half-metal face—had shouted from the square that they were taking everything.

Anyone who resisted died.

Kael reached them just as another blast shattered the bakery across the road. The flames licked toward the path. “We have to go!” he yelled, grabbing Lyra’s other arm.

“I know,” his mother said, her voice cracking. Her face was smudged with ash, hair tangled, but her grip on both children was iron-strong. “To the docks. Now!”

They ran.

The air was thick with smoke and screams. Kael’s heart pounded like a war drum in his chest. He couldn’t look back—he didn’t want to see who was chasing, or what. Just the sound of boots and chaos behind them.

He held Lyra’s hand tight. Her little fingers trembled in his grip.

By the time they reached the edge of the village, Kael’s legs were aching and his lungs burned. The docks were barely standing. Flames danced along the water, reflecting like dying stars.

Boats were half-sunk or already looted—except one.

A small fishing vessel, pushed halfway into the reeds, abandoned.

“Quick!” their mother said, dragging them toward it. She threw open the supply hatch and shoved Kael forward. “Help your sister in.”

Kael nodded, grabbing Lyra by the waist and lifting her down into the boat. She whimpered but didn’t resist. The moment he jumped in after her, he knew.

There wasn’t room for three.

Their mother climbed in behind them, eyes darting around the deck, desperate. “The storage barrel,” she muttered. “Over there.”

Kael turned. A large, empty barrel sat near the back—used for salting fish. It reeked, but it was wide enough.

“Inside,” she ordered.

“What?” Kael blinked. “No—Mom, come with us—”

“There’s no space!” she shouted. Her voice cracked, and she dropped to her knees in front of them, pushing Lyra toward the barrel. “You’re both small enough to fit. They won’t find you. But if I stay—if I hide too, we’ll all be found.”

“No!” Lyra cried, reaching for her mother.

“Please—don’t make me—” Kael choked. He’d never seen his mother look like this—so desperate. So broken.

She grabbed their faces in both hands, pulling them close. Her forehead touched theirs. “You listen to me, both of you. If I don’t make it... you have to survive. You hear me? You run, you hide, you live.”

“Mom—”

“I said live!” she said, biting back tears. “And Kael—”

Her eyes locked with his.

“Find it.”

Kael swallowed. “Find what?”

She took a breath. “The Unknown. For her.”

Kael stared. The Unknown. That old legend... the place no one had ever seen. The one the Authorities denied even existed.

He didn’t understand. But the look in her eyes—he knew it was all she had left to give.

He nodded. “I will.”

She kissed their foreheads, then helped them both climb inside the barrel. Lyra was already crying—silent tears slipping down her cheeks. Kael wrapped an arm around her.

The lid closed above them, plunging everything into darkness.

Outside, the world was ending.

They could hear it all—shouting, footsteps on the dock, the creak of wood. For a moment, Kael thought the boat was going to tip.

Then—
A scream.
A splash.
Silence.

Kael held Lyra tighter.

And the barrel began to drift.

The inside of the barrel was cramped, damp, and smelled like old salt and rot.

Kael sat with his knees tucked to his chest, arms wrapped around Lyra as the boat rocked gently under them. Her face was pressed against his shirt, her breathing shallow and trembling. She hadn’t spoken since the lid closed.

Outside, the world still burned.

Screams and distant gunfire echoed from the shore. Shouts in rebel voices. The crackle of fire eating homes, memories, everything they’d ever known.

And then… silence.

Minutes passed. Maybe more.

Kael wasn’t sure if it was safe. He wasn’t sure of anything anymore. But his heart wouldn't let him sit still.

Carefully, he shifted, sliding one hand to the side of the barrel and pressing upward.

The lid creaked.

He winced, freezing. Nothing.

He pushed a little harder and cracked it open just enough to see through the slit.

And what he saw made his blood freeze.

His mother was on the shore.

Kneeling.

Her hands were bound behind her back, hair soaked and face bruised. Two rebels stood over her — one with a broken horn tied to his belt, the other with a jagged blade hanging from his wrist like a third hand.

They spoke, but Kael couldn’t hear the words — the waves against the hull muffled everything.

He watched her lips move.

Still strong. Still unafraid.

Until they pulled her to her feet.

Kael didn’t know what he expected.

Maybe a rescue. Maybe mercy.

What he got was silence and steel.

The jagged-blade rebel raised his arm.

And drove it down through her skull.

Kael didn’t move.

Didn’t breathe.

The body hit the ground with a dull, distant thud. Blood pooled across the sand.

The rebels walked away.

He lowered the lid slowly, gently, like it might scream if he dropped it.

Darkness returned.

Inside the barrel, Lyra stirred. “Kael... is she coming?”

He didn’t answer.

Not at first.

She looked up at him. “Kael?”

He felt the tears burning behind his eyes — a storm waiting to break.

But he didn’t let them fall.

He forced his voice steady. “She’s okay. She… she ran the other way. She told us to stay hidden. She’ll find us later.”

Lyra blinked, wiping her nose. “You promise?”

Kael nodded. “I promise.”

She laid her head back down.

And he held her close, watching the cracks of light leak in through the gaps in the wood.
The boat drifted, wind carrying them away from the burning village.
Away from everything they had known.
Away from her.

Hours passed before either of them moved again. The sun rose slowly, turning the water orange and gold.

The barrel creaked as it bumped against reeds. A small riverbank, quiet and untouched by fire.

Kael gently lifted the lid again. The coast was empty.

He climbed out first, pulling Lyra up after him. Her eyes were red, her body exhausted.

She looked at the trees. The sky. The unfamiliar land.

“Where are we?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” he replied softly.

She nodded, and took his hand.

Kael didn’t know where to go, what came next, or how they would survive. But one thing echoed in his mind like a vow:

Find the Unknown. For her.

He glanced back at the ocean.

The shore where she died was far behind them now.

He didn’t cry.

Not yet.

Maybe later, when Lyra couldn’t see.

For now, he’d be strong. For both of them.

He squeezed his sister’s hand.

“Let’s go