The gravity of their situation returned. The "promise" was a beautiful, powerful moment, but it
didn't change the facts. "They will come," Lin Yue said, her composure returning. "The Raging
Sky Sect will want blood for Yan Fei's humiliation. My sect... they will send an Elder to 'retrieve'
me. We are not safe. Not here. Not in any sect-controlled city."
Kael nodded. He understood. His presence in Lin-An was now a danger to the very people he'd
Vowed to protect. Yan Fei's family would not hesitate to burn the orphanage to the ground to
spite him.
"You're right," Kael said. He strapped his warped, but still functional, sword to his back. "We
protect them by leaving."
"Where do we go?" he asked.
Lin Yue, the prodigy and strategist, took over. "There is a place. A cancerous sore on the
continent that the 'righteous' sects cannot cleanse. The Blood-Wind Territories. It is a vast,
lawless expanse of ruined kingdoms and shattered mountains, populated by rogue cultivators,
demonic beasts, and the worst criminals in the world."
She looked at him, her expression grim. "It is a place where a sword is all that matters. Where
no sect dares to rule. It is the only place we will be truly, and completely, on our own. It is… a
terrible place."
"But we'll be together," Kael said. It wasn't a question.
A flicker of an emotion he couldn't name—surprise? Gratitude?—passed over her face. "Yes.
Together. It's a three-month journey on foot. We will be hunted every step of the way."
"Then we'd better start," Kael said.
He left a letter and the last of his silver for the matron, explaining that he had to leave, that a
"powerful woman" was teaching him, and that the money was for the children.
At dawn, two figures slipped out of the gates of Lin-An. Not a prodigy and her mortal subject.
Not a goddess and an ant.
They were Kael and Lin Yue. A shield and a sword. Two pariahs, on the run, against the entire
world.