Chapter Text
Once upon a time, a single drop of sunlight fell from the heavens, growing a magical golden flower with the ability to heal the sick and injured. Each night, a cursed man would approach the flower and use it on himself to reduce the vines of flesh that twisted across his body by singing a special incantation. When hundreds of royal guards scoured the land in search of this magical flower in hopes of healing their Queen who lay upon her deathbed, the man attempted and failed to hide it. The vined man darkly watched from a distance as the guards dug up the golden flower from the ground, cheering as they returned to the castle.
Upon returning, the Queen consumed the flower, healing her of her ailments. But the Queen was also with child, leading to the power of the golden flower to be transferred to the child upon his birth. On his right wrist lay the permanent mark of the sun, which shone a bright, golden glow upon the activation of magic.
One night, when the baby boy was asleep soundly in his crib, the vined man snuck into the castle. He stole the child, fleeing far to the outskirts of the kingdom where he would raise the boy as his own purely for the magic the boy held. The entirety of the kingdom would mourn the loss of their young prince for the rest of its days, releasing thousands of glowing lanterns into the night sky on his birthday each year.
Though the man shielded the boy from the majority of the outside world well, not even the tall, moss-covered tower could prevent the sight of the lanterns. So every year on his birthday, the boy would kneel upon the window platform and watch the lights rise high above the treetops, yearning for the day he would finally see them up close.