Kael held her tightly for a long moment before finally letting go. He placed his hands gently on her shoulders, meeting her gaze. His emerald eyes locked with her ash-gray ones, steady and unwavering.
Elara didn't pull away. She simply looked at him. Her breathing had calmed, and the trembling in her hands had stopped. Slowly, the corners of her lips lifted as she looked back at him.
"Thank... thank you, Kael. I really needed that."
She used the sleeve of her coat to wipe away the last of her tears.
"Sky-high expectations and the constant need to prove yourself, those things wear down even the strongest of us. There's no shame in feeling overwhelmed. If you need to cry, then cry. If you want to laugh, then laugh.
But whatever you do, don't lose sight of what's real. Stay true to what you feel, Elara. Even when the world tries to tell you otherwise."
Elara didn't say anything, she only answered with a grateful expression.
For a while, they sat in silence, each lost in their own thoughts. Kael leaned back against a tree, eyes closed, while Elara absently fiddled with a small stick she had picked up from the ground. Birds sang somewhere overhead, and the wind rustled gently through the leaves.
Eventually, after gathering her thoughts, Elara was the one to break the silence.
"You're really a rank two Luminaire?"
Kael opened his eyes and met Elara's gaze.
"Yes. I am."
Elara didn't respond. Instead, she turned her head, eyes settling on the distant forest beyond.
"That's also why I insist you give me the mote."
At his words, Elara bit down softly on her lower lip.
Kael continued, his voice steady.
"I know it's not an easy decision, but it's the safest one."
He pushed himself off the tree and sat cross-legged in front of her.
"Adam isn't just strong, he's sharp. But expecting you to wield a rank two mote and keep it active for an extended time... that was reckless of him."
Kael wasn't lying. Activating a mote above your rank came at a steep cost, five times more thoughts than if it were used by a Luminaire of the same level. It was possible, yes, but far from ideal. If Elara activated the mote, she would burn through half her thought reserves in an instant, cutting her combat capability in half.
Whether this was heaven's way of maintaining balance or simply the nature of things didn't matter. The world played by its own rules, unforgiving, but fair in its ruthlessness.
So Adam expecting her to use it under these conditions was reckless, bordering on foolish. Even Kael couldn't quite grasp the reasoning behind that decision.
"I'm not sure, Kael."
Elara's voice wavered with hesitation, and Kael understood why.
Though everyone said she had "borrowed" the mote, the truth was more complicated. Borrowing a mote was impossible. To use one, a Luminaire had to overwrite its will with their own, an irreversible act. The moment she did that, the mote became hers entirely. Adam couldn't simply take it back. The only way to return it was if she willingly gave it up.
And now, offering it to Kael wasn't a matter of trust in the moment, it meant relinquishing control, transferring full ownership.
If it were anyone else in the group, she wouldn't have hesitated. But this was Kael. She felt something when she looked at him, something uncertain. And more than that, she didn't really know him. Not truly. None of them did. And that made her pause.
"Elara, please."
His voice was soft, carrying a hint of helplessness.
"You know how dangerous this will be. Please, don't risk your life over a mote when the solution is right here."
There was desperation in his words, but not the kind rooted in selfishness. It was genuine, earnest, full of concern.
Elara hesitated. Her instincts warred with her logic. But when her eyes met Kael's, something inside her gave way. There was no greed in his gaze, only worry.
She sighed inwardly. He was right. Risking her life when another path existed, one just as effective, was senseless pride.
She raised her hand and began summoning the mote to its true form. Within moments, it appeared, shaped like a pine cone, textured and softly glowing with quiet power.
Kael glanced at it, a faint smile forming in his heart.
"Thank you, Elara. Truly." He reached out toward the mote. "I'm going to split my consciousness and enter it now, alright?"
Elara gave a small nod in response.
Kael placed his hand on the mote, and in an instant, his awareness shifted. One moment, he was in the waking world, then the next, standing in a dark, silent void. Before him, a white river twisted and curled through the emptiness, its motion slow and weightless, like a ribbon of pale silk drifting through shadow.
Elara appeared beside him within the mote, hands held in front of her as she silently watched the colossal river.
Kael was slightly taken aback by her sudden presence, though he composed himself quickly. It made sense, now that he thought about it, he just hadn't considered the possibility before.
'So Elara split her consciousness to enter the mote with me.'
"This is your will?"
He already knew the answer, but asked anyway.
"Mhm." Elara's tone carried a lightness, as if finally making the decision had lifted a weight. "It is my will, yes, but as you know, not my thoughts within it."
Kael nodded in response.
The white river shimmered with flickering specks drifting along its current. These were the mote's thoughts, the essence of what defined it. Unlike a human, whose thoughts were continuously reborn from the soul, a mote had no soul of its own. Instead, it absorbed from the world around it, gathering fragments of law and essence, shaping them into thought, into identity.
"Isn't the human will beautiful?"
Elara spoke softly, her head tilted slightly as she gazed at the massive river before them.
"How couldn't it be?" Kael replied, his voice calm. "It's one of the three fundamental pieces that make us human."
The words lingered in the air before Kael spoke again.
"I'll start infusing my will now."
"Yeah," Elara said, still not turning to look at him. She simply acknowledged it aloud.
Kael raised his hand. A faint stream of red began to seep from his fingertips, swirling gently through the air.
Elara immediately took a step back, her expression shifting to confusion.
"Is that… your will? Why is it red?"
Kael glanced at her, a brow lifting.
"Is that unusual?"
She hesitated, stepping closer again.
"I… I don't know. I've just never seen it in that color before."
Kael let his eyes rest on her for a moment before turning back toward the river, brushing off her reaction. There were more important things at hand.
"Anyway, retract your will."
At his words, Elara nodded and focused. The white river began to peel away, flowing back into her like a slow tide returning home.
Normally, overwriting a mote's will was a difficult task, a war of endurance. But in this case, the will had already been replaced by Elara's, and now she was willingly withdrawing it, leaving only an empty vessel behind for Kael to replace with his own will.
If, for some reason, she had simply let go of the mote entirely, a new will would eventually form within it. Over time, a natural golden will would begin to appear, drawn in from the world around it, slowly rebuilding itself piece by piece.
Kael's red will continued to seep from his fingertips, steady and unbroken, replacing the fading snow-white river with a deep, flowing crimson.
Minute by minute, the transformation took hold. What was once a calm, gentle stream turned into a roiling current, restless and full of force. The crimson river collided with itself, swirling with a vitality far more intense than before. It pulsed with Kael's essence, a reflection of the strength he had gained. His advancement to rank two had brought clarity to his soul, sharpened his thoughts, and solidified his will. And now, that strength was shaping the mote.
After nearly ten minutes, the last trace of white was gone.
"That should do it."
Kael lowered his hand, and the red stream ceased. The remaining fragments of Elara's will returned to her inner realm. What remained was silence, Kael, Elara, and the colossal river of crimson will. It loomed large, its current alive and volatile.
They retracted their consciousness, returning to the present. Kael picked up the Lure mote and turned it slowly in his hand, its surface gleaming faintly.
Elara watched him with a soft expression.
"It's done," she said with a smile. "Now all that's left is to wait, then lure the beast to the ambush point."
Kael gave a silent nod before dismissing the mote. Golden sparks flickered off its form, drifting into the air before vanishing into the wind.
He stepped back and leaned against a tree, closing his eyes. His face was calm, but his thoughts stirred.
'I finally got another rank two mote.'
Had the situation been different, he might have grinned, unable to hide the thrill of success. But he didn't. The emotion in his chest wasn't only joy. It was a cold, quiet satisfaction.
No one willingly gave up a mote, especially not one of this value. But in Elara's case, every piece had fallen into place, almost too perfectly.
Her self-doubt. Kael's concealed strength. The crushing pressure to succeed. The looming threat to her life. Any one of those might not have been enough. But all of them together? It created a storm of vulnerability. And in the middle of it, Kael offered the perfect solution. Simple, safe, and impossible to argue against.
She had hesitated, yes. She'd even considered that he might take the mote for himself. But how? Kael may have been rank two, but he was still outnumbered. Adam was also rank two. The others were rank one. A confrontation would not end easily.
But logic wasn't all that guided her.
Not under the weight of expectation. Not when her thoughts were clouded by fear. And especially not when she looked at Kael and felt the flicker of something more, something she didn't fully understand, but couldn't ignore.
It wasn't just trust that moved her hand.
It was him.
His calm. His kindness. The comfort of his voice. Somewhere deep down, she wanted to trust him. And deeper still, a part of her wanted to please him.
In the end, her decision wasn't purely rational.
It was human.
And that, more than anything else, had sealed her choice.