The doctor smiled without ceremony, a tired, practiced expression. "You're improving, Mr. Estrella. Better than I expected."
Sosuke sat slumped on the canvas chair, breath shallow, fingers pressed to the bandage at his core. He tasted copper in his mouth. The tent smelled of boiled herbs and disinfectant, the kind of small mercies soldiers learn to live with. "Thanks, doc," he managed. His voice came out thinner than he felt. "You should know how maddening it is to barely be able to walk."
"Of course," the doctor said, then let the answer hang. He had charts stacked on a folding table, ink and orders and the neat bureaucracy of survival.
Ren and Lyra entered like two weather fronts. Ren kept distance until he checked Sosuke over with an eye that missed nothing. Lyra's shoulders were a line of silent heat, dark rose mana leaking past her skin in faint traces, the kind of anger that chose control over words.
"We heard your memories started returning," Ren said. He had a paper in his hand that he did not read from. "Specifically about Reid."
Sosuke blinked. Memory fog lifted in fragments. "Yeah," he said, voice small. "I remember something. It's… fuzzy. Mostly voices. I was out a long time." He tried to laugh and it broke. "Do you mind helping me back to my tent first? I'd rather be somewhere softer."
Lyra scoffed and rolled her eyes. Ren moved before she could say anything, slipping an arm under Sosuke's shoulders. He bore most of the weight without drama. The world outside the flap felt thin, the camp a grid of light and soft shouts. They stepped into the night together.
Once they were out, Ren eased Sosuke down on the small cot in his tent. The moon hung like a stupid promise over the horizon, pale and steady. The ground smelled of wet earth. Soldiers slept in distant tents, the space alive with small mechanical noises. It made Sosuke feel absurdly human and small.
"You feeling better?" Ren asked, sitting on an overturned crate. He watched Sosuke with the patient impatience of someone who had seen too much to scold.
"A little," Sosuke said, flexing his fingers as if to wake them. Pain flared sharp and honest. "Not enough. It's been a week and I can barely stand."
Sosuke's jaw tightened. He hated how useless the body felt, how the core that had once hummed bright and cruel now answered in pulses. "I'll be back out there," he added automatically. It sounded more like a wish than a plan.
Lyra crossed her arms and planted her feet, the posture of someone not asking. "What do you remember?" Her voice was flat, focused on facts.
He leaned forward, elbows on his knees, the envelope of the world narrowing to the tent's dim light. "It was almost all audio. I kept hearing them talk about moving Reid to the palace. The king's palace. It felt rehearsed, like bait."
"Definitely bait," Ren agreed. He rubbed a thumb over his knuckle, thinking. "If they wanted him somewhere secure they would not whisper it in corridors."
Lyra's mouth thinned. "Then we go." She did not wait for agreement. "We leave at dawn. Everyone comes."
Ren's head snapped toward her. "Are you insane? The palace is Julius' seat. If he's there—"
"Then I go alone." Lyra's eyes were flint. "Nothing's stopping me from going."
"They might've moved him already," Sosuke said, soft, trying to steady the sudden, sharp hope that lifted in his chest.
Lyra's brow rose. "But you don't actually know that, do you?" Her voice sharpened on the last word. "I'm going tomorrow."
Ren stepped forward and put a hand on her shoulder the way one might hold a live wire. "I can't let you do this alone. It would be chaos. It'll get you killed."
Lyra smacked his hand away with a motion half irritated, half affectionate. "Do you know the feeling of losing a sibling? I do. I won't stand back and watch that happen again."
Ren's jaw compressed. He stared at her, weighing the heat in her words against the logic in his head. For a long beat he said nothing. Then he breathed out, slow and brittle. "I'll go."
They had not yet decided the how or the plan, only the fact. That was enough to change the air.
The tent flap slammed inward with the force of someone running. Rin burst through, rain-slick hair sticking to her forehead, light in her step even under the exhaustion. "Aurelius is alive," she said, voice stumbling over the news. "They just found him."
Sosuke's head snapped up. "What? Seriously?"
Rin's mouth tightened. "Apparently he's in critical condition. Commander Virgil doesn't seem worried, though. From the way he stood, I doubt we should be celebrating yet."
Lyra moved as if pushed by a single decision and left without a word. Her stride was a blade cutting away from them. Ren watched her go, then turned back to Rin and Sosuke.
Rin stood in the opening, chest heaving from the run. She blinked, then looked from Ren to Sosuke, puzzled. "What was that about?" she asked, nodding toward the empty path Lyra had taken.
Ren's face loosened into a tired, small smile that did not reach his eyes. "Lyra has a debt." He patted the crate beside him. "Take a seat."
———
Reid's eyes fluttered open. The second his body shifted, white-hot pain ripped through his chest. He tried to lift his arm to cover the wound, but nothing moved. Turning his head, he saw both arms locked tight inside a thick metal casing.
"He's awake," a guard muttered, glancing at the man beside him. "Clear the room."
The soldiers climbed the stone stairs, their boots fading until silence draped over the chamber.
Reid peered through the bars. There wasn't much beyond them, only the dim outline of the stairwell. Then, slow and deliberate, footsteps echoed down the steps.
Julius emerged at the bottom, tall and composed with his hands folded behind his back. His grin was thin, deliberate. "Good to see you're still breathing. For a second I thought I pushed too far last time. I told you I'd stop once you finally learned to keep that mouth shut."
Reid leaned forward, chains biting into his wrists. "They'll come for you. I'll make it out, and when I do, you won't live to see the next day."
Julius chuckled low, his eyes narrowing in amusement. "There it is again. That blind faith. You lean on others like crutches, and you call it strength." He stepped closer to the bars, his smile sharpening. "But hope is fragile. All it takes is a little pressure before it snaps. I'm almost curious how long it'll take before yours finally breaks."
Reid spat blood at his feet. "Don't talk about my friends."
"If you mattered that much, they'd be here already." Julius gave a slow nod, raising one hand to the side. Orange-red mana flared to life, swirling until it tore open a jagged portal in the air. He didn't look back as he stepped toward it. "Enjoy what's left of your stay."
Reid strained against his restraints until his arms trembled, metal biting into his skin. The effort was useless. All he could do now was pray for something beyond him to intervene.
The cell reeked of damp stone and rot. Only a thin shaft of light spilled down the stairwell, stretching shadows across the ground. Boots shuffled above, steady and unchanging, like a reminder of how trapped he was.
His strength gave out. He sagged forward, knees scraping the rocky floor. "I'm sorry, Lyra," he whispered, voice raw. "Better me than you. You had more to give."
He shut his eyes and let his body fall slack. For a heartbeat, he almost welcomed the end. But a spark refused to die out. It stirred deep within him, a stubborn murmur growing louder in his skull—Push forward.
BOOM!
The stone walls shook. Reid's eyes flew open. His mind raced—rescue, or something worse?
⸻
Outside the palace walls, Ren pressed a bundle of dynamite into the stone and froze it in place with a sheen of ice. "That should hold." His tone was flat, calculating, as he glanced to Rin.
She tilted her head, one eye closed as if sizing it up. "Mm. Big enough to make a hole." Her lips curved, faintly amused.
Farther back, Lyra had already taken position, silent, watchful. Ren returned to her side while Rin raised a finger toward the explosives. Black fire gathered at her fingertip before she flicked it forward. The shot flew straight, and Rin ducked behind a jagged rock just as the blast tore through the wall.
Dust settled. Ren drew his dagger across his palm, blood flaring into a blade of pure white. His silver eyes narrowed. "No hesitation. It's only us three. We move carefully, or not at all."
"I know," Rin said, shaking out her hands before clenching her fists. "Whatever's waiting inside, we handle it fast."
The three rushed through the smoke and debris, ambushing the disoriented guards. Lyra went in first, a long scythe forming in her arms. Its curved blade glowed faintly, embers flickering at the edge like dying coals. She spun low, the weapon cutting through armor and flesh as though it were paper. Every swing was fluid, a streak of heat and steel, leaving bodies collapsing in her wake. She didn't stop, weaving past the soldiers and cutting them down before their blades even had the chance to fall.
"Lyra, wait for us!" Ren shouted. He and Rin sprinted behind her, but the tide of enemies pressed in faster than they could match.
A guard seized she'd missed seized Ren's ankle and wrenched him to the ground. The ice user crashed hard, breath leaving him in a sharp grunt. Rin darted to cover him, her fist blazing with black fire, but a long blade slashed across her back before she could strike.
Lyra froze mid-step, her scythe dragging against the floor with a shrill scrape. Her eyes widened. She turned slowly, grip tightening on the weapon until her knuckles whitened. For a single frozen moment, all she could see was her friend in pain. "Rin…"
Ren roared and slammed his palm to the ground. Frost erupted outward in jagged veins, locking the guards' legs in ice. The sudden burst caught even him, freezing part of his own arm. He tore free with a pained grunt, surging forward to grab Rin's wrist and drag her out of the way as another enemy strike crashed into the frozen earth.
Rin staggered, fire guttering at her hands as pain spread across her back, but her jaw set stubbornly.
Lyra's teeth clenched. She raised her scythe defensively, glaring at the blights as their bodies began to shift and heal, torn flesh sealing as if time itself reversed.
Ren's eyes darted from wound to wound knitting itself shut. "They have to be lieutenants… the way they heal…" The words tumbled out, half-whispered, his expression caught between disbelief and disgust.
Snapping back, Ren drove his blade downward, shattering the ice and stabbing through the creatures still struggling in its grip. Rin steadied herself, breathing ragged, then thrust her burning fist into a guard's chest. Black fire swallowed its insides, and the creature shrieked as its body collapsed to ash around her arm.
Lyra drew in a sharp breath and shifted her scythe into a bow. A string of pure light stretched taut as she pulled it back, a blazing arrow forming in her free hand. She released. The projectile tore through the line of enemies, the concussive blast shaking loose dust from the high arches of the palace corridor.
Only one survived, lurching forward with inhuman speed. It slammed into Lyra, clawed hands wrapping around her arms, trying to pin her down. The bow dissolved into smoke, then condensed into radiant cuffs that locked around the blight's wrists. She leaned in and smashed her forehead into its face, the crack loud and wet. Before it could recover, she drove her knee into its chest, sending it sprawling back.
The cuffs unraveled, releasing its arms just as Ren charged in and drove his sword clean through its stomach, pinning it to the marble floor.
Lyra stood still, shoulders rising and falling quickly with her breath. "I'm sorry," she said at last, voice quiet but taut. Her eyes stayed fixed on the floor. "I… shouldn't have been so reckless."
Rin inhaled sharply, her lips curling into a strained smile despite the blood staining her back. "Don't worry. It was a shallow cut. I can walk it off, it's nothing."
Ren adjusted his grip on his sword, then nodded. His silver eyes flicked between them both, hard but steady. "Let's keep going. Together this time."
And together they charged down the hall.