The wind over the capital tower was sharp—clean, cruel, and far too quiet.
Prince Caelum stood before the great crystal mirror, its surface rippling with threads of time, watched over by his Seers. None dared breathe as he spoke just one name:
"Jade."
The mirror shimmered. Flashes of movement. Glimpses of a hooded boy walking through a mountain village. A flicker of time pausing midair—birds frozen, smoke stilled, snowflakes caught like statues.
So it was true.
The ghost still lived.
Caelum's lips curled, but not with joy. It was hunger—a storm that had waited too long to break.
He turned to the commander beside him, a woman draped in armor etched with runic vines.
"Bring him to me," he said. "Alive."
"And if that proves... difficult?"
"Then break his world and drag the pieces."
Far from the tower, in the frost-laced village of Solmor, Jade stood atop a cliff, watching the clouds roll like tidewater over the valleys. He was taller now, lean and swift. His cloak carried frost along its hem, and under it, a hidden sigil pulsed at his spine—a mark born of both lifetimes, waiting for its true name.
But something was off today.
Children weren't laughing in the streets. The butcher's bell didn't ring. Dogs were silent.
Jade's eyes narrowed. Then—
Boom.
A blast rocked the village center. Screams pierced the sky. Soldiers in white armor descended like vipers, and at their center marched a man whose steps bent the earth.
The Hound of the Crown. A war general not seen in years.
Jade moved without thought, pulling his hood tighter, his breath steadying. He pressed two fingers to the sigil at his nape.
"Pause."
The world stopped. Snowflakes hovered. Screams cut mid-air. Footsteps froze mid-lunge.
He walked through the stillness like a god wandering through painting. Found the first child. Pulled her to safety. Again. And again.
Until—
The Hound moved.
Inside the pause.
Jade's eyes widened.
The general turned his head, slowly, his own sigil glowing blood-red across his temple.
"You're not the only one, child," he said.
Time snapped back.
Everything rushed in—sound, chaos, smoke.
Jade leapt, just as the Hound's blade split the ground where he'd stood.
This wasn't a hunt anymore.
It was a war declaration.