The outpost smelled of rust and old concrete, the air thick with dust that made my throat itch. Morning came without light,just the same gray nothing bleeding through narrow windows, turning the shadows from black to merely dark. I woke in a bunk that was too hard, blanket too thin, but it was shelter. It was safe.
For now.
The others stirred around me. Lira was already up, methodically checking weapons from the racks,most were rusted, useless, but she found a few knives that would hold an edge. Kael sat on his bunk, cradling his broken hand, face drawn with pain even in sleep's aftermath. The swelling had spread past his wrist now, purple-black creeping up his forearm like corruption taking root.
Nyx hung upside-down from a ceiling beam, wings wrapped around herself like a cocoon, black-rose eyes closed. She looked peaceful like that. Almost innocent. If you ignored the wings. If you forgot what she was.
Xeno stood by the window, shovel leaning against the wall within arm's reach, blindfolded face turned toward the gray expanse beyond the glass. He hadn't slept. I didn't think he ever really did. Just stood watch, silent sentinel, waiting for threats that always came eventually.
Kai and Amie were already in the training area, voices carrying through the doorway as they set up equipment and discussed plans I couldn't quite hear.
My stomach growled,sharp, insistent. The rations from last night hadn't been enough. They never were. But there was food here, the twins had said. Enough to last a month.
A month of training.
To face something that had killed Vesper in seconds.
To find the First Book.
To end... what? The apocalypse? The curse? My fate?
I wasn't sure anymore. I just knew we had to keep moving forward, because stopping meant thinking, and thinking meant drowning in questions I couldn't answer.
***
Kai clapped his hands together, grin bright despite everything. "Alright! Welcome to your first day of not dying horribly!"
We stood in the training area,a wide room with padded floors, practice weapons on racks, and training dummies that had seen better decades. The ceiling was high, reinforced beams crossing overhead, and the walls were scarred with old impacts. This place had trained people before. Maybe they'd survived. Maybe they hadn't.
Amie stood beside her brother, arms crossed, expression more serious. "We have one month. Four weeks to turn you from survivors into fighters. To make you strong enough, fast enough, aware enough to face Lord Azael and whatever comes after."
"Is it enough?" Lira asked flatly.
"No," Amie said simply. "But it's what we have."
Kai's grin didn't fade. "So we make it enough. First lesson: assessment. We need to know what you can do before we know what to teach you."
He gestured to the practice weapons,wooden swords, weighted staffs, blunted daggers. "Choose something. Show us what you've got."
Lira moved first, selecting a knife without hesitation. Her movements were sharp, practiced,the muscle memory of someone who'd killed to survive. She tested the weight, spun it once, then settled into a ready stance. Competent. Deadly.
Kael stood slowly, wincing as his broken hand shifted against his chest. "I can't—"
"Then you learn one-handed," Kai interrupted gently. "Or you learn to fight without hands. Or you learn to be so smart the enemy never reaches you. But you don't stop learning."
Kael's jaw tightened. He picked up a short staff with his good hand, testing the balance. His movements were stiff, pained, but there was experience there. He'd fought before, once upon a time. Before the world ended. Before his body broke.
Nyx floated down from the ceiling, wings folding as she landed lightly. She didn't choose a weapon. Just flexed her small hands, wicked grin spreading. "I'm good."
I looked at the rack, uncertainty churning in my stomach. I was six. Small. Weak. I'd barely survived by running and hiding and letting others protect me. What could I even—
"Yona." Xeno's voice was quiet behind me. He held out his shovel,not to give, but showing. "You've carried this before. You know its weight."
I had. When he'd collapsed from fever. When we'd fought the Collector. I'd held it, swung it, felt it bite into flesh that reformed too fast.
"Find something that feels right," he said. "Not what you think you should use. What calls to you."
I walked along the rack slowly, fingers brushing wood and metal. Too heavy. Too long. Too sharp. Too—
My hand stopped on something small. A training dagger, weighted but balanced for someone my size. The grip fit my palm like it had been waiting.
"Good," Amie said, nodding. "Now. Show us."
***
The assessment was brutal.
Kai and Amie moved through the group, testing each of us with practice bouts, agility drills, strength exercises. They watched everything,how we moved, how we thought, where our eyes went when threatened.
Lira was efficient. Fast. But predictable, Amie noted. She fought the same way every time,direct, aggressive, no deception. "You'll need to learn misdirection. Feints. Make them think you're attacking left when you're going right."
Kael struggled. His broken hand made him unbalanced, his pain visible in every movement. But his mind was sharp. When Kai sparred with him, Kael didn't try to win with strength,he used distance, positioning, made Kai overextend and stumble. "Smart," Kai said, breathing slightly harder. "You can't overpower, so you outthink. We'll build on that."
Nyx was chaos. She didn't fight like a person,she fought like wind, like shadow, wings making her unpredictable, small size an advantage she exploited ruthlessly. She got past Amie's guard twice, grin widening with each success. "You're fast," Amie said, respect in her voice. "But undisciplined. Raw talent won't save you when you face something faster."
Then it was my turn.
Kai crouched to my level, practice sword in hand. "Alright, little one. Just show me what you'd do if something bad was coming at you. No right or wrong. Just instinct."
He moved,not fast, not aggressive, just a slow advance with the sword raised.
My instinct said *run.*
But I'd run so many times. Run from Xenophores, from danger, from everything. Running was all I knew.
*Not anymore,* something whispered inside me.
I gripped the training dagger and stepped *toward* him instead. His eyes widened slightly,surprise,and I ducked under his practice swing, small size letting me slip past his guard. I tapped the dagger against his side.
"Dead," Amie called out.
Kai blinked, then laughed,genuine, delighted. "Well! Wasn't expecting that! You've got good instincts, Yona. Most people freeze or back up. You went forward. That's half the battle right there."
Warmth bloomed in my chest. Praise. Actual praise for something I'd done, not just survived.
Then Xeno stepped forward.
Everyone went quiet.
He stood in the center of the training floor, shovel in hand, and Kai straightened, smile fading into something more serious.
"You want me to assess you?" Kai asked.
"Yes."
Kai glanced at Amie. She nodded once, stepping back.
"Alright," Kai said, picking up a weighted staff. "Come at me. Show me what—"
Xeno moved.
One second he was standing still. The next he was there, shovel swinging in a tight arc that would've caved in Kai's ribs if it connected. Kai barely blocked, wood cracking against metal with a sound like thunder. The force drove him back three steps, arms shaking from impact.
"Jesus," Kai breathed.
Xeno didn't stop. He flowed forward, shovel spinning,not wild, but controlled, each strike precise, economical, brutal. Kai blocked, dodged, backed up under the relentless assault. Sweat beaded on his forehead. His grin was gone.
Then Xeno swept low, shovel blade hooking behind Kai's knee. Kai stumbled. Xeno reversed grip, shovel stopping a hair's breadth from Kai's throat.
Silence.
Xeno stepped back, shovel returning to rest position.
Kai stared at him, chest heaving. "You... you don't need training."
"I do," Xeno said quietly. "I'm strong. I'm fast. But I fight alone. If I'm going to protect them—" he gestured vaguely at the rest of us, "—I need to learn to fight *with* others. Not just near them."
Amie nodded slowly, something like respect in her eyes. "Coordination. Teamwork. Making sure you don't accidentally kill your allies while killing your enemies."
"Yes."
Kai rubbed his throat where the shovel had stopped, then grinned shakily. "Okay. Okay, yeah. We can work with that. Holy hell, man. Where'd you learn to fight like that?"
Xeno's jaw tightened. "Necessity."
He didn't elaborate. He never did.
But I saw it,just for a second,the way his hand trembled on the shovel handle before he steadied it. The way his shoulders were rigid, locked, like he was holding something back that wanted desperately to break free.
Whatever had taught him to fight like that... it hadn't been kind.
***
The rest of the morning was drills. Basic stances. Footwork. How to move without telegraphing intent. How to watch an opponent's center, not their weapon. How to breathe through fear.
My legs burned. My arms ached. The training dagger felt heavier with each repetition.
But I didn't stop.
Because everyone else was pushing through their pain too. Lira's face was stone, but sweat poured down her temples. Kael moved despite the agony in his hand, despite the way his whole arm shook. Nyx flitted around, wings making her drills look easy, but I saw the way her breathing quickened, the way her form got sloppy when she tired.
And Xeno... Xeno moved like the shovel was part of him. Like violence was a language he'd spoken so long he didn't remember learning it.
By midday, we collapsed.
Kai distributed rations,dried meat, protein bars, water from purifiers. We ate in exhausted silence, too tired even to talk.
"Afternoon session," Amie said, voice merciless, "we work on awareness. Most people die because they don't see the threat until it's too late. You need to learn to read environments, anticipate danger, trust your instincts before your eyes."
Lira groaned. "Can we die now instead? Seems easier."
Kai laughed. "Nope! Dying is for quitters. And we're not quitters."
"Speak for yourself," Nyx muttered, sprawled on the floor like a broken doll. But her rose eyes glimmered with something that might've been satisfaction. She was tired. But she was also... happy? Proud? It was hard to tell with her.
***
The afternoon was different. No weapons. No sparring.
Instead, Amie blindfolded us one by one and led us through the training room while Kai moved equipment, changed the environment, created obstacles. We had to navigate by sound, by feel, by instinct.
"Xenophores don't always give you the luxury of sight," Amie explained. "Some attack from behind. Some move too fast to track. Some exist in places your eyes can't follow. You need to learn to sense danger without seeing it."
I stumbled blindly, hands outstretched, heart pounding. The world was sounds,the scrape of wood on stone, the whisper of fabric, my own breathing too loud in my ears. Something brushed my left side. I jerked away, nearly falling.
"Good," Kai's voice came from somewhere ahead. "You felt that. Now trust it. Let your body react before your mind questions."
It was terrifying. It was exhausting.
It was also... kind of exhilarating.
When Amie finally removed my blindfold, I realized I'd made it across the entire room without tripping, without crashing into anything major. My hands were scraped, my shins bruised from bumping low obstacles, but I'd *done* it.
"Not bad," Amie said, and I glowed under the praise.
When it was Xeno's turn, Amie hesitated.
"You want a blindfold?" she asked quietly.
"I'm always blindfolded," Xeno replied.
She blinked. "Right. Of course." She glanced at Kai. "So... what do we do?"
Xeno tilted his head. "Make it harder. I can hear, smell, feel air currents. Remove those. Make me rely on something else."
Kai's eyebrows rose. "Something else?"
Xeno didn't elaborate.
So they tried. They muffled his ears with cloth, covered his nose, moved silently, created obstacles that gave no warning.
He navigated it perfectly.
Every obstacle avoided. Every trap sidestepped. Like he *knew* where everything was before he reached it.
When they were done, Kai just stared. "How?"
Xeno's voice was flat. "I see what needs to be seen."
The words hung strange in the air. Wrong, somehow. Like they meant more than they should.
But no one pushed.
Because asking Xeno questions rarely got answers.
And the answers he did give were often worse than the silence.
***
By evening, we were destroyed.
Muscles screaming. Bruises forming. Exhaustion sinking into bones.
Kai and Amie distributed more rations, and we ate mechanically, too tired to taste.
"Tomorrow," Amie said, voice somehow still steady, "we start weapons specialization. You'll each focus on what works for your body, your instincts. Lira, close-quarters blades. Kael, tactical distance fighting. Nyx, aerial combat and unpredictability. Yona, evasion and critical strikes. Xeno, teamwork integration."
"And after weapons?" Lira asked.
"Xenophore combat simulation," Kai said. "We'll teach you how different types move, attack, think. You'll learn to identify weaknesses, exploit patterns, survive encounters you shouldn't."
"And after that?" Kael's voice was rough.
"Strategy. Tactics. How to fight something stronger than you. How to win when you're outmatched." Amie's eyes were hard. "How to survive Lord Azael."
Nyx sat up, grin returning despite exhaustion. "And then we go kill the bastard?"
"If we can," Kai said seriously. "If we're ready."
"We will be," Lira said, voice like stone. "We don't have a choice."
***
That night, as we lay in our bunks, muscles aching, I stared at the ceiling and thought about the day.
One day down. Twenty-nine to go.
One day of training. Of pushing past limits. Of learning to be more than just a scared child running from monsters.
But I also thought about what Amie had said.
*Most people die because they don't see the threat until it's too late.*
I thought about the curse bearer. About the symbol under my skin. About the way Xenophores were drawn to me like gravity.
I thought about Kael's pain, visible in every movement. About the bottle he hadn't drunk but kept anyway.
I thought about Nyx forgetting things, piece by piece, losing herself to the girl whose body she wore.
I thought about Xeno, standing at the window again even now, never resting, never sleeping, watching the darkness like he expected it to swallow us all.
*Most people die because they don't see the threat until it's too late.*
But what if the threat was already here?
What if it was walking beside us, hidden, patient, waiting for the perfect moment to strike?
What if we were all blind, stumbling toward doom, and the only one who could see was the one who wore a blindfold?
I closed my eyes and tried to sleep.
But the questions followed me into dreams that were dark and full of eyes that saw too much, and hands reaching for a book I shouldn't touch, and a voice whispering:
*"Thou has committed a grave sin."*
I woke gasping, heart racing, but the room was quiet.
Just the wind outside.
Just my fears.
Just the beginning of a month that would change everything.