When I stepped outside, something inside my mind shifted. Memories blurred and fragments of my life vanished. My mother, my family gone, replaced by unfamiliar faces. Someone had stolen them from my heart. The only things I knew for certain were these: I was a writer. My name was Kael Asher.
The castle loomed threateningly above me tall, carved from stone, its walls embedded with the skulls of the fallen. I was dragged before the king.
"Who do you choose? Who dies before you?"
I looked around, confused, fear strangling my throat.
Then he laughed.
"Haha… small world, isn't it? You never thought you'd end up here, yet… here you are."
His voice dripped with mockery.
"You tried everything, said everything, but in the end… you're still here. So tell me… who do you pick? Your mother? Or your sister?"
Wrath of Wratvlad, the king, leaned forward on his throne, his brick-red eyes burning with sadistic pleasure.
He was enormous, a suffocating presence. My knees pressed into the cold stone floor, chains biting into my wrists. The air thickened. Blood pooled beneath me but it wasn't mine. Not yet.
My mother and sister knelt beside me, bound and silent, their fate hanging on the tyrant's words.
"Take me instead!" I shouted.
"Kill me, but spare them! They did nothing! I am the one who defied you."
The words felt eerily familiar, as if I had said them before. My eyes met my mother's filled with terror, refusing to see one of her children die. Her red hair, eyes shining like a clear sky and vibrant green life.
My sister dirty, wearing the same clothes for days I had never seen her so scared. Her black hair soft, sapphire eyes still waiting for a story from me.
And suddenly, I was no longer afraid.
"I am the one who wanted to change this cursed world!" my voice cracked with despair.
"A world where we walk over corpses every day! Where a king is nothing but an executioner! Where 'defending your kingdom' means letting mothers in foreign lands weep for their starving children! In this world, to be good, you must be a demon!"
Wrath smiled, savoring my agony.
"Kael… Kael, Kael."
He approached and cupped my face in his hand.
"I love that look in your eyes. It doesn't say much, but it understands."
He turned toward my family, his cruel smile twisting.
"You've been such a useful tool for me. Just like your father."
A mystery. I was never told his fate. I never found him.
"Ah, your father…" Wrath leaned back, sprawling on his throne.
I watched him butcher everything in his path, and in the end… die for the same people who demanded his head.
"Do you know who killed him?"
I held my breath.
No. It couldn't be…
"Me."
His laughter still haunts me.
"I used him like a pawn. Because in this world, there can only be one king. And now… say goodbye to what's left of your family."
Wrath made a lazy wave of his hand.
"Let the swords fall."
My world shattered.
My mother's voice, gentle even now, whispered:
"Kael… Take care of yourself. I will love you for eternity. Live for me, and please… seek forgiveness, not revenge."
The blade began to descend.
And my sister, holding back her tears, smiled.
"Kael… one day we will play again. With Mom and Dad."
I wept, unable to speak.
She turned at the last moment.
"Until then… take care. I will wait for you. Always."
I struggled against the chains.
"No! No! Why is this happening?!"
Then the swords fell.
Blood splattered across the stone floor.
Their heads rolled.
The silence that followed was unbearable.
My hands trembled, soaked in my family's blood.
Something inside me broke. Irreparably.
"I will kill this world."
I swore to the heavens.
"I will kill them all."
Madness took root in my soul.
Wrath laughed.
"Such beautiful words. Your mother's plea almost made me cry."
He mocked her final words, contemptuous.
"And your sister's farewell… simply adorable. But it's a pity, truly…"
He smiled again.
"Because you, Kael, won't live long enough to keep your promise."
The knights approached, swords raised.
From his throne, Wrath commanded:
"Now… take his head."
I closed my eyes, a final farewell.
The flash of steel.
A sky drowned in blood.
Then nothing.
Cold. Silence. Absolute.
I gasped, burning air filling my lungs.
But I was no longer in Wratvlad.
The air here was ancient, heavy as if time itself had stopped.
Trembling, I rose.
An endless field stretched before me, swallowed by grey mist and forgotten whispers.
"Where… am I? Where is my family? Is this Heaven… or something else?"
I clenched my fists.
The fire of vengeance still burned in me.
In the distance, a lone tree rose to the sky, its branches motionless.
Beneath it, a girl in white bathed in moonlight watched me.
Her expression was inscrutable, but her eyes… bore the weight of a thousand stories.
I staggered toward her, dropping to my knees.
"Hey! You… Do you know this place?"
I needed answers.
"Where am I?"
She looked at me long before she spoke.
"Welcome, Kael."
She knew my name.
"This is the realm of your reality," she said.
"A place where death has a beginning… but no end."
I clenched my fists tighter.
"I don't understand. And I don't care. I must return. I have unfinished business."
She nodded, as if she expected it.
"If that is your wish, so be it."
She lifted a sword from beside her and handed it to me.
Then, she placed a book in my hands.
My brow furrowed.
"What is this book? And… why give me a sword?"
Her smile was barely there.
The last words I heard before darkness swallowed me once again:
I woke suddenly.
Sunlight flooded my window.
My bed. My room.
But my heart pounded like a war drum.
"A dream…?"
I clenched my fingers.
Something was there.
A book.
My breath caught as I read the title:
"Samsara."
And below, written in bleeding ink:
"Title: Samsara. Author: Kael Asher."
My name.
I flipped through the pages, hands trembling.
Every detail of my life was written there.
My mother's execution.
My sister's farewell.
My death.
But the book did not reveal what came next.
I reached the last page.
Only one question was written there:
"I am you, and you are me. Then… who am I?"
I closed the book, mind adrift.
"Is this reality?"
Or something entirely different?
Whatever it was…
I had to find out.
And I had to make sure history would not repeat itself.
A flash tore through the sky.
And somewhere, beyond the veil of existence, the girl beneath the tree smiled.