They camped in a small hollow under a bent pine. The dragon's broken collar lay between them on a flat stone, wrapped in Mira's ice shell so it would not hum against their hands. The night was thin and cold. Far behind them, the ruined camp crackled and hissed like a bad dream sinking into the dark.
Mira touched the ice with a knuckle. "The lines are clear now. See the curl on the edge? And the small letter under it?"
Kael leaned in. "E."
Elira kept her arms around her knees. The pendant at her throat felt heavy, then light, then heavy again, as if it could not decide which it wanted to be. "Element," she said.
"Your guild," Kael added, careful.
"My father's guild," Elira corrected, softer. She watched the frozen shard like it might speak. "We do not know if the mark is real, or if someone copied it to lead us."
Mira shook her head. "Copy work smells wrong up close. This one feels true. The lines are exact. The way the runes turn at the corners? That's craft, not a fake."
Kael sat back. "So someone from Element forged a leash for a dragon. Or took an old Element piece and twisted it."
Elira's jaw tightened. "Or Vaelis took it and used it."
They were all quiet for a time. The wind moved a little in the pine. Draga hummed low around Kael, then settled. Aure's rings rested like bracelets, glow dim. Lumeveil was a line of cool along Elira's spine.
"He said a lot," Kael said at last, eyes on the shard. "About our parents. About the past."
Mira's mouth thinned. "He spoke like a man who enjoys cutting truth into shapes that hurt."
Elira looked at the ice again. The "E" sat there, clean and simple, and made her feel both close to something and far from it. "I do not believe him," she said. Then, after a breath, "Not all of him."
Mira nodded. "Same. Some things he said ring hollow. Too smooth. Too easy. 'I arranged outcomes'—as if he were the only mind in the room."
"But part of it…" Kael's hands closed and opened. "Part of it fits. My father's armor went missing into a story, then I had to bleed to find it. Your fusion work, Mira, was erased with 'holy seals' and 'fires.' That feels like the way he plays. He smiled when he said it."
Mira stared at the ice shell. "Yes. That smile was real."
Elira touched her pendant, then pulled her hand away. "He also said he guided my father to kill my mother. Not with orders. With pressure. With thoughts pushed into the mind." She swallowed. "I hate that sentence. I hate that I can picture it."
Lumeveil stirred like a soft light in her chest. He wants your courage thin, the spirit whispered. Keep it thick.
Elira breathed out. "I want to call him a liar. I also… cannot say it is all false."
Mira looked up. "Then we treat his words like a map with traps. Some paths are true, but the lengths are wrong, and the bridges are cut."
Kael nodded. "We test what we can. We mark what we cannot." He tapped the shard. "First test: this. We find who made it. If Element did, we ask why. If someone used Element work, we ask how they got it."
Mira rubbed her thumb along the edge of a ring. "Selene may know. Her notes led us to the castle line. If she is alive, she will have threads we don't."
Elira held Mira's gaze. "And if she is not?"
"Then we take her notes and keep walking," Mira said. Her voice was steady, but her eyes were not.
Kael looked toward the dark hills. "Vaelis knew we went to the Forest of Dawn. He knew about the black wells. He has eyes everywhere. If Element is tied to this, he'll try to bury it deeper."
"Good," Mira said, a hard light in her face. "Let him try."
Elira gave a small, tired smile. "We make a list. What we doubt. What we think is true. And what we refuse to let him decide."
Kael pulled a scrap of bark and his short charcoal. "Doubt," he said, writing slowly. "That our parents were only puppets. That Element chose the dragon leash for evil."
Mira added with a nail tip, "True or close to it: records were burned or cut. Names were moved. Lines were hidden. He enjoys the knife work."
Elira stared at the "E" behind ice. "Refuse," she said. "We will not let him name us. Not hero. Not traitor. We choose."
They sat with the list between them, small and rough, but theirs.
"Next," Kael said, "we take the shard to a place where we can test it. Not the Sanctum. Not his reach. Some old craft hall, a hidden one. The Locator can help."
Mira nodded. "And we reach the castle. Selene first. Then the chain that links this shard to whoever ordered it."
Elira touched Lumeveil's hilt. "I will not use the dark," she said, more to herself than to them. "Not yet. Not for him."
Mira's voice softened. "Not for him," she agreed.
Kael fed a twig to the small, smokeless fire and watched it catch. "He said truth can kill those without courage."
Elira looked at him. "Then we carry each other's courage when we have to."
For a while, no one spoke. The ice shell hummed, faint as a trapped bee. The letter "E" shone under it like a star fallen into a cup.
At last, Elira set the pendant on the flat stone beside the shard. The two pieces did not touch, but the air between them felt full, as if a string ran there, silent and tight.
"Element," she whispered. "If there is a path through this, show it."
No light rose. No voice answered. Only the steady breath of the night and the small heat of the ember.
It was enough to stand up on. It would have to be.