Kaine emerged from the ashes as if the world had been waiting for him. His eyes glowed with a steady gold that pulsed like a heartbeat, and the chains draped along his arms shone with a warmth that didn't belong to death. Mae couldn't breathe. Her body froze, caught between terror and relief.
Sethis instinctively stepped in front of her, shadows rising in a defensive wall that flickered with uncertainty. The air around them shifted, heavy and electric, as if reality itself strained to comprehend how Kaine remained alive before them.
Mae took one step forward. Her pulse echoed loudly against her ribs, her chains vibrating with frantic energy. She searched his face for something familiar, anything that proved he was the man she knew and not a shadow from the fracture.
Kaine only smiled, slow and steady, as if he were greeting her in the quiet morning light instead of amidst the ruins of a battlefield that had nearly claimed them all. He lifted a hand slightly, palm open, offering calm in a way that made Mae's heart twist.
Sethis didn't step aside. His voice was low, strained with barely concealed tension. "You died." The words wavered in the air. "I watched you turn to ash. I felt you burn."
Kaine looked at Sethis as if he were an old friend who had forgotten a simple truth. His gold-fire eyes softened. "I did burn. I died. That part of me is gone." Mae shivered as he moved closer. "Something else pulled me back. Something lurking beneath all of this. Something that wanted me back here."
Mae's chains pulsed in her veins, pulling her toward him as if they sensed the truth before she could understand it. She swallowed the lump in her throat and spoke, her voice barely steady. "How are you here?"
Kaine's gaze shifted to her, and for a brief moment, she saw the Kaine she had lost. The man who had thrown himself between her and death. The man whose last word had been 'run.'
That memory ached in her chest more fiercely than the fracture itself. He stepped closer. "Because you touched the champion. Because you answered the fracture. It opened something that had been locked."
Sethis tensed as his shadows flared up. "He should not be here. The dead do not come back without a cost."
Kaine's smile deepened, but the warmth in it twisted into something sharper. "There is always a price. Mae understands that." She did. The truth pressed against her chest, heavy and cold.
Her decision had changed the battlefield. It had changed the world. It had brought Kaine back. But the fracture never occurs without taking something in return. She forced herself one step closer.
"What did it take from you?" Kaine tilted his head, as if contemplating his own existence for the first time. "Everything I was." His eyes briefly shifted to the broken horizon. "But that wasn't enough to stop me from returning to you."
Mae's breath caught as Sethis stepped forward, shadows flickering like teeth. "Do not say her name that way. Whatever you are now, you are not Kaine."
The golden glow along Kaine's arms grew brighter. "I'm what remains. What survived. Does that threaten you, shadow bearer?"
Sethis showed his teeth. "Only if you threaten her."
Kaine's smile remained steady. "I never threatened her. I died for her." Those words broke the silence between them, sharp and conclusive.
Mae couldn't stay still. Her legs moved instinctively, bringing her nearer, as if her body had already revealed the truth. She paused only when she was a few steps from Kaine, noticing the strange shimmer in his eyes. "If you died for me," Mae said softly, "then tell me what you are now."
Kaine's eyes darkened as the gold deepened. "The fracture didn't want me to leave. It called me back because of your choice. I stood up when you selected him, when you surrendered to the champion. Something within broke open."
Sethis's shadows rippled. "That means he's linked to the fracture. That makes him dangerous." Kaine didn't deny it. He moved closer to Mae, deliberately and carefully, as if allowing her the chance to refuse him.
"I am tied to your choice. Not to the fracture. Not to the champion. To you." The words hit her like a punch. She looked at him, trying to find the lie, the shadow behind the gold, anything she could grasp. There was only truth. Or what appeared to be the truth.
Sethis reached to grab her arm, but Mae raised a hand to stop him. Her chains pulsed, sliding along her skin like a living current. "I need to hear him," she said. Sethis froze, shadows flattening with a hesitant tremor.
Kaine's gaze softened. "You always listened, even when you were afraid."
Mae's voice came softly. "I am afraid."
"Good," Kaine said. "Fear keeps you awake."
The chains linking them trembled. Mae suddenly realized that the champion had vanished entirely. No sign. No sound. The spot where it had kneeled was empty except for a faint scorch mark that looked like a hand. She quickly turned to Kaine. "Did you destroy it?"
Kaine shook his head. "It was never mine to destroy. You claimed it. When you surrendered, you altered the connection between the fracture and the world. That bond brought me back and then severed it."
Mae's stomach tightened. "Where did it go?"
"Wherever you sent it," Kaine answered. "Where your will guided it."
Sethis growled softly. "Do not twist her choices into destiny. She is not a puppet."
Kaine's gaze softened again, strangely gentle. "She has never been a puppet."
Mae forced her thoughts to still. "What do you want?"
Kaine stepped closer, the gold fire pulsing brighter with each movement. "To help you finish what you started."
Her chains flared, responding to the tension that rolled through Sethis. He stepped in front of her without hesitation, shadows rising behind him in a towering wall. "She does not need you." Kaine's voice turned soft.
"She needs all of us." Sethis glared. "You're not one of us anymore."
Kaine lowered his head slightly. "Maybe. But she is still my bond." Mae's breath caught.
Sethis turned sharply toward her. "Is that true?" Mae opened her mouth, then closed it. She felt the fracture stir inside her, pulsing in a rhythm she had not yet learned to read. Something inside her whispered yes.
Something else whispered no. She could not tell where the truth lay. Kaine watched her with eyes that carried the weight of a life given and taken away. "The bond changed when I died," he said. "But it did not break."
Sethis's shadows shuddered violently. "Stop lying."
Kaine's gaze snapped to him, sharper than gold should ever be. "If I wanted to lie, I would tell her that she is safe."
Mae's heart jolted. "Safe from what?"
Kaine turned back to her slowly. "From what the fracture will ask of you next."
Silence fell across the battlefield like a final verdict. Mae swallowed the tightness in her throat. "You said you wanted to help me. Help me by telling me what you mean."
Kaine stepped closer. "When you touched the champion, you opened the path the orb showed you. That path is not finished. It leads somewhere none of us has walked."
Sethis eased slightly in front of her. "She will not walk it alone." Kaine nodded once. "She will not. But the path will change her. Nothing can stop that."
Mae stared at him until the world narrowed to a single point. "Then tell me the truth. Why were you brought back?" Kaine's answer came without hesitation. "Because the fracture will need your strength, and my death was not the end it was expected to be."
Sethis hissed softly. "Speak clearly." Kaine did. "I was not brought back to save her. I was brought back so she would have something to lose."
Mae froze. Her blood turned cold. Sethis's shadows surged in a violent arc. "You dare."
Kaine did not flinch. "She is stronger when she has something to protect." Mae stepped back, shaking her head. "I can't lose anyone else." Kaine's expression softened.
"You may have to." Sethis moved forward, shadows rising like a storm. "You will not touch her again." Kaine looked past him, straight at Mae. "I only came to warn her."
Mae's voice trembled. "Warn me about what?"
Kaine took one final step forward. The gold fire along his arms pulsed once, then dimmed. His voice broke. "The fracture did not just awaken. It multiplied."
Mae's chains recoiled in shock, her breath catching in her chest. "What does that mean?" Kaine lifted his hand as if reaching for her, but Sethis stepped between them with a snarl. "It means," Kaine said, "that another is coming."
Mae's heart pounded. "Another what?" Kaine's voice turned quiet. "Another champion." The earth trembled beneath their feet. The horizon split with a thin line of gold light. Kaine looked at her with fear; she had never seen that look in him before. "And it is coming for you."