Brandon sat on the edge of his bed, fully armored, the teleportation ring resting on his palm where he'd been staring at it for the better part of an hour.
The vial sat tucked against his chest, secured beside Kira's pendant. Two weights against his sternum. One a promise. One a means to keep it.
Outside, he could hear it the distant concussion of essence techniques colliding, faint enough that the palace walls swallowed most of the detail, but constant. The war Lilith had promised had begun, demon forces pushing out past their borders for the first time since the retreat began.
He'd been kept back at the palace the entire time, training under increasingly frustrated instructors while the actual fighting happened somewhere he couldn't see.
He turned the ring over one more time.
Then it glowed.
