FLASHBACK•••
MANY YEARS AGO•••
[Alarich]
I had always been a bit strange—born with a memory that refused to forget, even from the moment I first opened my eyes.
I remember how the light stabbed my eyes the moment I was pulled from my mother’s womb. I remember the voices that echoed around me, too loud, too fast. I didn’t understand them, not at first. But the tone, the rhythm, the rise and fall—I remembered it all.
And then there was my mother’s face.
She was young then—far younger than I ever truly realised until years later. Pale, exhausted, and blinking down at me as if I were something precious and unfamiliar.
I remembered Dorian barging into the room while I lay over my mother’s chest, sharing her warmth as she cradled me close.
Then Dorian—my father snatched me away. He look
