Kaelyn POV
I woke to the smell of burning meat.
Corvin had everyone gathered around the fire before sunrise. Five days had passed since I'd walked into the camp, and my body was already changing. My muscles hurt in new ways. My hands had calluses from the wooden sword. My feet had learned how to move quietly.
I was becoming someone different.
Kael was already there, eating bread with his hands scarred and steady. He'd been training me every day since that first night, and every day I expected him to give up on me. To realize I was too weak. Too untrained. Too much of a burden.
He hadn't given up yet.
Corvin waited until everyone had food before speaking.
"The Sunblade," he said simply. "That's what we're hunting. Everyone here needs to understand what that means."
Lyria sat beside me, and I felt her watching my face. Studying my reaction like it mattered.
"The Sunblade is the most powerful weapon in the kingdom of Aldwyn," Corvin continued. "It was stolen three days ago by the Valorian Empire. Taken by their warriors in a night operation that nobody saw coming."
"How is that possible?" Dane asked. He was the quiet archer, and he rarely spoke.
"Because they're good at what they do," Corvin said. "And because the palace defenses weren't ready for a coordinated strike."
I thought about the palace. About my father pacing the throne room. About the guards I'd seen every day of my life. It felt strange to think about it now, like remembering a dream instead of something that had been real.
"The Sunblade isn't just valuable," Corvin said. "It's dangerous. In the wrong hands, it could level a kingdom. In the right hands, it could save one."
"Which hands are we putting it in?" I asked.
Corvin looked at me across the fire. For a moment, I thought he might actually answer. Then he smiled.
"We were hired to find it and bring it back," he said. "That's all you need to know. Where it goes after that isn't our concern."
Kael's jaw tightened. I watched him, trying to read something in his expression. He was chewing bread like the answer didn't matter to him, but his hands were clenched.
"The Valorian Empire is also hunting the blade," Corvin continued. "They have soldiers in the field. They have money. They have resources. We have speed and knowledge and the fact that we're better at being invisible than they are."
"How long?" Markus asked.
"Three months if we're fast," Corvin said. "Longer if we're careful. We're going into ancient territory. Places where the maps don't agree with reality. Places where magic still lives in the ground itself."
The word magic hung in the air.
I'd never heard anyone speak it so casually. In the palace, magic was theory. History. Something that had existed in old stories and battles that happened centuries ago.
"Lyria will guide us," Corvin said. "She knows how to read the old places. How to find what's been hidden."
Lyria lifted her cup like she was being toasted. Her silver eyes caught the firelight and reflected it back like they weren't quite human.
"Starting tomorrow, we move," Corvin said. "We move fast. We don't stop. Anyone who can't keep up gets left behind."
He said it like it was a promise and a threat at the same time.
"We pack light. We travel hard. We don't speak about where we're going or why we're going there. If we're captured, we die knowing nothing. That keeps everyone safe."
I nodded along with everyone else. But I was thinking about what it meant to die knowing nothing. To die without understanding why I'd spent months fighting and pushing and becoming someone stronger.
After breakfast, Kael found me alone.
"You're asking too many questions," he said.
"One question," I said. "I asked one question."
"And Corvin gave you an answer that doesn't make sense," Kael replied. "So you're going to keep asking because you're the kind of person who needs things to make sense."
He was right, and I didn't like that he was right.
"Does the Sunblade matter to you?" I asked. "Or does the money matter?"
Kael studied me for a long moment. His scars caught the light, and I could see exactly how many times he'd been cut. How many times he'd survived things that should have killed him.
"The blade matters," he finally said. "But not for the reasons you think."
"Then tell me the real reasons."
"No," he said. "Not yet. You're not ready to know."
He walked away before I could respond, leaving me standing alone by the fire with the feeling that I was missing something important. That everyone in this camp knew something I didn't. That I was walking into a situation I didn't fully understand.
But I'd already run from the palace. I'd already decided to become someone else. Backing out now would just be running again.
That afternoon, I helped pack. We didn't have much. Weapons. Water skins. Rope. Maps that Lyria kept folding and refolding like they changed depending on how you looked at them.
Around sunset, a rider came into camp.
I knew something was wrong before he even spoke. The way Corvin's face changed. The way Kael's hand went to his sword. The way Lyria stood up like she'd been expecting this.
The rider was young and hard-looking. He spoke quietly to Corvin, and I watched my friend's expression darken with every word.
When the rider left, Corvin called Kael and Lyria aside.
I shouldn't have followed them. I knew that. But something in my chest was screaming that whatever they were about to say mattered to me.
I crept close enough to hear.
"The Valorian Empire is moving soldiers," the voice said. Corvin's voice, low and serious. "Not a patrol. A real military force."
"How many?" That was Kael.
"Enough to matter. And they're heading in our direction."
I pressed myself against the tent behind me, barely breathing.
"Do they know where we are?" Lyria asked.
"Not yet. But they're hunting something. Or someone."
Silence. Long silence.
"What do they know?" Kael asked.
"More than they should," Corvin said. "Someone in the palace told them we're coming. Someone with information."
My blood went cold.
"They know about the blade," Kael said. "But do they know about—"
"We don't talk about that yet," Lyria interrupted. "She's not ready."
I held my breath. Ready for what?
"She needs to be ready," Kael said. His voice was sharp. Angry. "If soldiers find us, she needs to know how to survive."
"She will," Corvin said. "But not tonight. Tonight, we let her sleep."
They started walking back toward the fire, and I scrambled away from the tent, trying to move like I hadn't heard anything.
But my heart was racing. My hands were shaking.
Someone in the palace had told the Valorian Empire they were coming. Someone knew who I was. Someone knew where I was.
I wasn't safe here. I wasn't safe anywhere.
That night, I couldn't sleep. I lay in my tent and listened to the forest sounds. Every crack of a branch sounded like soldiers. Every rustle sounded like danger.
Around midnight, Kael appeared outside my tent.
"Walk with me," he said quietly.
"Why?"
"Because you heard us talking. Because you're terrified. And because there are things you need to understand before tomorrow."
I followed him into the forest. We walked until the camp sounds disappeared behind us.
"There are people hunting this blade," Kael said. "People who would kill to get it. People who would kill to keep it from falling into the wrong hands."
"What hands are the wrong hands?" I asked.
"The hands of anyone who wants to use its power for themselves," Kael said. "The hands of anyone who wants to destroy instead of protect."
We stopped by a stream, and in the moonlight, I could see his face clearly. The scars. The ancient eyes. The sadness that lived underneath his anger.
"I need you to promise me something," Kael said.
"What?"
"That you'll trust me," he said. "No matter what happens. No matter what you find out about me or about this mission or about why we're really here. Promise me you'll trust me."
"Why would I promise that?"
"Because the next three months are going to test everything you think you know about yourself," Kael said. "And you're going to need someone to hold onto. You're going to need to know that someone believes you can survive it."
He stepped closer, and I could feel the heat from his body. Could smell smoke and steel and something that was just him.
"I believe you can survive it," he said quietly. "I believe that if you survive it, you're going to be the strongest person I've ever met. I believe that everything you're about to go through is going to change you into someone who can change the world."
My breath caught. "How do you know that?"
"I don't," Kael said. "But I've learned to trust my instincts about people. And my instincts are screaming that you're going to matter. That you're going to matter to me in ways I'm not ready to understand yet."
He reached up and touched my face. His scarred hand was gentle against my skin.
"So promise me you'll trust me," he said. "Because I'm about to ask you to do things that won't make sense. Things that will feel dangerous. And you need to know that I'm not asking you to do anything that will destroy you."
"Kael—"
"Promise me," he said.
I thought about the palace. About my father. About being exiled for something I didn't do. About walking into a forest ready to die.
And then I thought about this man in front of me. This scarred warrior who'd trained me and left water by my tent and looked at me like I was worth protecting.
"I promise," I said.
He pulled me against him, and I felt his heart racing just as fast as mine.
"Starting tomorrow, everything changes," he said into my hair. "Are you ready?"
"No," I said honestly.
"Good," he replied. "That's the only way to survive what's coming."
We walked back to camp in silence. But when we reached the edge of the firelight, Kael's hand found mine.
And that's when Lyria appeared from the darkness like she'd been waiting there the whole time.
"It's time," she said to Kael.
Then to me, "Are you ready to learn the truth about the Sunblade? Because whether you are or not, we're running out of time."