The city of Vaelreth always looked different at night.
Not just darker—alive in a quieter way. Torches lit the cobbled streets, their orange flames dancing like whispers of the past. Towering spires cast long shadows on the square, and every so often, a patrol of armored guards would pass, cloaks trailing like ink on stone.
Kael stood at the edge of a stone balcony, his unseeing eyes turned to the city below. He didn't need sight to feel the pulse of it—the way the wind carried the sound of merchants closing shop, or the faint echo of footsteps in alleys no one spoke of.
Behind him, the air shifted.
"You always find the highest place, don't you?" Arinya's voice drifted softly, smooth and strange in this quiet. "It's like you're trying to float away."
Kael gave a dry chuckle. "Maybe I am. But I keep waking up with my feet on the ground."
She stepped beside him. For a moment, they simply stood there. The breeze caught strands of her silver-blonde hair, brushing it across his shoulder.
He turned his head slightly. "You sound tired."
"I'm not," she said too quickly. Then added, quieter, "I'm just… thinking."
They'd arrived in Vaelreth two days ago, seeking an informant who supposedly knew something about Kael's relic. Instead, they'd found a city bristling with unease. The Crimson Circle had a presence here—veiled but unmistakable. The symbol etched into alley doors, the slight stiffening of merchants when Kael's group passed.
Doran, ever the watchful one, had taken it upon himself to scout discreetly. He hadn't returned yet.
Kael felt it before she moved—a subtle shift in the way her aura leaned toward him, the quiet weight of intention. His senses had grown sharper since the fight in the Valewood.
"I keep wondering what it is you see when you look out there," Arinya whispered.
Kael hesitated. Then, softly, "Flames. Always flames. Sometimes faces in them. Sometimes ruins."
"And tonight?"
"A mountain. Blackened. Broken."
She was silent. But he felt it—the spike of recognition, so faint it might've passed unnoticed by anyone else. Arinya masked it quickly, but Kael had lived too long in the dark not to feel when someone was hiding something.
"…What mountain?" she asked gently.
"I don't know. But I think I died there once."
Arinya said nothing, but her fingers curled slightly at her side. Her voice was even when she said, "Maybe that's where you'll find answers."
Kael nodded. "Or more ghosts."
A long pause stretched between them. Kael finally turned, beginning to walk back into the chamber they'd rented. It was modest—stone walls, a carved wooden table, three chairs, and a hearth currently empty. Arinya followed.
The moment they stepped inside, the door slammed open.
Doran stumbled through, cloak torn, eyes wide. "We've got company," he panted.
Kael's head lifted. "How many?"
"Three. Maybe four. Not guards. And not city cutthroats either. Too coordinated. They've been watching us since we entered the city."
Arinya drew her dagger with a hiss. "You led them here?"
"I lost them in the east quarter. But I don't think that's going to matter. They'll come tonight."
Kael didn't respond right away. He crouched beside the hearth and ran a hand along the cold stone. His staff—newly acquired after the Valewood skirmish—rested against the wall. Not yet awakened, not fully. But it hummed with a quiet promise.
"They're testing our reach," Kael said finally. "They want to see how dangerous we are."
Arinya frowned. "Assassins?"
"No," Kael said. "Hunters."
Doran spat to the side. "Relic bounty types?"
"Crimson Circle sends scouts when someone piques their interest. This… smells like them."
Kael stood and reached for his staff. The polished ironwood was smooth against his hand, etched faintly with runes he couldn't yet read—but somehow understood.
Arinya watched him. "You're sure?"
"No." He gave her a half-smile. "But I feel like I've fought them before."
Later That Night
The moon hung low over Vaelreth when the first attacker came through the window. Silent, fast, shadow-wrapped.
Kael's head turned just slightly. "Three seconds too slow."
His staff cracked the air in a fluid arc, colliding with the assassin's mask. Bone crunched, and the figure crumpled before he hit the floor.
Doran barreled through the door a heartbeat later, sword swinging. "Another one on the roof!"
Arinya moved like silver lightning, her blades carving twin arcs. "Two in the stairwell!"
The room exploded into motion.
Kael moved with something between instinct and memory. His staff spun in a complex weave of defensive and offensive strikes, each motion more fluid than the last. The relic pulsed at his side, reacting—not to his thoughts, but to his will. Somewhere between his ribs, he felt it whisper: You've done this before.
Another attacker lunged—and Kael stepped into the motion, twisting his torso, slamming the staff into the man's sternum with a breathless thud. The man gasped, crumpling.
Arinya's voice cut through the chaos. "That's the last of them."
The silence that followed was heavy, broken only by Doran's panting.
Kael's chest rose and fell. He lowered the staff slowly. "They weren't here to kill me."
Arinya wiped blood off her blade. "Then what?"
"They wanted to see how well I fight." He gestured to the runes glowing faintly along his staff. "And whether the relic has started to respond."
Doran cursed softly. "That means they'll send stronger ones next."
Kael nodded. "They always do."
Later
Kael sat alone again on the balcony. The staff rested across his knees. Its warmth pulsed faintly—almost like a heartbeat.
Behind him, he heard Arinya approach. She didn't speak, just stood beside him.
"You were right earlier," Kael said without turning. "I was trying to float away."
Arinya tilted her head.
"But I keep getting pulled back down. By you. By Doran. By this damn relic."
He didn't expect a reply. But she surprised him.
"I hope," Arinya said softly, "that when the time comes, you won't float away before I say what I need to."
Kael turned toward her slowly. His pale, sightless eyes caught the moonlight.
"What would you say?" he asked.
She smiled sadly.
"…Nothing yet."
And she walked away.