Some hearts meet before they understand why."
Kael had survived battles, monsters, and the slow cruelty of fate—but nothing had prepared him for the moment his heart reacted before his mind did.
The ancient city of Aethryn was supposed to be empty. Ruins don't breathe, don't whisper, don't remember. Yet the second Kael stepped through the broken gate, he felt it—an invisible pull, sharp and undeniable, like a sword drawn halfway from its sheath.
He stopped.
Not because of danger.
Because something inside him had already recognized someone.
At the center of the ruins stood a girl wrapped in silver-blue light, tracing glowing symbols into the air as if the world itself was listening to her. She wasn't afraid. She wasn't surprised to see him.
She simply looked up and said, "You're late."
Kael frowned. "Do I know you?"
She shook her head slowly. "No. But your heart does."
That made no sense. He was a warrior, trained to trust steel and instinct—not feelings, not destiny. And yet… his pulse had already betrayed him. Every scar on his body felt quieter in her presence, as if they finally had a reason to exist.
They were opposites.
He was forged in war.
She was born of magic.
Still, the ruins responded to both of them, ancient runes lighting up beneath their feet. The city remembered. It always did.
"You're bound to this place," Kael said, noticing the chains of light around her wrists.
"And you're the key," she replied softly.
Only later would he learn the truth—that long before either of them were born, a prophecy had split a single soul into two paths. One meant to fight. One meant to believe. Neither complete alone.
That night, as monsters closed in and the sky cracked with forgotten power, Kael understood something he'd never been taught:
Strength isn't always about standing alone.
Sometimes, it's about finding the one person your heart was waiting for—
long before you knew their name.
Because some hearts meet before they understand why.