The group had begun traveling again the next morning. The sun rose behind them, casting long golden rays over the craggy plains. Dew clung to the short grasses, glistening like the land itself had paused to breathe after a long night. The wind was gentler than usual, carrying the crisp scent of dry earth and something faintly metallic.
Kazi walked near the front of the group, her hood down, dark curls damp with morning sweat. The sparring from the night before still clung to her muscles, but it wasn't discomfort she carried, it was momentum. Her Mark felt warm beneath her skin, the faint tingling almost constant now, like it was awake even when she wasn't calling on it.
Dakarai trailed slightly behind her, spinning a flat stone in his hand with small flicks of his lightning. He wasn't talking much this morning, but he didn't need to. Every now and then, he'd glance up at the landscape, like he was searching for something, or waiting for a fight that hadn't happened yet.
Zuberi walked several paces to the right, his boots crunching across loose gravel. He moved like the earth itself had welcomed him… steady, assured, grounded. His presence had become familiar now, not quite warm, but solid. Dependable.
At the back, Rhazir followed in silence.
His footsteps were light, quiet against the rocks. Somehow, he never disturbed the birds that scattered when the others passed too close. His cloak trailed faintly behind him, brushing the grass like a shadow that had decided to walk on its own.
By midday, they reached a rise in the land that looked over a distant, dried-up riverbed. Kazi stopped at the edge of the slope and let the wind hit her face, brushing sweat and ash from her brow.
Rhazir came up beside her, the scanner in his hand flickering with subtle pulses of light.
"This is the edge of the next zone," he said. "The resonance trail leads southeast. There's a small cluster of abandoned dwellings tucked between the cliffs and that ridgeline there."
He pointed to a jagged slope in the distance, where stone jutted like old teeth from the earth.
"Is it fresh?" Dakarai asked, moving up beside them.
"Faint," Rhazir said. "But different. Could be residual from a bearer's passage. Could be dormant."
"Or a trap," Zuberi muttered.
Everyone went still for a second, not because the idea was surprising, but because it wasn't.
Kazi finally spoke. "Let's rest here before we go down. I want to eat and run some movement drills."
Rhazir gave no opinion. He simply stepped away and sat cross-legged in the grass, eyes half-lidded as he opened the scanner again and adjusted its settings.
They ate in relative silence, dried root bread, a few salted strips of meat, and whatever fruit Zuberi had picked that morning without telling anyone.
Afterward, Kazi and Dakarai broke off a short distance to run combinations, pairing Volt speed with Ember precision, the way they'd been refining since the last fight. It wasn't perfect yet, but it was sharp enough to feel dangerous.
Zuberi didn't join. Instead, he stood nearby, moving stone disks in the air like puzzle pieces, testing their weight and balance. He was building something, a pattern, maybe even a sculpture of some kind. He was training in his own way.
At one point, Dakarai missed a timing cue, and Kazi caught him off guard with a shoulder check that knocked him into the dirt.
"Again," she said.
Dakarai grinned, wiping dust from his jaw. "You're enjoying this."
Kazi arched an eyebrow. "A little."
When they finally called a break, Kazi flopped onto the grass, breathing heavily. Her Mark buzzed faintly beneath her skin, glowing with a soft pulse that was growing harder to ignore.
She sat up and looked at Rhazir, who hadn't moved from his spot.
"Do the stages stop?" she asked suddenly.
Rhazir blinked, looked up.
"Excuse me?"
"The Mark," she said. "If Stage One is awakening, and Stage Two is what Zuberi has... how far does it go?"
There was a pause.
Then Rhazir said, "Four known stages."
Kazi frowned. "Known?"
He nodded once. "The first two you've seen. Stage Three spreads across the torso — ribs, spine, sometimes back. By Stage Four... it crosses the face. That's full integration."
"And then?"
Rhazir's face was unreadable.
"Then you're not just channeling the Line," he said. "You're part of it."
Kazi was quiet for a moment, then asked the question that had been gnawing at her since she'd learned about the stages at all.
"Why didn't you tell us this earlier?"
Rhazir's eyes drifted back to the scanner. "Would it have changed anything?"
"Yes," she said flatly.
"Exactly," he replied.
Dakarai spoke from a few feet away, sitting up with a wince.
"Seems like something important to leave out."
"I gave you what you needed," Rhazir said. "Not more. Not less."
"Is that how you operate?" Zuberi called from across the clearing. "Measured silence?"
Rhazir didn't answer. But the smile he gave; small and sharp, said enough.
Later that afternoon, as they packed up to descend into the next stretch of canyon, the group moved with quiet focus.
No one spoke about the Mark again.
But Kazi felt the weight of it beneath her skin, heavier than before.