The tension from the Blightlands and Jin Loeui's cryptic encounter still clung to the air like fog. The Solstice Guild was rebuilding, regrouping, and more than anything—resting. For once, there were no battles, no infiltration missions, no surprise appearances by World 5 members. Just a rare, quiet morning.
Rhea had declared it herself: "Today, no training. You're all going to act like normal people or I'll throw you off the Citadel wall myself."
Kai wasn't sure if that was a threat or a blessing.
---
He sat at the edge of the citadel's cliffside garden, staring over the misty valleys below, his sword resting beside him. Birds with faint Aether trails flew in the skies. The sunrise washed the world in red and gold.
Lysander plopped down next to him, holding two cups of steaming tea. "You know, we never actually relax. Like… ever."
Kai gave a small chuckle. "You say that like it's a bad thing."
"It is a bad thing," Lysander muttered. "I didn't survive the Twilight Order to go straight into another military-grade nightmare."
Kai took a sip. "But you wouldn't leave."
Lysander didn't answer at first. Then: "No. I wouldn't."
---
Elsewhere in the Citadel courtyard, Rhea sat with Master Veylan and a few senior Eclipsers, playing a tactical board game called Eclipsion. Her eyes darted across the board, calculating moves as if plotting a real war.
"You let them rest," Veylan mused. "But you won't take your own advice."
Rhea didn't look up. "They're still kids. I'm not."
"You were once," he replied. "Before the Fracture War."
She paused. A flicker of pain touched her expression. Then she moved her piece—The Phoenix Warden—across the board, checkmating Veylan's entire center line.
"I'll rest when Zerath is ash," she said.
---
Later that afternoon, the Solstice Guild held a small celebration to honor the Eclipsers who had fallen in the Blightlands. Candles floated on pools of silver water. Names were spoken. Silence was held.
Kai placed a candle in the water for someone he never met: his father, Kaien Sol.
"Hope you're watching," he whispered. "I'll finish what you started. But my way."
---
As evening fell, the younger Eclipsers gathered in the Citadel's mess hall for food and stories. Lysander had taken over the center of the room, dramatically recounting their forest battle with the Twilight Agent.
"And then I was like BAM, Aether-katana slash right through his Hollow arm! He screamed like a dying goat!"
Kai rolled his eyes while laughing. "That's not even how it happened!"
"Artistic license," Lysander said, grinning.
Rhea, standing in the doorway, allowed herself a soft smile. For the first time in weeks, things felt… normal.
---
Up in the spire of the Citadel, a hidden room lay locked behind layers of Aether seals. Inside, a small shard of the Sacred Eclipse pulsed with radiant energy.
Unseen.
Unnoticed.
But waiting.