Kael woke with a gasp.
Cold air stabbed his lungs as he rolled onto his side, coughing, grasping at the ground beneath him — soft moss, damp earth, nothing like the shattered battleground he remembered last.
His hand flew to his chest.
No wounds.
No blood.
No pain.
For a heartbeat, he wondered if he was dead.
But the chill beneath his fingers was too real for that.
A few steps away, Lira stirred with a sharp inhale, pushing herself upright as golden strands of hair fell over her face. Her eyes darted wildly, and when they landed on Kael, relief flickered through them — but also fear.
"…Kael?" she whispered, voice cracking. "How… how are we alive?"
He shook his head slowly.
"I don't know."
The world around them was unnervingly quiet — a glade of pale stone and mist, trees arching overhead like ribs of an ancient beast. No battlefield. No blood. No demons. And no memory of how the last moments had ended.
Kael forced himself to stand, scanning the surroundings with growing tension.
"This isn't where we were," he muttered. "This isn't anywhere I recognize."
Lira hugged herself, her breath trembling in the cold air.
"I remember the hunters breaking through the treeline," she said. "I remember the commander charging us. And then—"
She winced, as if the next memory refused to surface.
"Then nothing."
Kael exhaled through his teeth.
Someone had interfered.
Someone powerful enough to warp time or space.
But he said nothing — because he didn't have an answer he trusted.
A twig snapped behind them.
Both turned instantly.
A figure stepped from the fog, brushing leaves from his shoulder as though he'd simply gone for a walk and gotten slightly lost.
Maelor.
The wanderer.
The trickster.
The man whose smile always carried too much knowledge behind it.
Lira's eyes widened. "Maelor? What—how did you get here?"
Maelor looked around with a dramatic frown.
"Excellent question. If any of you find an answer, do let me know."
Kael stared at him, unconvinced. "You're telling me you don't know why we're here?"
Maelor shrugged with irritating casualness.
"Do I look like someone who knows what's going on?"
Kael's jaw tightened. "Yes."
Maelor paused… then grinned.
"Well, that's unfortunate."
Lira stepped closer, voice urgent. "Maelor, we were barely alive. Something… someone moved us. Saved us. You must know something."
He held up his hands.
"Absolutely nothing. Haven't the faintest idea. One moment I'm minding my own business, the next I'm here with you two — which, don't get me wrong, is lovely company — but entirely unexpected."
Kael didn't blink.
"Maelor."
Maelor blinked back innocently.
"Yes?"
"What aren't you telling us?"
He opened his mouth to reply—
Then the ground beneath them rumbled.
A slow, deep vibration, like an enormous heartbeat awakening beneath the earth. The trees shook, dust falling in thin streams from their branches. Somewhere in the distance, an ancient roar echoed — long, jagged, and layered with power.
Maelor sighed.
"Oh. Well. That's new."
Kael drew his blade.
"Explain."
"Gladly," Maelor said, stepping behind a rock. "As soon as I figure it out myself."
Lira's voice trembled. "Kael… something's coming."
Kael nodded.
His eyes fixed on the shifting fog at the far end of the glade — where a massive shadow grew, slow and deliberate, accompanied by the crack of ancient scales brushing stone.
Whatever fate had dragged them here…
They were about to find out why.