Chapter 1: The Mirror and the Boy Beneath the Garden
"Where am I? What is this place?"
My name is Dr. Elara Wynn.
Back on Earth, I was twenty-six years old. The youngest energy physicist to win three international awards before thirty. People called me a genius. Some feared me. Some admired me. I didn't care. All I cared about was science, discovery, and proving the world wrong when it doubted me.
Feelings, love, and family were things I never had time for.
I was alone.
And I was fine with that.
Until the accident.
One moment, I was in my lab, testing a new energy reactor. The next, there was darkness. Screams. A bright flash. Heat and pain.
Then nothing.
No body. No thoughts. Just silence.
Until something changed.
A soft breeze brushed against my cheek.
I gasped and woke up.
My lungs filled with the scent of fresh roses and morning air. I was lying on soft silk sheets in a golden bed, bathed in sunlight. My body felt light and unfamiliar. Like I wasn't fully real.
I sat up slowly and stared down at my hands.
They were small, pale, and delicate. Not the hands that once built machines or scribbled formulas on lab boards.
I stood and walked toward a tall mirror at the edge of the room.
And I stopped.
The face staring back at me was not mine.
A beautiful eighteen years girl looked back. Her long silver hair sparkled like moonlight. Her eyes were violet and glowing softly. She looked like someone from a fairytale.
But somehow, I knew her.
Not from Earth. But somewhere deeper.
Then the memories came. Memories I had never lived. Royal banquets, cold marble halls, lessons in speech and posture, a deep voice calling me Aurelia.
I grabbed the edge of the mirror to keep from falling.
I hadn't just been reborn.
I was both Dr. Elara Wynn and Princess Aurelia Kaelvaria.
Two minds. One soul. A new body that didn't fully feel like mine yet.
The door swung open.
A maid rushed in, breathless and shocked.
"My lady," she said, tears in her eyes. "You're awake. Thank the stars. After the fall in the courtyard, we feared the worst."
Fall. Courtyard. Three days.
So that's when it happened. When my soul came here.
The maid bowed quickly and hurried to fetch a healer.
I turned back to the mirror and stared at my reflection again.
This was real.
A new world. A new name. A second chance.
In the days that followed, I said little. I pretended to be recovering.
It gave me time to learn.
I memorized the palace layout, listened at meals, and observed every movement around me. My royal siblings were cold. The emperor, my new father, barely looked at me. I was the seventeenth child of a forgotten concubine.
Unimportant. Invisible.
But that was fine.
They could ignore me.
I preferred it that way.
This world had no electricity, no machines, no science. Magic existed, but people feared it. They called it a curse. They hunted and locked up anyone who had powers.
But I saw it differently.
Their magic wasn't something to fear. It was a rare kind of energy. Like a living element that needed study, not suppression.
They didn't understand it.
But I could.
One afternoon, I wandered to the farthest part of the gardens. The place where no servants walked and silence felt heavier.
There, hidden behind ivy and stone, I saw something unusual. A small arched door covered in vines. The air around it was still and cold.
I reached out and pulled the vines aside. A hidden passage revealed itself.
No one saw me slip through.
A narrow stairwell twisted down into the earth. It was damp and cold. At the bottom, I stepped into a large stone room.
Dim runes glowed faintly on the walls. In the center floated a large blue crystal.
Inside it was a boy.
He had dark hair and sharp features. His body was curled, suspended in stillness. He looked about nineteen. Even unconscious, he gave off a strange pressure, like he was holding back something wild.
His eyes were closed, but something glowed behind them.
I stepped closer.
The feeling was strange. Not just magic. Something older. Something powerful.
He wasn't a normal magic user.
He was something else.
Something forgotten.
I heard a voice behind me.
"He's dangerous," said a guard quietly. "Caught near the border. Broke a noble's carriage. He never spoke. Refused to explain. The emperor ordered him sealed."
I looked at the crystal.
He had been here for years.
Alone.
Locked away like a beast.
But I didn't see a monster.
I saw a boy who had been punished for being different.
I turned to the guard.
"Release him," I said.
The guard blinked. "My lady?"
"I'll take responsibility. Let him out."
He hesitated, then bowed and pressed his hand against the rune.
The crystal cracked.
Then shattered.
The boy fell forward. Fast.
I moved without thinking and caught his shoulders.
He groaned and opened his eyes.
Bright silver. Like molten metal. They glowed with something ancient.
He looked at me in confusion.
"You freed me," he whispered.
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because you don't belong in a cage."
He looked down at his hands.
"You don't even know what I am."
"No," I replied. "But I know what I see. And I'm not afraid."
He stared at me for a long moment.
Then he lowered his head.
"You're strange."
"So are you."
A small, bitter smile touched his lips.
He knelt before me.
"I don't trust you."
"I don't need you to."
"But… I'll stay. For now."
That was enough.
His name was Kael.
He didn't speak much after that. But he didn't leave my side either.
That day, a quiet bond formed between us.
A shared silence.
A strange trust.
And a new beginning.
For Elara Wynn.
For Princess Aurelia.
And for the boy with dragon eyes.
In a world of shadows and silence, even the faintest light can kindle a dawn yet unseen.