The snow began to fall just after dawn, the winter finally revealing itself.
It wasn't heavy yet—just soft flakes drifting through the forest canopy, catching on cloaks and settling across the stone path like ash. Reva walked beside Ajax, their breaths misting the morning air. Karian moved a few steps ahead, silent and steady, his footsteps sure despite the storm inside him.
No one spoke.
They had just seen the truth—the real history that lived in Reva's dagger. The battlefield. The deaths. The Soulfire.
The silence wasn't uncomfortable. It was heavy. Earned. Each person keeping themselves company with their own thoughts.
Still, eventually, the questions began to rise.
"What was it?" Ajax asked, his voice low, like he was afraid to break the quiet.
Karian didn't look back, he just kept walking.
"The thing we saw in the memory," Ajax clarified. "That creature."
Karian kept walking, boots crunching through frost.
"It wasn't alive," he said after a long pause. "Not in any way we understand it. It wasn't summoned. It wasn't born. It was made."
He glanced over his shoulder, just long enough to meet their eyes.
"That creature was a weapon and it was forged by the Darkrai. That's all we know."
Reva frowned. "I thought the Darkrai were just stories. Nightmares for kids."
"They were," Karian said. "Until we gave them a reason to become real."
He stopped walking and turned to face them.
"The Severant, as we later called it, wasn't sent to conquer. It wasn't there to test us. It was there to clean up loose ends. Anyone who came too close to hybridization—who fused Spiral with Valern, anyone who tampered with the soul, and anyone who was close to finding answers—was seen as a threat."
Reva's stomach twisted.
"They sent it to kill us."
"They sent it to kill you," Karian corrected. "Your mother. Kaeli. Everyone who knew what you were. They saw the potential in Soulfire. And they were afraid."
He paused before adding, "Only after it arrived did it realize your mother and sister were also threats."
Ajax stared at the sky for a moment, snowflakes catching in his lashes.
"So they wiped it all away."
"No," Karian said. "They tried. They failed."
They walked on, but Ajax was burning with a question.
"So why didn't they send more to finish the job?"
Only then did Karian stop walking, pausing to consider the question.
"I'm not sure."
The trees began to thin, and the first outer ridges of Vorthryn loomed in the distance—stone cliffs and watchtowers streaked with early snow. The city hadn't yet woken.
Reva tightened her grip on the dagger at her side.
"My mother knew she wouldn't survive, didn't she?"
Karian nodded slowly.
"She knew," he said. "Not the whole of it—but enough. She saw what you were becoming. What Kaeli was. And when the Severant came, she didn't hesitate. She shielded you both with her body."
He didn't say more.
He didn't need to.
Reva closed her eyes.
"She never even said goodbye. She just told me it would be okay, and it wasn't." She said, eyes watering.
"She didn't have to," Karian said softly. "She gave everything she had to make sure you could keep going."
They walked in silence until the first gate came into view—a narrow stone archway built into the southern cliffs.
That's when Reva spoke again.
"Why were Ajax's parents there?"
The wind caught her voice and carried it forward.
Karian slowed his pace but didn't stop.
"Because they were the only ones who believed me. We were like family."
Reva and Ajax both looked at him.
"Jasmine—your mother—was the greatest barrier mage I've ever seen," Karian continued. "She didn't just protect the battlefield. She kept it together. The Severant's presence bent reality. Jasmine held it in place. Without her, none of us would've survived the first minute."
"And Cassian?" Ajax asked.
"My brother in arms," Karian said. "We were known as the Twin Blades. Not just for style—but because our techniques were designed to overlap. We trained side by side for years. Every move we made, every strike—it was one motion, two blades."
Ajax stared at the frozen earth.
"They never told me."
"They couldn't," Karian said. "After the battle the two stepped down as adventurers. But they were already being watched. Cairn forces hunted them day and night, across the entirety of the continent. The last thing they wanted was to bring their past with them, so they never told you."
Reva's voice was tight. "So that's who they were running from."
"They 'died' protecting one of the only hopes we have left," Karian said.
"So where are they?" Ajax asked.
"I'm sorry Ajax, that I do not know. After they stepped down our contact was limited. Almost nothing. We didn't want to risk their rediscovery by Cairn."
Ajax accepted that response, neither pleased or disappointed. He figured Karian would be searching for them if he had even a clue. He expected that answer. And still, it stung.
The group reached a bend in the road—a high overlook that gave them a full view of Vorthryn, blanketed in white. The wind picked up.
It was Reva who asked the last question.
"Who was the man in the memory?"
Karian didn't answer right away.
He stepped to the edge of the overlook and looked down at the city. Snow fell across his shoulders like dust settling over a monument.
Then he said:
"His name is Aric. Aric Bloodsworne."
The name didn't land the way he expected.
Karian turned toward them. Cleared his throat. And continued.
"Aric is one of the nine sitting members of the Chamber of Elders in Cairn."
Ajax's eyes widened. Reva stepped forward.
"What?"
"He was one of us," Karian said. "He fought beside me. Stood on the front lines. When the battle ended, he took Kaeli."
"To give her to the Veil?" Reva asked, voice hardening.
"To protect her," Karian said. "You don't understand. The Chamber—the other Elders—they had plans. They wanted to use her Seer gift to control the outcome of every major decision in Cairn. To own the future."
He turned fully now.
"And Aric refused. He didn't say anything. He just left. Took her. Handed her to the Crimson Veil. Not because he trusted them—but because he knew they were the only force strong enough to keep her hidden."
"But he's part of the Chamber," Ajax said.
Karian nodded.
"Publicly, yes. But that's not the whole truth."
He stepped closer.
"Aric has spent the last decade as something no one in Cairn expects."
His voice lowered.
"A double agent. He feeds the Chamber enough to keep them off guard—but his true allegiance is here. With us."
Reva's breath hitched.
"You mean—he's working with Vorthryn?"
Karian smiled, grim.
"No. He's working for something bigger."
He gestured toward the city.
"Vorthryn's true purpose, hidden even from most of its citizens, is to prepare for the day when the Chamber of Elders is no longer in power."
Reva blinked.
"You're going to overthrow them?"
"No," Karian started with a devilish grin, "We're going to unite the continent of Cairn, demon and human alike."
The wind whistled in anticipation for the future. The cloudy sky above parted and the snow stopped falling. For the sun itself had peeked through the heavens to get a glimpse of the future.
"Not today," Karian said. "Not this year. But it's coming."
Ajax stepped forward, his voice quiet but sure.
"That's the real mission."
Karian nodded.
"And you two," he said, "are the beginning of it."
Leaves swirled around them.
The city lay silent ahead.
And behind them—truth at last.