Spring's First Bloom, Year 1247 of the Astravian Calendar
Today Father ignored me again. Not that I expected anything different. The war council met to discuss the demon movements near the southern front, and I was not invited. Cassian went. Of course Cassian went. He's always invited.
I stood outside the door for an hour, just listening. I know it's pathetic. I know a real prince would have barged in, demanded to be heard. But I'm not a real prince, am I? I'm the fifth son. The spare that no one needs.
Kael (that's my personal guard, the only one who still talks to me) says I should be patient. That my time will come. But Kael has been saying that for five years, and my time hasn't come yet.
Sometimes I wonder if it ever will.
Kain turned another page. And another. The entries continued—a portrait of a lonely boy growing up in the shadow of his more impressive siblings. Aldric wrote about watching his brothers train, about being told he was too weak for combat practice, about his mother's rare visits and his father's complete indifference.
Summer's Peak, Year 1247
Something strange happened today. I was in the library—hiding, really, from the tutors who keep trying to teach me things I'll never need—when I found a section I'd never noticed before. Behind a tapestry. Books about the Veilborn Expanse.
I know I shouldn't have taken one. The Veilborn is forbidden territory, everyone knows that. But I was curious. I've always been curious about the places no one talks about.
The book described the Eclipsed Court. Shadow beings, it said. Ancient creatures that predate both humans and demons. They don't take sides in the war. They just... watch.
I wonder what they watch for.
I wonder if they've ever watched me.
Kain's eyes widened. The Veilborn Expanse. The Eclipsed Court. This wasn't just a diary—it was a treasure trove of information. Aldric might have been considered useless by his family, but he was clearly more observant than anyone gave him credit for.
He read faster, devouring entry after entry.
The words blurred before Kain's eyes as he read, each entry painting a picture of a boy drowning in fear and isolation.
Autumn's End, Year 1247
I met someone today. A woman in the gardens, dressed in gray, with eyes that seemed to look right through me. She said she was a traveler, passing through the castle on her way south. She asked me my name, and when I told her, she looked at me with such sorrow that my heart nearly stopped.
I asked what was wrong.
She said, "You will soon disappear."
I laughed—nervously, the way I always do when I don't understand something. "What do you mean, disappear?"
But she just shook her head. "You will fall into a coma," she said quietly. "And then you will disappear forever. Someone else will take your place."
I wanted to ask more—who was she, how did she know, what did she mean by someone else—but she was already walking away. She paused at the garden gate and looked back at me one last time.
"Live your remaining days fully," she said. "They are fewer than you think."
And then she walked away, disappearing into the garden mist like she had never been there at all.
I don't know who she was. A witch? A spirit? A prophet? But I believe her. Every word she said felt like truth.
I'm going to die. Or disappear. Or both.
Kain stopped reading. His hands were shaking so badly he could barely hold the pages.
Someone else will take your place.
The woman in gray had seen him coming. Had known—a year before it happened—that Kain would wake up in Aldric's body.
How? his mind screamed. How could she possibly know?
He forced himself to keep reading.
---
Deepwinter, Year 1247
I've been hiding in my room for three days. I'm terrified. The woman's words echo in my head constantly—"you will fall into a coma, and then you will disappear forever."
I don't want to disappear. I don't want to die.
I've locked my door. I've stopped eating food I didn't prepare myself. I've even stopped drinking the wine they bring me, in case someone tries to poison me.
Kael thinks I've lost my mind. Maybe I have. But I'd rather be alive and crazy than dead and sane.
I hate my life.
I hate that in my whole family, I'm the only one with black hair and black eyes. Everyone else has the golden hair, the blue eyes, the perfect royal features. My father looks at me like I'm a mistake. My siblings look at me like I'm not really one of them.
Maybe I'm not.
Maybe that's why someone wants me gone.
I don't know who "they" are. The ones who will put me in that coma. The ones who will make me disappear.
But I know they're out there. Watching. Waiting.
I can feel them.
---
First Thaw, Year 1248
I had another dream last night.
Not about death this time. Not about the coma or the woman in gray or the faceless killers.
I dreamed about children.
Seven of them. Different ages, different faces, but all of them looking at me with the same expression—hope. Trust. Love.
They were walking with me through a forest. Talking to me. Laughing. Calling me... Father? Guardian? I couldn't hear the word clearly.
And I realized, in the dream, that I was raising them. They were mine to protect, mine to guide, mine to love.
But here's the strange part: I wasn't controlling my body. Someone else was. Someone else was walking in my skin, talking with my voice, being the person those children needed.
I was just... watching. A passenger in my own dream.
When I woke up, I knew what I had to do.
I have to find them. Those seven children. They're real—I can feel it. They're somewhere in this world, waiting for someone to find them, to protect them, to be their guardian.
And if I'm going to disappear anyway... if someone else is going to take my place...
Maybe that someone can find them for me.
Maybe that someone can be the person I never got to be.
---
Kain's eyes burned. He blinked rapidly, refusing to let the tears fall.
He knew, he thought. Aldric knew someone would take his body. And instead of cursing that person, instead of hating them...
He asked them to fulfill his dream.
---
The next page was different. The handwriting was shaky, desperate, the ink smudged in places as if tears had fallen on the page.
Last Night of Spring, Year 1248
They found me.
I was packing my bags. I had everything ready—food, water, warm clothes, the map I spent months drawing. I was going to leave tonight, under cover of darkness. Kael was going to help me slip past the guards.
But they found me first.
A group of nobles. I don't know who sent them. Their faces were hidden behind masks. They burst into my room while I was folding my last few belongings.
I tried to fight. I'm not a warrior, but I tried. I grabbed a candlestick, swung it at the first one. I think I hit him. I hope I hit him.
But there were too many. One of them grabbed me from behind. Another held a dagger.
I felt the blade slide between my ribs. Cold at first, then hot. So hot.
They left me here. On the floor. They think I'm dying. Maybe I am.
I can feel the blood spreading beneath me, warm and wet. My vision keeps fading. I don't have much time.
I dragged myself to my bed. To my diary. To these pages.
I'm writing this with the last of my strength. My hand won't stop shaking. The words keep blurring.
If someone finds this—please know that I existed. Please know that I tried. I don't want revenge. I don't want justice. I just want someone to remember that I was here.
And those children. In my dreams. They kept calling to me. They need someone to guide them. Someone to protect them.
I wanted to be that person. I wanted to be someone they could look up to.
I never got the chance.
If you're reading this—whoever you are—please. Find them for me. Help them. Be the person I couldn't be.
That's my last wish.
---
The handwriting stopped. There was a long smear of blood across the bottom of the page—Aldric's hand, slipping as death took him.
But there was one more page.
Kain turned it, expecting emptiness, expecting the final silence of a life cut short.
Instead, he found a map.
A map. Full-page, meticulously drawn, covering both pages of the diary. Aldric had spent months on this—Kain could see it in every careful line, every labeled city, every shaded mountain range.
The map of the world.
Eldrath Prime spread across the parchment in stunning detail. Frostveil Dominion in the north, with Skjornhold marked at its heart. Valedrath Sovereignty to the northwest, Dravaryn Fortress clearly indicated. Austrai Imperium in the west-central region, Aurelios circled in red—someone's blood? Kain hoped not.
Soul Maria Sanctum sat in the exact center, Luminae marked with a tiny golden star—gold ink, carefully applied.
And to the east, taking up nearly a quarter of the map: the Veilborn Expanse. But Aldric hadn't left it blank like most maps did. He had filled it with details.
Eclipsed Court was written in the northern part of the forest, with a small note beside it: Shadow beings. Ancient. They watch.
Sylvaran Grove appeared in the western reaches, marked with a tiny tree. Forest kin. Possibly friendly?
Drakmor Peaks rose in the center, a ring of mountains surrounding something labeled Starfall Ruins.
And in the heart of those ruins, drawn in the same red ink as Aurelios: a small tower. With a single word beside it.
Sanctuary.
Kain traced the word with his fingertip.
He found it, Kain realized. He found a place. A destination. Somewhere in the Veilborn, he thought he could be safe.
The southern half of the map was marked in darker ink—the Infernal Dominion, the Obsidian Throne, the four Abyssal Dungeon Towers. Aldric had labeled each tower with tiny skulls.
Below that, the Abyssal Sea stretched to the second continent. Noctyrr Majoris loomed large and dark, its regions marked with question marks and the occasional note: Nightfall Plateau—demon nobles?, Ember Abyss—avoid, Blackthorn Dominion—corrupted forest, do not enter.
But Aldric's map showed something the game's lore never mentioned.
A path.
Drawn in faint silver ink that seemed to shimmer even in the morning light, a line led from the Astravian palace—from this very room—south through the war zone, then east into the Veilborn Expanse. Through the Eclipsed Canopy. Past the Drakmor Peaks. To a place marked only with seven small stars.
And beneath the stars, in Aldric's careful handwriting:
"For my children. When you find them, tell them I tried to come. Tell them I loved them even though we never met. Tell them... tell them someone finally came for them."
Kain stared at the map for a long, long time.
Seven children. Somewhere in the Veilborn Expanse. Waiting for a guardian who never arrived.
Aldric's last wish. His only legacy.
He knew I was coming, Kain thought. He didn't know my name, didn't know my face, but he knew someone would wake up in his body. And instead of fighting it, instead of cursing it, he left me a purpose.
He traced the silver line with his finger, following it through dangers he could only imagine.
Find them. Protect them. Be the person he couldn't be.
— Aldric Valerius Astra, Fifth Prince of Astravia
I existed.
Kain closed the diary gently, pressing it against his chest.
"You existed," he whispered to the empty room. "And I'll make sure someone remembers."
He looked at his own crude notes beside him, then at Aldric's masterful map.
I have a guide now. A real guide. Not just memories of forum posts and café conversations, but an actual map drawn by someone who lived here, who explored here, who dreamed of escaping here.
He carefully folded Aldric's map—it was large, but flexible parchment, and he could refold it along the original creases. He tucked it beneath his pillow beside the diary.
The Veilborn Expanse, he thought. Sanctuary. Children calling for guidance.
That's where I need to go. If I can survive long enough to get there.
A knock at the door.
Kain wiped his face quickly, composing himself.
"Come in."
Mary entered with the breakfast tray he'd forgotten he asked for. She set it on the bedside table, her eyes flickering briefly to his face—noticing the redness around his eyes, the dampness on his cheeks—but saying nothing.
"Your breakfast, my Prince."
Kain looked at the food. Bread, cheese, fruit, porridge, tea. Simple fare, but more than he'd had in any single meal during his entire life in Room 307.
"Thank you, Mary," he said. "Leave it. I'll eat in a moment."
She bowed and withdrew.
Kain stared at the food, then at the pillow hiding Aldric's legacy.
I'll find them, he promised the dead prince. I'll find that dream children. I'll be their guide.
And I'll survive.
For both of us.