The winds had changed.
With the Hollow Throne behind them and the Keystone of Accord in Raizen's possession, the crew sailed back into the known world — but something unspoken traveled with them. A silence thicker than the sea mist, hanging between glances and unfinished sentences.
What should have been a moment of triumph felt like an unraveling.
Korra, the navigator with eyes like stormglass, had stopped plotting stars. Her charts remained rolled, her hands idle. Zuri trained twice as hard, but spoke half as much. Kaidan, once Raizen's right hand and moral compass, paced the deck nightly, murmuring questions no one could answer.
It wasn't just the exhaustion of war or the weight of recent revelations. It was something deeper: the gnawing sense that everything they had believed in — the cause, the unity, the path forward — was cracking beneath them.
The first spark came when Kaidan challenged Raizen openly.
"You should've taken the throne," Kaidan said one night beneath the red moon, voice low but firm. "You had the chance to end the chaos. But you walked away."
Raizen stared at him across the deck. "The throne wasn't the answer."
"It was control," Kaidan shot back. "We've seen what happens when there's none. Drax was a monster, but at least he knew how to command. What are we doing now? Wandering with a key no one understands?"
Zuri stepped between them, sword still sheathed but knuckles white. "He made the only choice he could. That throne would've eaten him alive."
Korra's voice cut through the tension like a cold wind. "And now the world is eating itself."
They fell into silence again.
Later that night, the shouting began.
Not from Raizen or Kaidan — but from the lower decks. Two crewmembers, loyal to opposite ideals, had come to blows over whether they should align with one of the rising world factions or remain rogue. Others joined in. Old wounds reopened. Accusations flared.
"You're following a ghost!""He's the only reason we're alive!""He should've taken the throne!""We don't even know what that key does!"
Raizen descended into the fray, but it was Zuri who restored order — not with words, but steel. She slammed her blade into the mast, silencing the chaos.
"This crew was built on trust," she growled. "But if you can't trust each other — or him — get off at the next port."
No one moved. No one left.
But the damage was done.
Later, alone in his quarters, Raizen stared at the Keystone — the smooth obsidian and silver artifact that pulsed faintly in his hand. It didn't offer comfort. It offered questions. Was Kaidan right? Had he chosen the harder path… or the wrong one?
A knock at his door. Kaidan entered without waiting.
"I'm not your enemy," Kaidan said. "But I can't follow blindly anymore."
"You never did," Raizen replied. "That's why I need you."
Kaidan looked at him — weary, conflicted, but still standing.
"Then give me a reason to stay," he said. "Because the crew's breaking. And next time, a sword might settle it instead of words."
As the door closed behind him, Raizen clenched the Keystone tighter.
The fractures were spreading.
And he would have to find a way to hold them together — or be the reason they shattered.
END OF THE CHAPTER14