Born From Ruin (Rebirth)

Chapter 3: Silence After Death

The smoke hung low over Ashvale.

It wasn’t from cooking fires this time — it was the smell of burning wood, broken carts, and spilled blood.

Kael stood in the middle of the square, breathing through the ash. The rain had returned, soft now, washing streaks of red into the dirt. The bandits were gone. What was left of them lay where they fell, still and cold.

Around him, villagers began to crawl out from hiding — pale faces, trembling hands clutching the edges of doors. A child cried somewhere. A dog barked and then went quiet.

Kael’s sword slipped from his fingers, landing in the mud with a dull thud. His hands were shaking. Not from fear. From memory.

He’d seen this before — not here, but everywhere the Empire had gone to “save” people. The same ruin, the same weeping. Different names, same end.

“Kael!”

Taren’s voice broke through the haze. He limped toward him, blood on his sleeve but still standing. “We did it. You… you saved us.”

Kael didn’t answer. He just looked at his friend — that bright, stupid grin of relief — and thought of how this same man had died once before, crushed under burning rubble in a war he himself had planned.

The villagers gathered around them. Some bowed. Some whispered prayers. One old woman took his hand, her eyes wet. “You’re a blessing, boy,” she said softly. “The gods sent you.”

Kael almost laughed. The gods? He had met no gods. Only liars in holy robes and men with too much power.

He nodded anyway. “Stay inside tonight,” he said quietly. “There may be more coming.”

They obeyed without question. Fear made people listen.

When the crowd thinned, Kael went to the edge of the village. The rain soaked through his shirt. The hills beyond were dark, stretching toward the horizon. Somewhere out there was the Imperial road — and beyond that, the capital.

He knelt, running his hand through the wet earth. His reflection shimmered faintly in a puddle. For a moment, the water rippled and the face staring back wasn’t his young one — it was older, scarred, eyes cold from another life.

“Why me?” he whispered.

The wind answered with silence.

The Echo Stone, hidden beneath his shirt, pulsed once against his chest — faint, warm. Like a heartbeat that wasn’t his.

He remembered the voice in the fire.

“Would you do it again?”

He had no answer then. Now, he still didn’t.

Taren came up behind him, quiet this time. “They’ll make you a hero for this,” he said. “Hadrik said he’s writing to the capital himself. You’ll get your place in the army for sure.”

Kael didn’t look up. “Hero.”

He said it like a curse.

Taren frowned. “You okay?”

Kael stood slowly, eyes fixed on the dark horizon. “I’m fine. Go rest.”

“But—”

“I said go.”

The sharpness in his tone made Taren flinch. He hesitated, then walked off toward the cottages, head low.

When Kael was alone again, he stared up at the sky. The rain had stopped. The clouds were breaking apart, letting thin lines of moonlight touch the ground.

In that quiet, he could still hear the screams — not from today, but from years ahead, in the war that hadn’t happened yet. He could smell smoke that didn’t exist here. He could see Varic’s cold eyes as the flames took him.

He clenched his fists. The mud squished between his fingers.

He’d thought rebirth would feel like a gift.

Now it felt like a punishment.

Behind him, the village bell tolled once, slow and heavy. A sound for the dead.

Kael turned toward it. There were five bodies to bury — four raiders and one villager who hadn’t made it. The boy’s mother was kneeling beside him, rocking back and forth, whispering words only grief could make.

Kael walked over, kneeling beside her. The woman didn’t speak; she didn’t have to. He took off his cloak and laid it over the boy’s small frame.

The woman wept harder.

Kael looked down at the still face and felt the same hollow ache he’d carried into the fire. He’d lived this moment a thousand times in war — and now it was here again, reminding him that even with a second chance, some things never change.

When he stood, the rain started again — softer, almost merciful.

He whispered to the night, “If I was reborn for a reason, then let it not be to watch this happen again.”

The Echo Stone pulsed once more, faint but clear. And in that heartbeat, he felt a whisper inside his mind — a thought not his own:

Then change it.

Kael turned toward the distant lights of the capital. His eyes were cold now, steady.

The silence after death was over.

The next move was his.