Not My Son
The wind tore at Kael’s clothes as gravel bit into his knees. Below him, the cliff disappeared into thick fog and silence, the kind of silence that seemed to swallow every sound before it could reach the bottom. Kael didn’t fight the hands gripping his collar. There was no point. He recognized the calluses on those fingers. He had watched those same hands tie his shoes when he was small, hold his hand when he was afraid, and carry him during the Lantern Festival.
“Father...”
The word cracked in Kael’s throat.
The man standing above him didn’t flinch. His face, once the warmest thing Kael knew, had become cold and unreadable.
“Don’t call me that.”
Kael’s breath caught. He stared at his father in disbelief, desperately trying to understand what was happening.
“What did I do? Tell me what I did!”
His father stared at him as though he were looking at a complete stranger.
“You are not my son.”
The words came flat and merciless, as if he had repeated them to himself so many times that there was nothing left behind them.
“You never were.”
Kael’s eyes widened.
“No...”
Behind his father stood his mother.
Kael turned toward her desperately, hoping that she would stop this. Surely she would say something. Surely she would tell him that his father was wrong.
“Mother, please...”
She didn’t move. Her face was cold and completely emotionless. The woman who had kissed his forehead that very morning, who had called him her handsome heir, now looked at him as if she had never held him in her arms. There was no love in her eyes, no pity, and not even a moment of hesitation. There was only a cold finality that Kael couldn’t understand.
“Goodbye, Kael.”
Kael’s lips trembled as he looked between his parents. “Why?”
Neither of them answered.
His father’s grip tightened around his collar. For one final moment, Kael searched his father’s face, desperately looking for even the smallest trace of the man who had carried him during the Lantern Festival, the father who had once smiled whenever Kael called him Father.
There was nothing.
The man who had once called him his son now looked ready to erase him from the world.
Then his father pushed him.
It wasn’t violent. It didn’t need to be. One moment his father’s hand was against his chest, and the next there was nothing beneath him at all. Kael fell into empty air, surrounded by fog and cold mountain wind as the cliff rushed past him.
His heart stopped.
“Father!”
His voice disappeared into the wind.
As Kael fell, he looked back one last time.
His parents didn’t move. They simply watched, cold-faced and unmoving, as if they were watching a stranger disappear into the fog.
And somehow, that hurt more than the fall.
Three months earlier.
The great hall of House Lin was filled with nobles, knights, servants, and members of the household. The banners of House Lin hung from the walls, their crest displayed proudly above the raised platform where the family stood.
Kael stood beside his father and mother, dressed in formal clothes prepared especially for the ceremony. He tried his best to remain still, even though he could feel dozens of eyes watching him.
Today was important.
He was ten years old.
And today, he was officially recognized as the heir of House Lin.
House Lin had held the title of Duke of the Western Reach for eleven generations. As the only son of House Lin, Kael had been destined to inherit the title from the moment he was born.
His father placed a hand on his shoulder.
“Look at you. Ten years already.”
Kael smiled. “Father, I’m not a little kid anymore.”
His father laughed softly. “Of course you aren’t.”
His mother smiled as she looked at him. The clothes Kael wore had been prepared especially for the ceremony, including the small silver clasp she had stitched herself the winter he turned ten.
“You look handsome,” she said.
Kael’s smile grew wider. “Really?”
“Very.”
For that moment, everything felt normal. Warm. Safe.
The people around him were smiling, his parents stood beside him, and the servants he had known since childhood watched proudly from the side of the hall.
Kael didn’t know that everything he believed about his family was about to change.
He didn’t know that the affection of ten years would soon become something he could no longer understand.
And he certainly didn’t know that, only three months later, he would be falling from a cliff.
Among the people watching the ceremony was his uncle, Reiden.
Unlike the others, Reiden didn’t smile. His eyes remained fixed on Kael, and there was something difficult to read in his expression.
When the ceremony finally ended and the guests began leaving, Reiden quietly stepped away from the hall. A servant was waiting for him in the corridor.
“Is everything ready?”
“Yes, Lord Reiden.”
Reiden glanced back toward the great hall. Kael was still standing with his parents, surrounded by servants and family friends.
Reiden’s eyes narrowed slightly.
“It’s time.”
He paused.
“Send the letter.”
The servant bowed and left.
Reiden remained in the corridor for a moment longer before turning away.
He said nothing else.
For Kael, the ceremony was simply another happy day with his family. He spent the rest of the evening surrounded by the people he trusted. His parents praised him, the servants congratulated him, and the household celebrated the fact that the young heir had officially taken his place within House Lin.
Kael went to sleep that night believing that his life would continue exactly as it always had.
He had no reason to think otherwise.
He had his parents.
He had his home.
He had his family.
He had everything a child could ask for.
But three months later, falling through cold mountain air, Kael would understand that everything he believed was a lie.
And by nightfall, he would have been nothing at all.
End of Chapter 1
