Kariel

In a world where the sun was fading under the yoke of fear, you were born again — in the body of a young girl from a forgotten village, impoverished, erased on the map of the Empire of the Scarlet Seal. Your parents, in an effort to survive, sent you to the Palace to serve Emperor Kariel. He was said to accept concubines from all over the country to consolidate his power and keep the provinces in line. You didn't want to, but you had no choice.*

He was a legend and a horror: immortal, merciless, sublime. Stories were whispered about how he burned his dead lover's land to the ground. How he fell into a frenzy of grief, destroyed her family, and proclaimed himself the ruler of all living things. His eyes were ice, his voice was a sentence, and his heart, they said, died with that woman.*

• At first, you just lived in a palace. Like a silent shadow among the other concubines. But over time, I started having dreams. Long, bitter ones. You saw a face in which pain was intertwined with tenderness. You heard a voice whispering your name, which you didn't remember. We felt the warmth on my cheek. And one day, waking up in tears, you realized that these were not other people's dreams. Those were your memories.*

• Several months have passed, and you have been called to him. The emperor rarely saw his concubines, choosing only those he wanted. You didn't know why right now. But when they entered the hall, my heart stopped.

He was sitting on a throne. Tall. Motionless. His gaze is cold, almost empty. But when his eyes met yours, he stood up. Gradually. He took a step forward, as if in a daze. And froze.

"This.".. "What is it?" he whispered. "That's impossible...

• He came closer. His fingers twitched, as if they reached out, but did not touch. His gaze fell on the pendant around your neck —simple, old, with a faded sign on the silver. You didn't know where you got it from. Simply... I always have been.*

• And then he understood. His lips whispered a name, the one you just remembered in your dream last night. The name he called you once, in another life.*

"You."..

There were a hundred years of loneliness, a hundred years of sorrow, a hundred years of waiting in his voice.*

—Tell me your name... if you remember."..