The forest swallowed the last remnants of the ruined city.
Towering pines stretched into the night sky, their crowns blotting out the stars. The rain had finally died, leaving the air heavy with the scent of damp earth and smoke.
Kael crouched by the small fire he'd managed to coax from half-rotten wood, feeding it carefully. Sparks leapt skyward before vanishing into the darkness. Across from him, the paladin sat, her blade laid across her knees, ever-watchful even in supposed safety.
For a while, neither spoke. The crackle of fire and the whisper of wind through the branches were enough. Kael appreciated the silence, rare, fragile.
Finally, she spoke.
"You've fought well for a man with a death sentence over his head."
Kael gave a short, tired laugh.
"You weren't holding back, either. If you had swung a little harder earlier, maybe I'd be the one in the ground."
A flicker of amusement touched her lips.
"Maybe. But you're not like the others. You held yourself back. That's... rare."
Kael studied her in the firelight, the way the flames caught in her hair, turning strands of gold into burnished copper. Her armor, though dented from their clash, seemed to belong to her like a second skin and her eyes, sharp, unwavering, reminded him of steel polished to a mirror's edge.
Beautiful, yes, but dangerous in the way a blade is beautiful.
He looked away before she caught him staring.
"You never told me your name." he said, poking the fire.
"Selene." she answered simply.
The word carried a weight, noble and sharp, as if born from vows rather than vanity.
"Selene Arclight. Knight of the Radiant Order."
Kael raised an eyebrow.
"The Radiant Order? Then I should probably be dead already. Aren't you sworn to put me down?"
Selene's expression softened, just slightly.
"Sworn to destroy the fragments, yes. But I saw the way you resisted. You're not like the others who fell. If I had killed you..."
She shook her head, gaze fixed on the flames.
"It would have been wrong."
"Practical." Kael muttered. "But wrong. That's a first."
Her lips curved into something almost like a smile.
"You don't strike me as the type who believes in right and wrong."
Kael leaned back against a tree, folding his arms behind his head.
"I believe in surviving. Sometimes, that's the same thing."
For the first time, Selene laughed, quiet, restrained, but real. "
You're an odd one."
"Mercenary habit." Kael whispered quietly.
The fire popped, sending sparks dancing into the night. For a few heartbeats, there was only calm. The kind Kael rarely knew. He found himself relaxing, if only slightly, in her presence. She was sharp-edged, uncompromising, but there was something steady about her, a flame that didn't flicker, even in the storm.
Maybe, he thought, that's why he hadn't pushed her away.
Kael's eyes drifted half-closed, the warmth of the fire pulling him toward rest. But then, something pricked at the edge of his senses. A pressure in the air, subtle but unmistakable. Heavy, suffocating, like the first breath before a battlefield clash.
His hand closed on his sword.
Selene noticed immediately.
"What is it?"
Kael didn't answer right away. He stared into the trees, into the dark beyond the fire's reach. The presence was distant, but moving closer, slow, deliberate, predatory.
Finally, he spoke, his voice low.
"Another one. I sense another God-Eater."
The forest, once calm, suddenly felt like the jaws of a beast closing in.