The hills turned cruel as night fell, their slopes dusted with frost that clung to boot and blade alike. The wind howled through the narrow pass as the cursed hills gave way to jagged stone ridges. The scent of metal and moonlight hung in the air.
No fire could be lit without risking detection, and the only warmth came from magic or memory. The group pressed forward, cloaked in moonlight and illusion, Tessara's magic warping light and shadow as they neared the cult's next hidden outpost.
Above, the stars flickered, watching the party's approach like distant, judging eyes. Kharzad loomed ahead—a shadowed cathedral of malice carved into the mountain.
They didn't speak much as they walked. The weight of the battle behind them and the fortress ahead left little room for words. But the silence was not empty. It pulsed with awareness.
Tessara faltered.
A sudden shiver coursed through Tessara. Her hand reached instinctively for Shin's arm. "Wait... something's wrong."
Her breath clouded the air. The light around them dimmed, not by natural means, but as if something—some presence—drew the very radiance from the world. Her lunar aura stuttered.
She steadied herself before Shin could reach out, but the gesture didn't go unnoticed.
Zera narrowed her eyes. "You're hiding something."
Tessara gave a soft, guilty smile. "I'm always hiding something. It's part of who I am."
Shin turned to her. "What do you mean?"
Tessara hesitated, then sighed. The illusion around her mask shimmered and parted just enough to reveal silver threads of magic trailing from her eyes.
"The curse left me blind," she said. "My magic lets me see through illusions and light, but it's fragile. When I fight too hard, it begins to unravel."
A chill silence followed.
Laverna didn't wait. Her jamadhars flared with blue fire and frost as she stepped between Tessara and the darkness beyond. Wind and snow burst from her crest, carving a shield between them and whatever approached.
"Then stay behind me. No arguments."
Zera took up position on the other side, blade flashing with light. Her stance was tense, eyes scanning the shadows. "Illusions are down. They'll know we're here."
The first cry came from above, a screech of warning, followed by the pounding of feet. Cultists poured over the hilltop, wearing bone masks and inked robes, their eyes glassy with zeal.
Masked cultists poured from the rocks, screeching praises to the false moon god. Their daggers gleamed with ritual poison, and their bodies were marked with sigils that burned red in the gloom.
"They were waiting for us," Zera said, her voice grim.
Shin summoned his orb. Yoshimatsu tore into existence in a blaze of crimson lightning. "Then we make them regret it."
The cultists struck fast.
One lunged at Tessara. Her magic flickered—barely a puff of silver mist. But before the blade reached her, Laverna's ice erupted in a crystalline wall, deflecting the blow. Her jamadhars lashed out, slashing the cultist's wrist before her fire surged and sent him flying.
"I said stay behind me," she growled, more fiercely this time.
Zera spun through two others, her blade catching moonlight as it pierced through cloth and bone alike. Her crest pulsed at her heart, strengthening her movements with each heartbeat. She fought like a living myth—measured, graceful, deadly.
Tessara crouched behind Laverna, her voice low. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to... I didn't think it would fail so suddenly."
Laverna didn't look back. But her tone softened, just enough. "Then stop apologizing and start aiming. Use what you can."
Tessara blinked, then raised her hand.
Even blind, her instincts took over. A silver foxfire burst from her palm, veering wildly but hitting a cultist's leg. The flame exploded, sending him tumbling into the snow.
Zera raised a brow as she fought. "Nice shot for someone flying blind."
"Told you she was useful," Shin added with a smirk.
"She's still a stray," Laverna muttered.
"Then maybe I'm collecting them," Shin shot back, slicing down a masked figure lunging for Tessara.
"We should start charging adoption fees," Zera said dryly, hurling a throwing knife between a cultist's eyes.
The banter carried them through the chaos. Each line lightened the tension, gave rhythm to their steps. Their crests began to glow—flame, silver, steel—pulsing in sync as they moved like a single entity.
Tessara summoned shadows to obscure their position, her illusions bending the landscape, but her strength faltered. Her hands shook. The silver thread in her eyes flickered.
A cultist broke through.
But before his blade could fall, it met something else.
Yoshimatsu.
The katana erupted in crimson lightning as it cleaved through the attacker in a single, explosive stroke. Blood sprayed the rocks—and then, silence.
Shin was already moving.
He said nothing.
Like a shadow, he passed behind the chaos. His presence was barely seen, but the effect of his actions rippled through the battlefield.
One cultist raised his blade toward Zera's unguarded back—only for the man to crumple, his spine severed. Another stalked Tessara through her illusions, but a flicker of crimson light ended him before he struck.
Wherever the girls were exposed, Shin was already there.
Laverna caught the flicker of red lightning in her peripheral vision, felt the sudden warmth at her back when she had overextended. Her crest pulsed with flame and wind—a signal, a whisper.
He was watching. Protecting.
Zera didn't see him either, not clearly. But her blade never missed a beat because the spaces she didn't guard were always cleared. Her heart quickened. Her crest—the symbol of defiance—burned brighter.
Tessara could feel his presence more intimately. Through her mask, her awareness of crests became sharper. Each time her magic waned, she felt a tether tighten. A hand unseen, holding her up. Her own crest shimmered like moonlight.
And something inside her stirred.
When the final cultist fell, the battlefield was littered with scorched ground, frozen corpses, and severed limbs. None of them were injured.
Zera wiped her blade and scanned the area. Laverna exhaled slowly, the frost on her hands dissipating. Tessara lowered her hands, breathless but smiling faintly.
Shin sheathed Yoshimatsu and said nothing. He merely looked at them, making sure each of them stood tall.
That look said everything.
Breathless, Tessara slumped. Her knees gave out, but Shin caught her before she hit the ground.
"Easy," he said, kneeling. "You're pushing too far."
She looked up at him, her mask translucent, her eyes pale and misted. "I had to help. I didn't want to be a burden."
"You're not," Shin said. "Not to me. Not to any of us."
Laverna stood above them, her ice swirling around her feet. She hesitated.
Then she sighed and knelt beside Tessara. "You're reckless. And your illusions are unstable. But..."
She brushed snow from Tessara's shoulder, her voice gentler now. "You stood your ground. That counts."
Zera approached, wiping her blade with calm precision. "It wasn't perfect, but we lived. That's what matters."
Their crests pulsed gently, synchronized like a shared heartbeat. The light they emitted wasn't harsh or proud—it was warm, an echo of the connection forged through peril.
The cultists lay broken behind them. The battle had passed, but its echoes bound them tighter.
"We need shelter," Shin said. "She can't go far like this."
Zera nodded. "There's a cave ahead. Hidden. I saw it on the way. Let's move."
They moved together—Laverna steadying Tessara, Zera leading point, Shin ever the silent guardian in their midst.
The cave wasn't deep, but it was enough. Enough to shield them from wind and sight.
Tessara slid down the wall, her breaths shallow but steady.
"The mask... it drains me," she admitted. "The more I use its magic, the harder it is to stay conscious."
Zera crossed her arms, gaze unflinching. "And yet you earned a crest."
Tessara turned to Shin, her expression softened by weariness and something else. "It wasn't the mask that gave me the bond. It was him."
She reached toward Shin, her fingers brushing his arm. "You always know where we are."
"I don't need to see you," Shin said quietly. "I feel you."
Laverna looked over, eyes fierce yet open. Her hand found Shin's almost on instinct. Zera lingered in the back but finally stepped forward, brushing past him with a glance.
"So," she said dryly, "how many strays are you collecting now?"
Tessara laughed, light and airy. "He's got a whole menagerie."
"Watch it," Laverna said with a smirk. "I bite."
Zera arched a brow. "Only when you're losing."
Tessara gave a tired giggle. "He doesn't see us as strays. He sees us. All of us."
That stilled the banter. Just for a moment.
Their laughter returned, quieter, closer. The kind that came from surviving something terrifying. The kind that made the night feel just a little less cold.
The glow of their crests didn't fade. It remained steady, alive. Fire and wind. Silver and illusion. Light and steel.
No longer flickering signals of obedience. They were proof of something more. Proof of unity, of trust, of something deeper growing between them.
The road ahead was steep. The temple loomed in the distance, full of new dangers and darker truths.
But tonight, they rested.
Not as lone warriors.
But as one.
Kinship, sealed in silence, forged in battle, and lit by the unwavering glow of crests that now beat in unison.
They weren't walking behind one another anymore.
They stood side by side.
Together.