Kaelen woke to the smell of coffee and the sound of arguing.
For a moment, he was disoriented, his body protesting every movement as he tried to sit up. Then memory returned: the three-site raid, the ambush, Marcus's appearance, the exhausting display of Soulrender's precision control. He'd collapsed into bed the moment they'd returned to the warehouse, too tired to even remove his boots.
Now, judging by the afternoon light slanting through the windows, he'd slept for nearly twelve hours.
The arguing was coming from downstairs. Lia's voice, sharp with frustration, and Selene's, calm but unyielding. Kaelen forced himself out of bed, grabbed his coat, and descended the stairs to find the entire main floor converted into a war room.
Maps covered every surface. Reports and documents were pinned to boards. And in the center of it all stood Selene, Lia, Ronan, and three other Shadow Hunters Kaelen didn't recognize, all clustered around a table bearing a detailed map of Aethor's coastal region.
"—can't just dismiss the possibility," Lia was saying. "If Marcus really has located Hearteater, we need to—"
"We need to focus on our mission," Selene interrupted. "Disrupting Cult operations, cleansing corruption sites, preventing node destabilization. Not chasing after a Forbidden Blade that's been lost for three centuries based on Marcus's word alone."
"But if he finds it—"
"Then we deal with that when it happens." Selene's tone was final. "We can't afford to scatter our resources chasing maybes. The work here in Eredor is too important."
"The work here doesn't matter if Marcus collects all three blades," Lia shot back. "You're being short-sighted."
The tension in the room was thick enough to cut. The other Shadow Hunters looked uncomfortable, caught between respecting both women's positions.
"Am I interrupting?" Kaelen asked, making his presence known.
Everyone turned. Selene's expression softened slightly—as much as her silver-eyed intensity ever softened. "Kaelen. Good, you're awake. How do you feel?"
"Like I got trampled by a horse, but I'll live." Kaelen moved to the table, studying the map. "What's the argument?"
"Strategy," Ronan said diplomatically. "Lia wants to investigate Marcus's claim about Hearteater. Selene wants to continue focusing on Eredor operations. Both valid positions."
"They're mutually exclusive positions," Selene corrected. "We don't have the resources to pursue both. I need Kaelen here, cleansing sites, not sailing across the ocean on a fool's errand."
"It's not a fool's errand if it prevents Marcus from getting a second Forbidden Blade," Lia insisted. She looked at Kaelen. "You fought him last night. You saw how powerful he is with just shadow magic. Imagine that power amplified by Hearteater."
Kaelen studied the coastal map. The Deep Ocean was vast, with hundreds of islands and thousands of miles of unexplored water. Finding a single artifact there would be like finding a specific grain of sand on a beach.
Unless Marcus really did know where to look.
"What do we actually know about Hearteater's location?" he asked. "Besides legends about the Deep Ocean?"
One of the unknown Shadow Hunters—a weathered man with a captain's bearing—stepped forward. "Tomas Wavecrest. I've sailed those waters for twenty years, including five years hunting maritime corruption for the network. The legends say Hearteater was thrown into the Leviathan's Trench, the deepest part of the ocean, where even magic struggles to function."
"So it should be impossible to retrieve," Kaelen said.
"Should be," Tomas agreed. "But Marcus isn't stupid. If he's claiming he can find it, he either has new information we don't, or he's developed some method to search at those depths. Either way, it's worth investigating."
"With what resources?" Selene demanded. "Tomas, your ship is in dry dock for repairs. Even if it were seaworthy, we'd need at least a month to mount a proper expedition. A month during which Marcus is already ahead of us, and Eredor's corruption sites go uncleansed."
"So we let him win?" Lia's voice cracked slightly with frustration. "Just... accept that he'll get Hearteater because we're too busy with small operations to stop the big threat?"
"The 'small operations' are keeping thousands of people alive," Selene replied, her patience clearly wearing thin. "Every site we cleanse is lives saved, corruption prevented, Cult resources denied. That matters, Lia. It all matters."
"But it's not enough!" Lia's hands clenched into fists. "We're playing defense, and Marcus is playing offense. We're reacting to his moves instead of making our own. That's a losing strategy, and you know it."
Selene's jaw tightened. "Then what do you suggest? That we abandon everything here to chase a maybe?"
"I suggest we split our focus. Send a small team to investigate the coastal regions while the rest continue operations here. Kaelen could—"
"Kaelen stays in Eredor," Selene said flatly. "He's the only one who can safely absorb shadow corruption without becoming tainted. He's irreplaceable for the cleansing operations. I won't risk him on an ocean expedition when we need him here."
"You mean you won't risk your asset," Lia accused. "That's what this is about, isn't it? Kaelen's useful to the network, so you're keeping him on a short leash."
"Lia," Ronan said warningly.
But Lia ignored him, her frustration boiling over. "My master died trying to redeem a Forbidden Blade wielder because no one would help her, because everyone was too focused on their immediate problems to see the bigger picture. I won't watch that happen again. I won't let Marcus win because we were too cautious to take risks."
Silence fell. Lia was breathing hard, her eyes bright with unshed tears. Selene's expression had gone carefully neutral.
"I understand your feelings," Selene said after a moment, her voice gentler. "But feelings don't win wars. Strategy does. Resources do. And right now, our resources are best spent here."
"Then I'll go alone," Lia said. "Give me what intelligence you have on Hearteater, and I'll investigate the coastal region myself. Kaelen can stay here and do your cleansing operations."
"Lia—" Kaelen started.
"No," she interrupted, looking at him. "You have your mission. I have mine. Master Elena taught me to see the bigger picture, to think ten steps ahead. Marcus is ten steps ahead of us, and if we don't start catching up..." She shook her head. "I can't just sit here and wait for disaster."
She turned and headed for the stairs, clearly intending to pack.
Kaelen looked at Selene. "Give us a minute?"
Selene studied him, then nodded slowly. "Five minutes. Then we need to discuss the next round of site targets."
Kaelen took the stairs two at a time, catching Lia in the upper floor living area. She was pulling out her travel pack, moving with jerky, angry efficiency.
"Lia, stop."
"I need to go, Kaelen. I need to do something that actually matters."
"Stopping corruption sites matters."
"It's not enough!" She spun to face him, and now the tears were falling. "Don't you see? We're losing. Slowly, incrementally, but we're losing. Marcus has more resources, more knowledge, more time. He's been planning this for thirty years. We've been fighting for three weeks. The math doesn't work in our favor."
Kaelen moved closer, carefully. "So what's your real plan? Sail to the Deep Ocean and... what? Beat Marcus to Hearteater? You don't know where it is either."
"I'll figure it out. I always figure it out." But her voice lacked conviction.
"Lia." Kaelen gently took her hands, stopping her frantic packing. "This isn't about Hearteater. This is about your master. About feeling like you're failing her memory."
Lia's composure cracked. "She died because I wasn't strong enough. Wasn't smart enough. Wasn't there when she needed me. And now I'm watching the same pattern repeat—someone wielding a Forbidden Blade, someone I..." She stopped, swallowing hard. "Someone I care about, being put in impossible situations while forces beyond our control move pieces on a board we can barely see."
"I'm not your master's failed project," Kaelen said quietly. "I'm not going to lose control and kill everyone. We've been managing the corruption successfully. I'm stable."
"For now. But what happens when Marcus gets Hearteater? What happens when he starts using it to amplify his shadow magic, to corrupt more sites faster than we can cleanse them? What happens when you have to face him in a real fight, not just a brief encounter?" Lia met his eyes. "I can't lose you too, Kaelen. I can't."
The admission hung between them, heavy with unspoken feelings. Kaelen could see the fear in Lia's eyes, the bone-deep terror of watching history repeat itself.
"You won't," he said. "Because we're not doing this alone. We have Ronan, Selene, the Shadow Hunter network. We have each other. And we have time to get stronger, to prepare, to—"
"Do we?" Lia pulled back slightly. "Do we really have time? Or are we lying to ourselves, pretending we're more ready than we are?"
Kaelen didn't have a good answer for that. The truth was, he didn't know. Marcus had decades of experience and resources they couldn't match. The only advantages they had were determination and the fact that Kaelen could absorb corruption without immediately turning into a monster.
"I don't know," he admitted. "But I know running off alone isn't the answer. If you go, you'll be vulnerable. Marcus will catch you, kill you or convert you, and we'll lose both a brilliant rune mage and any chance of stopping his search for Hearteater."
"So I do nothing? Just... accept that we're always going to be reacting instead of acting?"
"No. We do what we can with what we have, and we get creative." Kaelen pulled her into a hug, feeling her resistance slowly melt. "Selene's right that we can't abandon Eredor. But you're right that we can't ignore Hearteater either. So we find a middle ground. A way to pursue both objectives without splitting our forces."
"How?" Lia's voice was muffled against his shoulder.
"I don't know yet. But we'll figure it out. Together." He pulled back enough to meet her eyes. "That's what we do, right? Figure impossible things out?"
Lia managed a weak smile. "Usually while nearly dying in the process."
"That does seem to be our pattern."
She laughed, a choked sound that was half-sob. "I'm sorry. For losing it. For..." She gestured vaguely. "All of this."
"Don't apologize for caring," Kaelen said. "That's not a weakness. It's what makes you different from Marcus—you care about the cost, not just the outcome."
They stayed like that for a long moment, drawing strength from each other. Finally, Lia stepped back, wiping her eyes.
"We should go back down. Selene's going to have opinions about the extended absence."
"Probably several opinions," Kaelen agreed. "But first—are you okay? Really?"
Lia took a deep breath, centering herself. "I will be. Thank you for not letting me make a stupid, impulsive decision."
"You would have done the same for me."
"True." She managed a real smile this time. "Come on. Let's go figure out how to save the world with inadequate resources and impossible odds."
"Just another day in the Shadow Hunter network."
They descended together to find the war room emptied except for Selene, Ronan, and Tomas. The other Hunters had been dismissed, leaving only the core group.
"Better?" Selene asked, her tone carefully neutral.
"Better," Lia confirmed. "And I apologize for losing my temper. You're right that we can't abandon operations here. But I still think we need to address the Hearteater situation."
"Agreed," Selene said, surprising them both. "Which is why I'm sending Tomas and a small reconnaissance team to the coastal regions. Not to retrieve Hearteater—that would take resources we don't have—but to monitor Marcus's activities, gather intelligence, and delay him if possible."
"You were already planning this," Kaelen realized.
"I was. But I needed to know that you two wouldn't do anything rash first." Selene's lips quirked slightly. "Consider it a test of judgment. You both passed—eventually."
"You're manipulative," Lia said, but there was no heat in it.
"I'm strategic. There's a difference." Selene turned to the map. "Here's the actual plan..."
They spent the next three hours mapping out a coordinated strategy: Kaelen and Lia would continue cleansing Eredor sites, Tomas would lead the coastal reconnaissance, and the rest of the network would maintain surveillance on known Cult operations across Aethor.
It wasn't perfect. It wasn't enough. But it was something.
And sometimes, Kaelen was learning, something was all you could ask for.
As the meeting broke up and people dispersed to their various tasks, Ronan caught Kaelen's arm.
"That was well-handled," the former Shadow Hunter said quietly. "The thing with Lia. Most people would have either enabled her recklessness or dismissed her concerns entirely. You did neither."
"I just told her the truth," Kaelen said.
"The truth with compassion. That's rare." Ronan clapped his shoulder. "You're becoming more than just a blade wielder, boy. You're becoming a leader. That's going to matter, when everything comes to a head."
"I don't feel like a leader."
"Nobody ever does." Ronan smiled. "That's how you know you might actually be one. It's the people who *want* to lead you need to worry about."
He left, leaving Kaelen to ponder that uncomfortable thought.
*You are changing,* Soulrender observed. *Growing. Not just in power, but in... something else. Understanding, perhaps. We find it intriguing.*
"You find it intriguing that I'm not turning into a mindless killer?" Kaelen asked silently.
*We find it intriguing that you are becoming what we once served,* the sword replied. *A leader of people. A shaper of fate. The Shadow Lord, before his fall, was such a one. It is... nostalgic.*
That was a disturbing comparison that Kaelen didn't want to examine too closely.
But later, as night fell and Lia joined him on the warehouse roof to watch Eredor's lights flicker to life, Kaelen allowed himself a moment of peace. Tomorrow would bring more fights, more corruption, more impossible choices.
But tonight, sitting beside someone who understood him, he could simply exist.
"Thank you," Lia said quietly. "For earlier."
"Always," Kaelen replied.
And meant it.
The fight wasn't over. It had barely begun. But for now, in this moment, they had each other.
It would have to be enough.