The rain had passed, but the cold stayed behind. Morning crept into the ruined outpost slowly, dragging grey skies and a stubborn wind through the cracks in the stone. Kael was already awake, sitting by the smoldering fire, his hands wrapped around a chipped tin cup. There was barely anything warm left in it, but he held it like it anchored him to something real.
Liora stirred beside him, wrapped in her cloak, hair messy, face half-buried in her arm. She blinked once, then again, then sat up slowly. "You always get up before me," she muttered, her voice still half-asleep.
"I don't sleep much," Kael said without turning. "Too many dreams I'd rather not see again."
That made her quiet. Not the heavy, awkward silence of strangers, but the kind that happens when you know someone too well to pretend. She shifted closer to the fire and held her hands out, warming her fingers.
"What did you see?" she asked gently.
Kael didn't answer right away. He stared into the ashes like they had answers he couldn't say out loud. "The battle at Fenridge," he said finally. "I keep hearing the screaming. Not from the enemy. From our own. From the ones we didn't save."
Liora was quiet for a long moment. Then she said, "You were seventeen when that happened. You weren't supposed to save everyone."
"I tried," he whispered. "And I failed."
She looked at him, eyes soft but steady. "We all did. We all have moments we wish we could undo. But those moments they're not the whole of us."
He laughed dryly, bitter and self-aware. "Feels like it, though. Sometimes I don't even recognize the man in the mirror. Just a sword with legs and too many ghosts."
Liora reached over and touched his shoulder, grounding him. "You're more than your regrets, Kael. You're more than the blood and the fire. I've seen the way you look at the kids in the villages. The way you help rebuild walls no one asks you to. The way you still say people's names after they're gone. That's not just a weapon. That's someone who still cares."
He looked at her then, and for once, he didn't look away. "You see me like I'm still worth saving."
"That's because you are," she said without hesitation. "Even if you don't believe it yet."
The fire crackled softly between them. Outside, the wind moved through the trees like a sigh. There was still a long way to go. More battles. More loss. More weight. But in that quiet morning, Kael let her words settle in his chest like warmth.
They would leave soon. The road would be waiting. But for now, in the soft hush of a day not yet begun, two warriors shared a moment not of war, but of understanding.
And in that, there was something like peace.