The campfire burned low.
No one had spoken in hours.
Not since Emberfall.
Kaelith sat across from Kazuki, sharpening her dagger like she was imagining it going somewhere between his ribs.
Mistral paced the shadows.Vera didn't even look at him.Darin kept pretending to polish his sword, even though he'd already removed the blade three times.
Finally, Kaelith spoke.
"Explain it."
Kazuki met her eyes. "You already know what I did."
"I said explain it," she growled, "not justify it."
Kazuki stood.
No drama.
Just exhaustion wrapped in cold steel.
"I saw it three days ago," he said. "Emberfall burning. Not from bandits. From reality unraveling. System integrity breach. Just like the one we saw outside Blackstone."
Kaelith stood too. "And you didn't warn us?"
"I warned you we were running out of time. I just didn't tell you how little was left."
He turned, lifted a hand.
Projected an echo.
A flickering sphere of memory:Hundreds of timelines layered over each other.Hundreds of deaths.Hundreds of them.
Vera.Skewered by a system spike.
Darin.Swallowed by a recursive paradox loop.
Kaelith.Fighting alone. Screaming his name. Dying surrounded by echoes.
Kazuki.
In every one.
Alive.
"I saw what happens," he whispered. "Every time we try to save everything, we break more."
Kaelith took a step back. "So your solution is to let towns burn?!"
"My solution is to stop playing the same game."
The system pinged. Publicly.
[Kazuki – Alignment Drift: +12%][Team Catastrophe Morale: Danger Zone]
Darin muttered, "You're not even trying to pretend anymore."
Kazuki looked at him.
"Pretending is how heroes lose. I don't get to be the good guy. I get to be the last one standing."
Mistral finally spoke, voice low:
"You think you're saving them. But you're not saving them. You're saving your idea of them."
Kazuki's hands clenched.
"That's better than letting them die the same way. Over and over. On repeat. Like set pieces."
He turned to Kaelith.
"I won't apologize. Because I'm not sorry."
Kaelith stared at him.
Then shoved her dagger into the dirt between them.
"Then don't ask for forgiveness when you finally lose everything."
She walked away.
Vera followed.
Darin hesitated.
Kazuki didn't.
He just stood there, watching the flame burn lower.
And whispered, "That's the plan."