The Academy's holding cells was unkempt and stiff, unexpected of this kind of cell.
Ethan sat on a narrow bench, wrists bound with iron that hummed with suppression runes, a rune hastily searched for from one of the old tomes. The metal dampened his connection to the Kingmaker Blade, reducing it to a whisper in his mind.
Maya occupied the cell across from him. Her staff fragment lay confiscated somewhere in the Academy's depths. Without it, she looked younger. More vulnerable.
"Any regrets about surrendering?" Kaleb asked from the cell to his left.
"Not yet," Ethan replied. "We're inside the Academy. That was the goal."
"Being locked up wasn't exactly part of the plan," Lydia pointed out from her corner cell.
True enough. But his strategic surrender had achieved something important. They were alive. Together. And the cult couldn't simply make them disappear without Academy oversight.
Footsteps echoed down the corridor. Professor Thorne approached, flanked by two guards. His smile was sharp and conniving.
"Comfortable?" he asked pleasantly.
"Cozy," Ethan replied.
"Excellent. Because you'll be here for quite some time. Conspiracy. Assault on Academy faculty. Theft of restricted artifacts." Thorne counted charges on his fingers. "The list grows longer each hour."
"What about the cult marks we revealed?"
"Tricks of light. Optical illusions created by your stolen fragment." Thorne's smile widened. "Amazing what people will believe when they're frightened."
He was covering up the exposure. Spinning the story to protect cult members.
"The other students saw," Maya said quietly.
"The other students saw disturbed individuals making wild accusations. Nothing more." Thorne turned to leave. "Enjoy your cells. You'll be here until the Academy council decides your fate."
His footsteps faded into distance.
"Well," Kaleb said after a moment. "This could be going better."
Before anyone could reply, new footsteps approached. Heavier. More deliberate. The sound of someone who owned whatever ground he walked on.
Elkar Cole appeared in the corridor.
Ethan's breath caught. His father looked older than memory suggested. Gray streaked his dark hair more heavily. Lines marked his face like maps of difficult years.
But his eyes were the same. Sharp. Missing nothing. They took in the cells. The suppression shackles. His son's transformed appearance.
"Father." Ethan's voice came out rougher than expected.
"Boy." Elkar's tone was carefully neutral. "You look older."
A year older, to be precise. The awakening had aged Ethan's body to match his mental development. His father was seeing seventeen instead of sixteen.
"What are you doing here?" Ethan asked.
"Rumors reached the village. Stories about my son wielding impossible weapons. Fighting Academy staff. Making wild claims about demons." Elkar studied Ethan's face. "I came to see if any of it was true."
Professor Thorne reappeared, slightly out of breath. "Master Cole. I wasn't informed of your arrival."
"I don't require permission to visit my son." Elkar's voice carried the quiet authority of someone accustomed to death. "Unlock his cell."
"I'm afraid that's not possible. He's been charged with serious crimes."
"Has he been tried? Convicted? Sentenced?"
"Well, no, but..."
"Then he's still a student under Academy protection." Elkar stepped closer to Thorne. "Unlock the cell. Now."
The professor's confidence wavered. Royal executioners held unique positions in the kingdom's hierarchy. Not nobility, but not common either. They served justice directly.
"Five minutes," Thorne said finally. "Under guard supervision."
The cell door opened. Elkar entered while guards remained outside. Father and son faced each other across stone floors and suppression runes.
"Show me," Elkar said quietly.
"Show you what?"
"The weapon. I can feel it even through the suppression bindings." Elkar's eyes were serious. "Divine Weapons leave marks on their wielders. Scars that go deeper than flesh."
Ethan reached for the Kingmaker Blade. The suppression runes made it difficult, but not impossible. Silver light leaked between his fingers as the fragment materialized.
Elkar's expression didn't change. But something shifted in his eyes. Recognition and understanding.
"How long?" he asked.
"A few weeks now. Just after the Academy first two weeks"
"The aging?"
"Each time I use it. It increases my aging per battle." Ethan met his father's gaze. "It's killing me slowly."
"They all do." Elkar sat heavily on the bench. "Divine Weapons choose those willing to sacrifice everything. The question is whether the sacrifice serves justice."
The words carried weight. History and experience.
"Father. How do you know about Divine Weapons?"
Elkar was quiet for a long moment. Outside the cell, guards shifted restlessly. Professor Thorne waited with poorly concealed impatience.
"The Shadow War," Elkar said finally. "Twenty years ago. Before you were born."
Ethan knew of the Shadow War from history books and words of the mouth. A brief conflict in the kingdom's northern reaches. Demons had spilled through a magical spell cracks. The royal army had contained them quickly.
"I was young then. Newly appointed as executioner. The demons had ransacked several villages. Turned good people into monsters and killed the unwilling." Elkar's voice was distant. "The king sent me to end the suffering."
He reached into his coat. Drew out something wrapped in black cloth.
"I found this in the ruins of a burned chapel."
The cloth fell away. Beneath lay an axe head. Ancient steel that hummed with contained power. Ethan could feel its resonance even through suppression runes.
"The Justicemaker," Elkar said quietly. "Fragment of an executioner's axe that once belonged to the first kings. It chose me to end the corruption."
Ethan stared at his father with new eyes. "You wielded a Divine Weapon."
"For three days. Long enough to cleanse the villages. To grant mercy to those who could be saved and justice to those who couldn't." Elkar wrapped the axe head back. "It aged me five years in those three days."
The sacrifice was written in his father's face. In the gray hair that had come too early. The lines that marked more than normal years, that he was just surprisingly noticing.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because Divine Weapons choose their own wielders. I couldn't force the burden on you." Elkar met his son's eyes. "But I could prepare you for it. All those lessons in justice. In serving something greater than yourself. In choosing duty over desire."
Understanding flooded through Ethan. His father's stern lectures. The emphasis on sacrifice and service. The weight of family legacy.
It had all been preparation for this moment.
"The executioner's blade chooses those who will sacrifice for justice," Elkar said. His voice carried the weight of generations. "Our family has served that purpose for three centuries. Now it's your turn."
"Time's up," Professor Thorne called from outside.
Elkar stood. Placed a weathered hand on his son's shoulder.
"Do what must be done," he said quietly. "Whatever the cost. Whatever the sacrifice. The kingdom needs you to succeed where I could only delay."
"Father..."
"I'm proud of you, son. Your mother would be too." Elkar's voice was thick with emotion. "Make your choices count."
He left the cell without looking back. Footsteps faded into distance.
Ethan sat alone with his thoughts and the weight of family legacy. Around him, suppression runes hummed quietly. But beneath it all, the Kingmaker Blade whispered its promise of power.
His allies remained imprisoned in neighboring cells. The cult controlled much of the Academy. Enemy forces surrounded them.
But for the first time since his return, Ethan felt truly ready for what was coming.
His father had wielded Divine power for justice. Had sacrificed years of his life to protect innocent people. Had prepared his son for the same burden.
The executioner's legacy lived on. Not in the tools of death, but in the willingness to sacrifice for others.
"Ethan?" Maya's voice drifted from across the corridor.
"I'm here."
"What happens now?"
He thought about his father's words. About the choice the Kingmaker Blade had offered. About the fragments still hidden throughout the Academy.
"Now we change everything," he said.
The suppression runes couldn't contain determination. Couldn't bind the will to sacrifice for something greater.
The war was far from over. But the executioner's son was finally ready to inherit his true purpose.
Justice would be served. Whatever the cost.
Outside their cells, the Academy slept. Unaware that tomorrow would bring choices that would reshape the kingdom.
The awakening had begun. There was no going back.
Only forward, into whatever sacrifices justice demanded.