KAEL'S POV Three days on the road to the capital, should've been a grim journey, I expected more deaths. More suffering.It wasn't like that.The first village we passed through had fields. I remembered them from months ago. Barren then. Brown. Dead.Now green shoots pushed through the soil. Small. Fragile. But alive.Farmers worked the land. Smiling. Actually smiling while they planted."Look at that," Elara said. Wonder in her voice."The land's healing," Ronan observed. "Stage three is starting already."The second village was louder. Children playing in the streets. Running. Laughing. A sound I hadn't heard in too long.An older woman sat outside her house. Knitting. Humming."Excuse me," I called to her. "How long have the children been playing again?"She looked up. Face wrinkled but eyes bright. "Week maybe? Fever broke. They got strong enough to run around." Smiled. "Thank the gods. Thought we'd lost them all.""The gods," I repeated. "Right."Moved on. More villages. More si
ELARA'S POVThree days after leaving the resistant town, messengers found us. The first one rode up on a tired horse, a young man with g desperate eyes."Please. Our village. The healing stopped halfway. There's resistance. Shadow anchors we can't break."Before I could answer, another messenger arrived. Then another. Then two more.All the same story. Blocked healing. Shadow resistance. People dying while purification waves stopped at their borders.Looked at Kael. At Ronan. At baby guardian sleeping in my arms."We can't reach them all," I said. Voice flat. Defeated. "Not personally. Not in time."Ronan counted the messengers. "Five places. Maybe more we haven't heard from yet. Could take weeks to visit each one.""People don't have weeks."The moon guardian appeared. Translucent. Standing among the messengers though they couldn't see her."There is another way," she said."What way?""Teach others to do what you did." Simple. Obvious. Why hadn't I thought of it?"Teach them? To bre
KAEL'S POVThe hymn shook the walls, there were old words, in a simple melody but powerful.Felt it in my chest, in my bones, it was like something ancient was waking up.The beast-child writhed, tendrils pulling back, light from the baby guardian cutting through its form.But it wasn't just her light doing this.It was them. The people. Their voices joined together. Their choice to hope instead of fear.Communal faith. Strong as any magic I'd seen.Looked at Elara. At Ronan. Our trinity bond hummed. Active. Alive.We joined the song. I didn't know the words but hummed the melody. Let the bond channel our power into it.Silver light from Elara. Shadow knowledge from Ronan. My own strength flowing through the connection.The baby guardian responded. Grew brighter. Fed by the voices. By unity. By the collective rejection of fear.Each person who sang made her stronger. Made all of us stronger.The beast-child shrieked. "Stop! You don't understand! I need—""We understand," I said. Keep
ELARA'S POV Morning came gray and cold, the town still shrouded in that unnatural darkness. I stood in the center of the square, it was empty, filled with silence, like the whole place was holding its breath.Baby guardian in my arms. She knew what was coming. Started glowing. Soft at first. Then brighter.Her light cut through the darkness. Created a circle of illumination around us.People noticed. Doors opened. Faces appeared in the windows. Curious. Fearful.More emerged. Slow. Cautious. Drawn to the light like moths.Within minutes, a crowd gathered. Keeping their distance. Watching.The town leaders came too. Same man from yesterday. Others with him. All looked angry."What is this?" he demanded. "What are you doing?""Telling the truth." Raised my voice. Made sure everyone heard. "Your town is dying. Not from disease. Not from bad water or contaminated air. From shadow corruption."Murmurs rippled through the crowd."There was a beast. On Death Peak. Ancient. Corrupted by shad
RONAN'S POVSaw the wall before the town. High, stone and it was built to keep things out Or maybe to keep things in.Darkness hung over it, not natural darkness, not night, it was something else, something thick and oppressive.Felt it in my chest, the shadow corruption, how heavy and concentrated it was, worse than anything we'd seen."That's not right," Kael said. Stopped walking. Hand on his sword."No. It's not." I could taste it. Like metal on my tongue. "There's something in there. Something big."Elara shifted the baby guardian in her arms. The little one wasn't glowing. Dimmed herself. Like she was afraid.We approached the gate. Two guards standing there. I looked sick. Pale. Hands shaking on their spears."State your business," one said. My voice is weak."We're here to help. We've been following the purification from Death Peak—""No outsiders." The guard cut Elara off. "Town's quarantined. No one in. No one out.""People are dying in there," I said. Felt the shadows writh
KAEL'S POVIt has been two days of walking through forests, over hills and following the eastern road. My feet hurt, my back ached, but I kept moving.Elara walked ahead, baby guardian in her arms, it was always in her arms now, the little thing barely left her side.Ronan beside me, quieter than usual. Still processing everything from the mountain."You think it'll be better?" he asked. "The next village?"I wanted to say yes. I wanted to be optimistic."Don't know."He nodded. I expected that answer.Crested a hill. The village came into view below.My stomach dropped.It was worse. So much worse than the last one.Bodies in the streets. No one had the strength to move them. Houses with doors wide open. Empty. Silent."Gods," Elara whispered.Started running. Down the hill. Into the village.The smell hit first. Death. Decay. Sickness so thick you could taste it.Found survivors in what looked like a communal hall. Maybe twenty people. Out of what? A hundred? Two hundred?They lay o