Cassian's POV
"RUN!"
Eryndra shoved me toward the back tunnel as Seraphine's blade came down like judgment itself.
The sword smashed into stone where I'd been standing, exploding it into dust. Holy light blazed through the cellar, blinding and burning.
"You can't escape, Cassian!" Seraphine called out, her voice still beautiful even as she tried to murder me. "I know every tunnel under this village. I planned this operation myself!"
Eryndra grabbed my hand and hauled me into the darkness. Behind us, Seraphine dropped gracefully into the cellar, her armor lighting the space like a torch.
"And you, orc savage," Seraphine said. "Did you really think you could turn one of my soldiers? How touching."
"Keep moving!" Eryndra hissed at me. "Don't look back!"
But I couldn't help it. I glanced over my shoulder and saw Seraphine walking toward us slowly, confidently. Like she had all the time in the world.
Because she did. We were wounded and exhausted. She was fresh and powerful.
We were dead.
The tunnel branched. Eryndra yanked me left without hesitating. Seconds later, holy fire exploded down the right passage, incinerating everything.
"How did you know—"
"I've been using these tunnels for weeks! Learning your people's tricks!" Eryndra pulled me faster. "There's a collapse point ahead. If we can reach it—"
"FOUND YOU."
Seraphine appeared in front of us.
Impossible. She'd been behind us. How did she—
"Teleportation rune," Seraphine said, reading my shocked face. "One of many gifts the gods grant to their faithful servants." She raised her glowing sword. "Last chance, Cassian. Come with me. Tell me you were captured, forced to help the orc. I'll make it quick. Heroic death in battle. Your name in the memorial. Isn't that what bastards dream of? Finally mattering?"
Everything I'd ever wanted. Handed to me. All I had to do was betray the person who'd saved my life.
"Or," Seraphine continued, "you can die here as a traitor, and I'll make sure Lord Aldric knows his bastard son chose monsters over humanity. Choose carefully."
My hand went to the letter inside my shirt. The one with her orders. Her signature. Her crimes.
"You killed children," I said quietly. "You murdered Eryndra's brother. An eight-year-old boy."
Something flickered across Seraphine's perfect face. "Casualties of war."
"It wasn't war yet! You started it! You killed innocent people and blamed them for it!"
"I started nothing. I simply... accelerated the inevitable." Her voice hardened. "Orcs are a dying race, Cassian. Primitive. Weak. They sit on lands filled with Starstone—power that humanity needs to advance. To grow stronger. Would you rather leave that power in the hands of savages? Or give it to a kingdom that can use it to protect the world?"
"By committing genocide?"
"By eliminating obstacles." She stepped closer. "You're young. You don't understand how the world works. Sometimes good people must do terrible things for the greater good. I am saving humanity, even if it costs orc lives. Even if it costs your life."
"That's not saving!" I shouted. "That's just murder with a fancy excuse!"
Seraphine's expression turned cold. "Then you've chosen. How disappointing."
She lunged, impossibly fast.
Eryndra swung her axe, intercepting the blow. Metal screamed against metal. Holy light blazed against dark steel.
"GO!" Eryndra roared at me. "The collapse point is fifty feet ahead! Trigger it and seal the tunnel!"
"I'm not leaving you—"
"You have the letter! YOU'RE the witness!" She blocked another strike that should've killed her. "Run, you stupid boy! MAKE HER CRIMES MATTER!"
Seraphine laughed. "How noble! The savage protecting the human! But you can't win, orc. I am blessed by the gods themselves. I am perfection incarnate. You are nothing but—"
Eryndra headbutted her.
Blood exploded from Seraphine's nose. The commander stumbled back, shocked.
"Gods don't bleed," Eryndra snarled. "You're just a woman with a sword and too much pride."
I ran.
Hated myself for it, but I ran. Behind me, I heard them fighting—axe against sword, war cries and holy light. Every step felt like betrayal.
But Eryndra was right. I had proof. Someone had to survive to tell the truth.
I found the collapse point—old support beams holding up unstable rock. A single solid hit would bring down tons of stone, sealing the tunnel.
I grabbed a piece of broken timber and slammed it against the nearest beam.
Wood cracked. Stone groaned.
"CASSIAN, DON'T!" Seraphine screamed.
I hit it again. Harder.
The beam splintered. Rock began to fall.
"NO!"
The tunnel exploded.
I threw myself backward as the ceiling came down in a roar of dust and darkness. Stones bigger than my head crashed down, blocking the passage completely.
Silence fell.
I lay in the darkness, coughing, bleeding, alone.
On the other side of that wall of stone, Seraphine and Eryndra were either fighting or dead. I didn't know which was worse.
"Eryndra?" I called out weakly. "ERYNDRA?"
No answer. Just dust settling and my own ragged breathing.
I'd killed them both. Sealed them in with a cave-in.
Or I'd trapped the most powerful knight in the kingdom with my only ally.
"Please be alive," I whispered to the darkness. "Please."
I waited. Minutes crawled by. My shoulder screamed with pain. I should move. Find the exit. Get help.
But what help? Who could I trust? Everyone believed Seraphine was a hero. I was just a bastard with a stolen letter and a crazy story about the Holy Order being evil.
They'd execute me for treason before I finished talking.
A sound made me freeze.
Scratching. From the other side of the cave-in.
Someone was digging through.
"Eryndra?" I called hopefully.
The scratching got faster. More violent. Stone shifted.
Then I heard her voice—cold, furious, divine:
"You cannot stop the gods' will, traitor. I will hunt you to the ends of the earth. I will burn every place you hide. I will make you watch everyone you love die before I finally end you."
Seraphine. Alive. And absolutely done playing nice.
Holy light blazed through cracks in the stone. She was burning through the barrier. It would take time, but not much.
I scrambled to my feet and ran deeper into the tunnels, into absolute darkness, with no light, no map, and no idea where I was going.
Behind me, Seraphine's voice echoed:
"Run, little bastard! Run far and fast! But know this—I WILL find you. And when I do, death will be a mercy you'll beg for!"
I ran until my legs gave out. Ran until I couldn't hear her anymore. Ran until the tunnel finally opened into moonlight and fresh air.
I collapsed in the grass of some hillside, miles from Millbrook, bleeding and broken.
Alone.
My unit was dead. My only ally was probably dead. The kingdom's greatest hero was hunting me. I was marked as a traitor with no way to prove my innocence.
And somewhere in my shirt, a blood-stained letter that could expose everything—if I lived long enough to show anyone.
A boot crunched in the grass behind me.
I was too exhausted to even be scared. I just closed my eyes.
"Go ahead. Kill me. I'm done."
"Kill you?" The voice was old, gravelly, and amused. "Boy, if I wanted ye dead, ye'd already be a smear on me boots."
I opened my eyes.
A dwarf stood over me. Old, with a magnificent beard and iron rings braided into it. He held a massive war hammer and looked at me like I was a particularly interesting bug.
"Ye're Cassian Thornwell, aren't ye? The bastard boy who just made an enemy of the most dangerous woman in the kingdom?"
How did he know my name?
"Who are you?"
The dwarf grinned. "Name's Thalric Ironforge. And ye, boy, are about to learn just how deep this conspiracy goes." He offered his hand. "On yer feet. We've got lots to talk about. Starting with those fancy marks on yer skin that someone's been using to suppress yer magic since ye were a baby."
My world tilted.
"What?"
"Aye. Ye're not just some bastard, lad. Ye're the stolen heir to a duchy. Ye've got royal blood and power someone's been hiding from ye yer whole life." Thalric's grin widened. "And now that Seraphine's after ye, ye're gonna need every drop of that power to survive."
He pulled me to my feet.
"Welcome to the real war, Cassian Thornwell. Hope ye're ready to become dangerous."