It happened on the brightest day of the brightest year.
The Festival of Light blazed across Solaria.
Golden banners snapped in the wind.
Children laughed.
Priests sang songs of everlasting peace.
The House of Veyla stood atop the balcony,
waving to the oceans of people below.
No one noticed the old woman moving through the crowd.
She wore tattered grey robes.
Her eyes were hidden beneath a cracked hood.
Her staff was broken and burned at the tip.
She smelled of smoke and ash.
Most ignored her.
A beggar.
A madwoman.
Nothing more.
Until she stepped onto the marble stage —
before the Queen herself.
Guards rushed forward, hands on their weapons.
The Queen raised her hand, signaling them to stop.
The old woman lifted her staff.
Her voice rang out — broken and raw —
but it carried across the entire city.
"You celebrate your victory.
You sing of your peace.
You bathe in the sunlight you think eternal."
"But you are blind.
You are deaf.
You are fools."
The crowd murmured.
Unease crackled in the air.
The old woman's eyes — hidden no longer —
burned with a silver fire.
And then she spoke the words that broke the world.
"The Abyss still breathes.
The Prince of Darkness stirs beneath your golden cities.
The world will bleed again.
The Heroes of old will be reborn.
And the world will remember chaos.
The Prince will rise.
And so shall the saviors."
"The cycle will begin anew.
And not all heroes wear light.
And not all monsters wear darkness."
A silence heavier than any storm fell over the plaza.
The Queen's face paled.
Children clutched their parents' robes.
Priests whispered frantic prayers.
The old woman dropped her staff.
It shattered against the stone.
And before anyone could move…
she vanished.
No explosion.
No magic.
No violence.
Just…
gone.
As if she had never been there at all.
The celebrations ended early that day.
No more songs.
No more laughter.
No more dancing.
Only fear.
Fear that the peace they had clung to for centuries
was a lie.
Fear that the darkness they had defeated
was not dead.
Fear that the true battle…
was only just beginning.
And somewhere,
far from the glittering spires and singing bells,
in the forgotten places of the earth,
a pulse beat louder.
The Abyss still breathed.
The Prince of Darkness still waited.
And the new world had no idea what was coming.