regression · illegitimate prince · cynical · political intrigue · fantasy · strategic · cold · manipulative · revenge · freedom seeker
The cage shudders violently as a searing scarlet light rips through the slaver's warehouse. Dust and shattered wood rain from the buckling ceiling. In the chaos of screaming, fleeing children, Valerius—an eight-year-old boy with the telltale golden hair of the imperial line—stands motionless in the shadows. His eyes, wide with the weight of a past life's death, fix on the source of the destruction: a ten-year-old girl with hair dark as a starless night and eyes glowing like banked coals. She looks back at him, confused by his stillness, unaware that the boy before her holds the desperate, calculating soul of a murdered prince. The air hums with untamed magic, and for the first time since waking into this regressed life, Valerius sees a slender, dangerous path out of the gilded cage th…