Blades clashed with the sound of breaking glass. Sparks lit the narrow corridor as Noelle lunged, ducked, and twisted under Talia's sweeping strikes.
"You were supposed to die!" Talia screamed, eyes wild and tear-bright. "You were supposed to stay with me!"
Noelle's arms trembled from the impact, breath ragged. "You think I wanted to leave you? You think I didn't look for you? I cried for days. I thought you were dead!"
"You didn't come back."
"I couldn't!" Noelle shouted. A swing narrowly missed her shoulder. "The cult dragged your body away! They told us no survivors! I wanted to die right there, but I lived! And I kept going—for you."
Talia's laughter was hollow, broken. "You don't understand, Noe. They gave me purpose. They gave me clarity. The world is wrong. Kael will fix it."
Noelle's daggers clashed against Talia's halberd. "You still believe in people being pawns?"
Talia grinned, eyes glossy. "Kael isn't just a person."
Talia swung again, and Noelle barely parried, sliding back across the cracked marble. Her knees buckled. Blood slicked her side. Every breath burned. But still, she held firm. The sharp sting of a gash across her shoulder reminded her she was still alive.
As she staggered to the side, memories hit her harder than Talia's blade. Running through fields as kids. Whispering secrets under blankets. Late-night plans about saving the world together.
Now that world was tearing itself apart—and Talia was helping.
"I loved you," Noelle whispered, almost too soft to hear. "I still do."
Talia paused, blade midair. Her face twisted, like something cracked inside her.
"You don't get to say that." Her voice wavered. "Not when you chose to live without me."
"I didn't choose anything," Noelle gasped. "I survived. It's what you do when everything else is taken."
Talia screamed and charged again, fury blazing in her eyes. Their weapons collided in a furious burst, echoing through the hall.
Noelle's muscles screamed with exhaustion. She was bruised, battered, but not broken.
Kael. She had to protect him.
He doesn't even know what he is, she thought, parrying a vicious strike. And yet he's still trying. Still willing to fight.
Noelle ducked under a swing and caught Talia's wrist, flipping her hard onto the floor. She activated a sigil in her boot, pinning her friend with an immobilization glyph.
Talia thrashed. "Let me go!"
Noelle dropped to her knees, shaking. Her face was streaked with blood and tears. "I can't kill you. Even if I should. I won't."
Talia's voice cracked, soft and broken. "Why?"
"Because someone has to remember who you were."
***
Her earpiece crackled.
"Noelle. Status?" Echo's voice. Calm, precise.
Noelle swallowed back her tears. "Subdued. I'm... still standing."
A beat of silence.
"Good. Kael, Phase Three. Arlen's waiting."
---
Kael dashed through the compound's inner maze, breath steady, steps light. He'd abandoned the usual banter. There was too much at stake.
A flicker of memory passed—Arlen laughing during class, throwing popcorn at Kael's head. That same kid, now possibly bleeding in a cold dungeon.
"I'm coming," Kael muttered under his breath.
Behind him, the illusion of his decoy shattered into shards of light, dissolving like dust.
He turned a corner and melted into the shadows, powered by instinct and urgency.
---
Deep inside the cult's fortress, the sanctum's gates opened with a hiss. Magic and madness thickened the air.
Lazeril stood near a high stone altar, cloaked in black robes etched with mirror-script runes. His eyes flicked toward the movement.
Echo stepped forward, light refracting off the gleam of the twin mirrorsteel blades floating behind him like wings.
Lazeril grinned, calm and amused. "I always knew you'd come, Echo."
Echo's expression barely shifted. "And I always knew you'd fall this far."
"So dramatic," Lazeril said, voice velvety. "We were supposed to be on the same side once. Remember? Back before you picked the boy over the truth."
Echo's hands twitched subtly. "I didn't pick anyone. I protected what mattered."
Lazeril took a step forward. "Still so noble. But nobility doesn't stop the gate from opening. And it won't stop us from taking what we need."
"Kael's blood isn't yours to claim."
A low chuckle. "The world will kneel when he remembers who he was."
Echo's eyes narrowed, his posture shifting into a stance honed by years of combat. "He already remembers. And he's choosing something new."
Lazeril's smirk faltered for just a moment.
Echo stepped forward, blades circling him in a slow, ominous rhythm.
"This time, you don't get to rewrite the story."
---
Back in the corridor, Noelle leaned heavily against the wall, clutching her wounded side.
Her gaze drifted to the unconscious Talia, chest rising and falling steadily.
She closed her eyes for a moment.
"I hope... someday you come back to yourself."
Because losing you twice might break me.