The forest thinned, but the tension did not.
Ahead lay the Empire of Solvane the kingdom of Selene's father, a land of soaring towers and golden banners. Yet between them and the glittering horizon stretched a vast no-man's land: dark thickets, sunken valleys, and battlegrounds long forgotten.
Selene limped slightly, exhaustion weighing heavily on her. She had barely recovered from the encounter in the woods from the seven who had come to steal her away and met only annihilation. She glanced at Lucian, walking a few paces ahead.
He hadn't spoken much since.
He was always silent, but now there was a new gravity about him. The air around him shimmered faintly, a reminder of the unleashed power he'd displayed without hesitation.
Selene hugged herself against the growing chill. Her mind spun with questions she dared not ask: About the ones who betrayed him. About the bloodlines he carried. About the destiny they seemed forever pulled toward.
A snapping of branches made her jump.
Lucian stilled instantly, his crimson-gold aura flashing for a heartbeat before sinking back into invisibility. His hand didn't move to any weapon he needed none but Selene felt the world itself hold its breath around him.
Two figures stumbled from the thicket ahead: villagers, ragged and wide-eyed with fear. One clutched a bloodied child in his arms.
"Please!" the older of the two cried out, throwing himself to his knees. "The Empire… it burns!"
Selene rushed forward instinctively, but Lucian caught her wrist in an iron grip. His eyes bored into the villagers, sharp as a blade hidden behind velvet.
"Speak," he said simply.
The villager trembled under that voice. "Monsters! Shadows with no form! They came from the eastern woods! They ride the mist itself! Our farms are gone — our people slaughtered! Even the border guards fell."
Lucian frowned slightly, a rare show of emotion.
Selene's heart twisted. Her home lay just beyond those borders.
"Who commands them?" Lucian asked.
"We don't know!" the man sobbed. "Only that they bore no banners. No mercy."
Lucian released Selene and stepped forward. The villagers flinched at his approach, but Lucian merely placed two fingers lightly on the bloodied child's forehead.
A faint golden light passed into the boy.
The child's breathing eased. His wounds sealed shut like melting ice.
Selene gasped softly, tears burning her eyes.
Lucian said nothing. He turned away as if healing a life was no different than brushing dust from his cloak.
"Go," he told the villagers. "Head west. Find shelter. Do not linger here."
They fled, carrying the now-sleeping child.
Selene watched them vanish into the trees before rounding on Lucian.
"You healed him. Why?" she asked softly.
Lucian shrugged, an almost imperceptible motion. "A blade dulls when it strikes every stone. A king… must choose his battles."
Selene realized, then, that Lucian's cruelty and mercy were not opposites. They were two blades of the same sword.
He would destroy without hesitation.
And he would save without regret.
But only if it served the future he envisioned.
Her heart hammered. She was part of that future.
As the sun sank lower, turning the sky the color of old blood, they pushed onward.
The edge of the Solvane Empire loomed ahead a glittering promise of sanctuary, or a trap waiting to spring.
And somewhere in its heart, Selene's father the Emperor waited.
Waiting to reclaim his daughter.
Waiting to strike at the King who walked again.
Waiting to choose a side in the war that would consume the world.