Kael Vey adjusted his glasses, a habit he had picked up in the past three years working as a librarian at the central city library. The noisy hum of the city loomed beyond the towering shelves of books, yet within these walls, time felt still. The scent of aged parchment and ink was a comfort, though he did not know why.
Something about this place felt… familiar.
As if he had always belonged here, yet did not belong at all.
He often shrugged off these thoughts. He was Kael, a simple librarian, leading a quiet life cataloging books and assisting visitors. Yet, sometimes, the feeling of déjà vu hit him like a thunderclap. Some words he read sounded like echoes of a language he once knew. Some symbols seemed to dance in his mind with meaning he knew but didn't know how he learnt it or where he had seen it. It was a strange feeling, he had felt this way for the past three years and he couldn't quite say he was used to it.
Today was different.
A soft chime signaled a visitor entering the library. Kael glanced up from his desk to see a woman browsing the history section, her fingers tracing the spines of old, forgotten books. He stared her down for sometime before loosing interest, she wasn't the first to go towards those old books, they usually leave it be after a quick glance so he wasn't bothered to even give an advice. She moved with elegance as her fingers trailed the hard dusty covers of the old books, she seemed to be looking hard for something but she couldn't find it even after going through all the rolls of books.
She was about to give up when from the corner of her eyes she found a small book that laid at the centre of a few larger books, it had no title written on it and that made her curious, so she grabbed the book and flipping through the first page she saw a name she knew too well, anyone who was a regular visitor to central city's grand library knew this name.
Minutes later, she approached the desk with the book in hand. "I'd like to borrow this," she said, setting it down.
Kael barely spared it a glance as he reached for the borrowing log, but then...
His name.
Boldly written on the first page of the book.
His chest tightened. His mind screamed that this was impossible, yet his heart thundered with something primal, something beyond logic. This same feeling, the same nuisance of a feeling that has plagued him for years now surfacing violently without any intentions of backing down.
"Is something wrong?" the woman asked, noticing his sudden change in demeanor.
Kael slowly flipped the book again. The second page held a single line:
"If you are reading this, then you have already forgotten."
The lady glanced at the line and couldn't help but chuckle .
"That's quite the line to start a history book with" but then she noticed Kyle's reaction. He was totally frozen.
A searing pain exploded in his head. Flashes of a golden battlefield, the scent of burning reality, the feeling of power surging through his veins
He staggered back, his vision spinning. The library, the bookshelves, the world itself blurred into streaks of color and sound. Then...
A voice.
Deep, ancient, powerful.
"You should not have remembered."
The voice shook Kael to his marrows.
He gasped, clutching his head. The woman's panicked voice became distant, drowned beneath the deafening hum in his skull. He barely had time to recover when the world around him cracked like fragile glass. The library melted into darkness. The weight of existence itself pressed against him.
And in the abyss....
A figure emerged.
A towering man, clad in celestial armor that shimmered with ethereal light. His eyes burned with an ancient, undeniable force. A presence that commanded worlds.
A Martial God.
Kael did not remember him. But his body did.
His pulse quickened, his breath shallow. Every instinct in him screamed that this being was not just powerful, he was unstoppable.
The Martial God studied him for a moment before speaking.
"So, the heavens did not erase you entirely. Unfortunate."
Kael's lips parted, but no words came.
The martial god raised a hand, and the very fabric of reality trembled as he mumbled away.
"You look so weak, I see... you failed , It seems I must correct this mistake myself."
A surge of energy crashed toward Kael, a force beyond human comprehension.
And yet..
Something inside him awakened.
Instinct overrode thought. His body moved before he could question why. His fingers twisted in an ancient pattern. A name surfaced in his mind, one that had long been buried.
"Aetherial Shift."
His body got enveloped in spectrum of colours and light as he faded away before the energy of the martial god impacted at the position he stood.
The world shattered into golden particles.
Kael vanished.
When he reappeared, he was back in the library, gasping for breath, his vision blurry, his body drenched in cold sweat as he would shiver from time to time, his muscles spasmed. The woman stood in front of him, looking both concerned and intrigued.
"Are you okay?" she asked.
Kael's hands trembled as he touched the book again. He felt something stirring in him, a hunger for answers. He glanced at the woman, his breath still uneven.
"Let me read it with you," he requested with haggard breath.
She raised an eyebrow. "You wrote it, didn't you?"
She was puzzled with at his reaction earlier and now his eyes that was filled with both curiosity and fear.
"I don't remember." His voice was barely a whisper. "But I need to."
The woman studied him for a moment before nodding. She pulled up a chair, and together, they opened the book.
As they read, Kael felt it..
A whisper at the edges of his mind.
A call from a forgotten past.
And far beyond the mortal world, something ancient stirred. Watching. Waiting.