The atmosphere in the basement was thicker than ever. Disappearances had become routine. No one counted how many were left. The smallest ones cried silently. The older ones murmured prayers that the forgotten gods would never hear. And Kael... Kael burned inside.
Something had changed since he had seen the Devourer. Since that night, the fire in his chest would not leave him. He dreamed of claws, of teeth, of blood. With an ancestral force pounding from within, like a hungry heart that would no longer accept chains.
Everything exploded on a humid and suffocating afternoon.
One of the guards, crueler than the others, entered the basement dragging a chain. His eyes were bloodshot, and his smile was crooked as if he enjoyed the pain he was causing. He stopped in front of one of the weaker children, a little boy barely younger than Kael.
I get to have fun today..." he growled.
Kael felt something snap inside him. It wasn't anger, it was something more... something primal. An instinct. As if his body knew before his mind did what was going to happen.
He stood up without thinking. He took a step. Then another.
-Hey, you! Sit down, you brat! -the guard shouted, turning around with his leash up.
But it was too late.
The world turned red.
He had no clear recollection of what happened next. Just flashes: his hand grabbing the man's arm, bones crunching, a scream that didn't sound human, and a roar... not coming from his throat, but from something deeper. Something ancestral.
When the fog in his mind dissipated, Kael was standing over the guard's corpse. His face was bathed in blood, and his fingernails, long and black as blades, were dripping. The other children stared at him in horror. No one moved. No one spoke.
He looked at his hands. They were not quite human. And his eyes... glowed with a golden, burning, impossible glow.
-What... am I...? -she murmured, her voice breaking.
From deep inside her, an answer whispered like an ancient echo.
"Wake up, son of fire. Awake, Kinich."
The guard's body burned on its own, consumed in flames that did not burn Kael's flesh. The basement lit up for a few seconds, revealing the terrified faces of the other children. They said nothing. They did not approach. For the first time, Kael was not a victim. He was a monster.
And for the first time in his life... he felt power.
He didn't understand it yet, but something inside him had opened up. Something that had been locked away for years, throbbing, waiting for its moment. The beast inside him was not evil. It was fire. It was judgment. It was legacy.
That night, as the flames faded and silence returned to the basement, Kael could not sleep. He sat in the dark, his body still trembling, as his golden eyes glowed under the shadow.
He was not just a cursed child.
He was something more.
Something the world was not yet ready to face.