The Weight of a Second Life

Lucas died at twenty-three. Not in battle, not in glory — in a street robbery. A bullet to the chest, and then... nothing. He wakes as Ashun, a newborn in a world of wood and fire, where a stone called Ignis warms the house. His new parents carry a silence heavier than any weapon. His old life fades like a dream — fragments of a gym, a whistle, a court he'll never step on again. But some things survive. The way his eyes track movement before thought. The way he sees patterns where others see chaos. The body remembers what the mind forgets. When danger creeps into the village from the forest, Ashun makes a choice: he will not wait. He learns to fall, to rise, to draw a bow. He prepares — not because he wants to be a hero, but because he's already died once. And once is enough.