Kana stood alone in the training corridors upset at herself after walking away from Koma and Koa.
Her hands were clenched at her sides, knuckles pale, shoulders drawn tight like she was bracing for a blow that never came. Weapons lined the walls around her spears, blades, tools of people who were seen. She didn't reach for any of them. She rarely did anymore.
"I hate this," she said quietly.
Her voice echoed once, then vanished.
"I hate feeling like I don't exist."
The words slipped out too easily. Like they'd been sitting in her chest for years, waiting for the moment she stopped pretending they weren't there.
She took a step, then another, pacing the length of the corridor. Her reflection stared back at her from the dull polish of a mounted blade smaller, lighter, wrong somehow. Not broken. Just… not forged the same.
"I get it," Kana continued, jaw tightening. "I know I'm not strong like the rest of you. I know I don't move fast enough, hit hard enough, or scare anyone when I walk into a room."
A bitter breath left her.
"But for my own siblings to look through me?" Her hands curled into fists. "Like I'm air?"
That hurt more than any strike.
"And I hate" Her voice faltered. She pressed a palm to her chest, grounding herself. "I hate what he's going through."
Kota's face surfaced in her mind, uninvited.
"I hate that he survived Koma's attack," she whispered.
The words felt cruel even as she said them.
"Not because I wanted him dead," she corrected quickly, as if someone might hear. "But because he shouldn't have to carry this. This sickness. This pain. Whatever it is that's eating him alive."
Her eyes burned.
"He didn't deserve to live just to suffer."
The corridor offered no comfort. Only memory.
"I miss being a family," Kana said at last. "I miss my brother who, even though was sick, didn't let that define him. The little brother who liked to play and laugh. I miss who he was before that mysterious ominous power had awoken the one who always stayed by my side before his confinement."
Her shoulders sagged as the strength drained out of her, leaving her standing alone among weapons she would never be trusted to wield.
Somewhere far above, commands were shouted. Metal rang. Life continued.
Without her.
Koa was anything but still.
She stormed through the upper halls, boots striking stone hard enough to echo. Her hands flexed at her sides, energy wound tight beneath her skin, coiled and furious.
"This is bullshit," she snapped, pacing sharply as she followed Koma toward his chambers. "I should be running better missions. I can do more."
Koma didn't slow.
His stride remained measured, unbothered, cloak whispering behind him like it agreed with every decision he made.
"You're not ready," he said evenly.
"I'm more ready than half the people you send out," Koa shot back. "You just don't want to admit it."
She opened her mouth to push further
Koa.
The voice slid into her mind without warning.
Her steps faltered. "Kaola," she muttered.
I forgot my bow, Kaola said, calm and precise. Bring it to me.
Koa's jaw clenched. "No."
Koma didn't look back.
"I'm not your fetcher," Koa said out loud, heat rising in her voice. "If you forgot it, that's on you."
A pause.
Not empty. Deliberate.
You'll do what you're told, Kaola replied.
The words carried weight not force, not threat. Expectation. The kind that assumed obedience had already been decided.
Koa stopped walking altogether.
"No," she said again. "I don't care."
Koma finally turned, one brow lifting slightly. Not surprise. Warning.
But Kaola's presence was already withdrawing, the command delivered whether it was accepted or not.
Koa stood there shaking, anger crawling under her skin, watching Koma disappear into the shadowed entrance of his chambers.
Her hands curled into fists.
Beyond the halls, Kaola moved along the outer perimeter with a steady, measured pace. She was the anchor on the surface, scouting for disturbances while the air beside her remained a jagged, violet blur.
Hykee and Lokee were traversing through the Void to cover ground with lethal efficiency. Hykee's massive, brute frame flickered in and out of reality as he bridged the gaps in space, while Lokee sat perched casually upon his broad shoulder. She let her twin's strength carry them through the high-pressure dimension, bored as they ghosted past the physical terrain.
Kaola didn't slow as the Void hummed beside her.
"Keep up," she said flatly.
The air churned with the low vibration of the rift, swallowing her voice as the three of them vanished into the darkening horizon