The fire in Valdorne's central square had dimmed to embers, yet no one slept soundly that night. The final hours before a march were not built for rest—they were made for reckoning.
Shin walked alone beneath the starlit sky, wind rustling the banners that draped from the stone towers like fading prayers. His steps took him to the edge of the training grounds, where a simple graveyard had been carved into the earth—each stone a name, each name a story.
He knelt before the markers of fallen allies: Isolde the Seer, fallen during the Siege of Marrin's Gate; Krow, the shieldbearer who died protecting Laverna during the slave revolt; old Roderic, the former captain who taught him how to stand tall even when outnumbered; and George Applebee, the Master Assassin who once disguised himself as the humble Guild Coachman.
George's marker stood slightly apart, etched with an insignia known only to the inner circle—a curved dagger entwined with a rose. Shin lingered there the longest.
"George," he said quietly. "You taught me how to live in this foreign land. How to listen. How to survive. You hid your blades behind jokes and your wisdom beneath feigned drunkenness... but I saw it. Every lesson. Every warning."
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a tiny iron token—the same one George had once used to test his reflexes. "Laverna's taking care of your jamadhars now. She's made them dance like you used to. You'd be proud of her. And she still talks to you sometimes, like you never left."
The candle flickered in Shin's hand as he placed it before George's stone. "We're going into battle soon. And I know you'd be leading the charge if you were here. So keep watching. Keep guiding."
He touched the stone, head bowed, and whispered, "You'll march with me tomorrow."
Then, rising to his feet, Shin looked out over the rows of graves. He placed his right hand over his chest, fingers resting against his beating heart. "Your names, your stories... they live on here. In me. Every step I take, I carry you all."
As his Kitsune senses heightened, he saw them—not as phantoms, but as warm glimmers of soul-light. Isolde stood tall with her staff, Krow gave a solemn nod, Roderic crossed his arms with pride, and George, smirking as always, gave a mock salute.
They stood not in silence, but in spirit. Watching. Waiting.
Shin bowed deeply to them all. "I'll see you on the field. Guard those we can't protect. Watch over them until we return."
A candle flickered in his hand as he lit it. "You'll march with me tomorrow," he said softly. "All of you."
His fingers trembled slightly as he placed the candle before the stones, but his eyes held no tears—only the weight of memory.
Returning to his tent, Shin found Laverna waiting. Her fox ears twitched as she approached, a small cloth-wrapped bundle in her hands. "I thought I'd find you there," she said.
Shin nodded. "They deserved a moment."
"So do you," Laverna said, then offered the bundle. Inside were new hilts for her jamadhars, reforged with obsidian lining and a mithril edge. Across the base, engraved in flowing script, were the words: Never Alone.
Laverna stared at them, then at him. "You remembered."
Shin touched her shoulder. "Always."
With quiet reverence, Laverna stepped back and summoned her weapons. The jamadhars shimmered into her hands, accepting the new hilts with a soft pulse of light. She twirled them in an elegant arc, testing their weight, feeling the resonance. The air around her shimmered faintly, the blades responding to her grip like extensions of her soul.
Then, as if sensing completion, the jamadhars vanished in wisps of golden light, pulled back into her tiger eye necklace with a gentle hum.
She turned to him, eyes soft. "They feel alive again. Like they know they're home."
Shin gave a faint smile, his heart steady. "Then they're right where they belong."
Without hesitation, Laverna stepped forward and wrapped her arms around him, pressing close. Her voice was barely a breath. "Thank you... for this gift. For everything."
She lifted her head, kissed his lips softly, then again, more firmly. It wasn't shy or stolen. It was real, laced with unspoken promises. A quiet fire. She didn't hide the desire behind it, the yearning to be near him before dawn claimed the sky.
Shin embraced her, holding her as if this moment was all that mattered. And for now, it was.
That night, the command chamber was cleared. Mats were rolled out in a circle, and the Servants entered one by one, not as warriors, but as kin.
Zera arrived first, sword already unbuckled and set aside. She said nothing, just nodded, and sat to Shin's right.
Tessara came next, braiding her hair in silence before lighting incense at the center.
Maika entered with her usual bravado, flopping down dramatically beside Tessara. "You'd think we were headed to our deaths with all this silence."
"You're such a mood killer," Tessara said with a grin. "Want me to braid flowers into your hair too?"
Maika scoffed. "Only if they explode."
"We're not dying," Alexandra said as she entered last, setting aside her cloak with military precision. "We're going to live. Together."
"That sounded like a toast," Maika said, raising an imaginary goblet. "To survival and sexy dreams."
Zera rolled her eyes, but a small smirk betrayed her amusement. "You're impossible."
Laverna curled beside Shin as he laid his cloak over the center of the ring like a symbolic banner. "Impossible or not," she whispered, "this feels like a sleepover with swords."
"Slumber party before slaughter," Maika quipped. "Very on-brand for us."
Tessara chuckled. "We should've brought marshmallows."
Alexandra crossed her arms, but even she allowed herself a soft smile. "Enjoy this peace. We earned it."
The group lay in a ring, heads pointed inward. As sleep crept in, the laughter faded, replaced by something quieter. Sacred.
They each whispered a vow, a prayer for tomorrow.
Zera: "For honor that outlives us."
Tessara: "For the gardens not yet grown."
Maika: "For the wild ones who never fit the mold."
Alexandra: "For a voice that speaks true, even in the dark."
Laverna: "For the man who made me want to live."
And Shin, at the center of it all, whispered to the starlit canopy above: "For the family I never thought I'd have."
As the tent fell into silence, the faint warmth of magic pulsed in their Crests. They weren't just allies now. They were bound.
Outside, the eastern sky began to bleed with crimson.
The dawn was coming.
And they would meet the dawn together.