The village is healing, but it's... weird. Like a bone that set crooked. It works, but I can tell it's always going to ache. I'm in the temple. Again. Seraphine is having me do the breathing exercises, trying to... stabilize... the integration. It's not magic. It's not... anything. It's just... work. "Acknowledge the curse, Ren," she says, her voice all calm. "Don't fight it. Don't embrace it. Just... see it. Let it be." It's so much harder than fighting. Fighting is easy. This... this is exhausting. The curse is... it's not a monster in a cage anymore. It's just... a constant, low-level hum in my gut. It wants. It's always, always wanting. Power. Blood. Freedom. Just sitting still, just breathing, feels like a full-time job.
"You're learning," Seraphine says, after an hour of me just... sitting. "Most... would have lost control by now. You're... holding. That is significant."
"How long?" I ask. My voice sounds rough. "How long until it... stops? Until it's... stable?"
She hesitates. That's never a good sign. "Honestly? I don't know. This... is unprecedented. You might... achieve a perfect, stable balance. Or... you might reach a point where... the balance is... fragile."
"Meaning?"
"Meaning..." she sighs, "you could be living on borrowed time."
Great.
Then there's the political crap. The regional council is in a permanent state of panic. And that elf, Arch-Mage Elenara... she's practically moved in. She "studies" me, which mostly means she's just... there. Watching me train, watching me eat, watching me talk. "A unique case," she tells me, like I'm a... a new kind of bug in a jar. "The Spires would offer... extensive support. Resources. Protection."
"And a cage," Toren grunts from the doorway. He... he doesn't leave me alone with her. Ever.
"And monitoring," Elenara agrees, not even bothering to deny it.
We end up with a "compromise." I get to stay in Verdwood, but I'm officially her lab rat. I have to go through her "quarterly evaluations" in exchange for access to the Spires' library. I'm... I'm trading my freedom, piece by piece, for... for a manual on how not to explode.
Dren's training is... weird now. He's not telling me to suppress the curse anymore. He's telling me to use it. "It's part of you, kid," he grunts, smacking my wooden sword. "Stop treating it like a disease. Treat it like a weapon. Control it."
So I do. I... I learn to pull on the shadow... just a little... for speed. Not just... power.
Kaela's right there with me. She's... intense. She's not just training with me. She's training against me. She's... studying me. "If you're going to be this... thing," she pants, after a brutal drill, "I gotta be fast enough to keep up. Or... y'know. Stop you." She gives me that fierce grin. "Warrior's pride."
Lysara starts showing up, too. And her magic... it... it works with mine. My... my shadow-stuff... it... it moves, and her light... it... it contains it. Like... a border. It's... beautiful, actually.
"It's tactical synergy," she explains, her face all serious. "Shadow and light are not... inherently opposed. They are... complementary..."
"She means we look cool," Kaela mutters, wiping sweat off her face.
"That is what I said!" Lysara snaps.
But it's... it's more than that. I... I can feel them. Both of them. Lysara... she just... ends up closer than she needs to be. When we're training, her magic... it... it just... hovers around mine. And Kaela... she sees it. Oh, she definitely sees it. And her hand... it... it just... finds mine. "For balance," she'll say, after a drill. And... and she'll... hold on. Just... a second too long.
It's... getting... complicated.
Miren corners me one night. She's in full-on Healer mode, her eyes checking... everything. "The stability... it's holding, Ren. But... I'm... I'm seeing... fluctuations. When you... exert yourself."
"What... what does that mean?"
"It means..." she takes my hand. "It means... it might be... more fragile than we hoped. You... you overdo it. A... a big fight. Too much magic. Even... even just... too much stress..." Her voice cracks. "It could... cascade. It could... fail."
So. There it is. Borrowed time.
I have to tell them.
I find Kaela on the roof. Our spot. I just... I just say it. "My... my 'integration'... it's... fragile. I... I might... break. Lose control. For good."
She just stares at me for a long time. The... the silver light from the ley lines... it... it makes her eyes look... bright. "Okay," she says. Just... okay. "So... we make sure that doesn't happen. You don't push too hard. I... I keep you grounded."
"Kae, I..."
"No. Shut up." Her voice is... thick. "You're... you. And... and I'm not... letting... that... win. Not... not negotiable."
I find Lysara in the library. She's... she's always in the library now. I tell her. She... she just freezes. Her hand... it's... shaking.
"How... long?" she whispers.
"She doesn't know. Decades... or... or not."
She turns to me. Her... her silver eyes... they're... terrified. I've... I've never seen her scared. "Then... then we fix it!" she hisses. "I'll... I'll research more. I'll... I'll contact the Spires. I'll..." She stops. She... she forces herself to breathe. "Tactically... this is... an unacceptable variable."
"Lysara..."
"Don't," she snaps. Her voice is... brittle. "I... I won't accept any other outcome. You... you won't... fail."
After that... something... shifts. They... know. They both know. And... they just... show up. On the roof. Together. It's... it's not an accident. It's... a meeting.
"So," Kaela says, sitting... way too close. "We're in this. Together. Your... problem... my sword... her... books."
"It's not your job," I whisper.
"We choose it to be," Lysara says. Her voice is... quiet. But... she... she sits on my other side. Close. "That... that's what the warrior's oath means, Ren. Shared... survival."
Kaela's hand finds mine in the dark. Lysara... she doesn't pull away. We just... sit there. The three of us. And... we'll figure it out, Kaela says. We always do.
This... this is the new normal. It's not... it's not a sprint. It's a... a marathon. Dren starts talking about "years of training." Seraphine talks about "long-term stabilization." Miren has... charts. My life is a... a chart. The village... they're... they're used to me now. Mostly. I'm... I'm just Ren. The kid with the... thing. Elenara's visits are just... annoying now, not scary.
And... us. We... we train. Hard. Kaela... she's... she's fast now. So fast. Faster than me, sometimes. She... she wants to be. Lysara... she's not just studying magic. She's... she's inventing it. New... new ways to weave her light around my shadow.
Some days... I feel... fine. It's... it's just... me. The curse is quiet. Other days... I'm... terrified. It... it whispers. It... shows me things. What... what full consumption... looks like. But... Kaela's there. And Lysara's there.
I'm seven. A whole year. We're in the training yard. Just... breathing. And... I can... I can see it. The people we're... we're going to be. Kaela... she's... a warrior. Lysara... she's... brilliant. And... and me. I'm... I'm just... balanced.
"You're thinking again," Kaela says.
"Just... wondering. What... what we'll be like. In... like... five years."
"Stronger," she says. No doubt. "Better. More prepared."
"Statistically probable," Lysara adds. "Assuming... we maintain... current protocols."
"And... changed," I say. "All of us."
Lysara... she... she looks at me. Just... a second too long. Kaela's hand... squeezes mine.
"Yeah," she says, her voice soft. "Changed. But... together."
And... under all of it... the... the fragility... the... the... fear... I... I think we'll make it.
The real journey... it's just... starting.
Because above us, the ley lines pulse with patient power.
And in the years ahead, everything will change.