Kael's POV
I find Mother in her bedroom at dawn, holding a silver cup.
"Don't." The word rips from my throat.
She looks at me with eyes that have cried themselves empty. The cup trembles in her hands, and I can smell it—nightshade mixed with wine. The same poison Father's own mother used when his father died in battle.
"You read my note," she says quietly.
"I read it." I step closer, hands raised like approaching a wounded animal. "And I'm telling you—I need you alive. We'll run. We'll hide. We'll—"
"They'll hunt us forever, Kael. You know this." She stares at the purple liquid. "Brother Aldric made it clear. If you desert, I die. If I run, you die. The only way you survive is if I'm already gone."
The logic is poison, but it's true. They're using her as a chain around my neck.
"Please." I'm begging. "Don't leave me alone."
"You won't be alone." She sets the cup down and pulls me into a hug. I'm taller than her now, but I feel five years old again. "Your father left you a mission. Find the proof. Expose the conspiracy. Save the innocent people about to die in this false war."
"I don't care about missions!" My voice cracks. "I care about you!"
"I know." She kisses my forehead. "But your father died believing you'd finish his work. I can't let his faith be for nothing."
She picks up the cup again.
"Mother, please—"
"Listen to me." Her voice sharpens. "The coded phrases in his testimony—'where we first met the green chief' means the old trading post near Crimson River. That's where he hid documents proving the Sanctum paid bandits to dress as orcs for the raids."
My mind is screaming at her to stop drinking poison and start running, but she keeps talking.
"'Where silver flows underground' is the old mine beneath our lands. Your father found maps there—plans for something called Operation Ashland Seizure. And the last location—"
A door slams downstairs.
We both freeze.
"Lady Thornhaven!" Brother Aldric's voice drifts up from the entry hall. "I've come to discuss your late husband's estate. Do let me in."
Mother's face goes pale. "He's early. I thought we'd have until noon."
"We can still run—"
"No." She shoves the cup into my hands. "Hide this. If he finds poison, he'll know I was planning to escape his control." She grips my shoulders hard. "Remember the three locations. Find the proof. And Kael—" Her eyes fill with tears. "—don't trust anyone in Sanctum white. Not even priests who seem kind."
"Mother—"
"GO!" She pushes me toward the servant's passage behind her wardrobe. "Get to the village before they lock you up. Find the girl—the one who volunteered as witness yesterday. Sarah something. She's not who she pretends to be."
"What do you mean—"
"LADY THORNHAVEN!" Aldric's voice is closer. Footsteps on the stairs.
Mother practically throws me into the passage and slams it shut.
I press my ear to the wood, heart hammering, the poison cup still in my hands.
I hear her door open.
"Brother Aldric." Mother's voice is perfectly calm. "You're early."
"Am I?" His footsteps circle the room. "I wanted to catch you before you did something... foolish."
"I don't know what you mean."
"Don't you?" Something crashes—maybe a drawer being dumped. "Where is it, Lady Thornhaven? Where's the poison? We both know your family keeps nightshade for... difficult situations."
Silence.
"I already drank it," Mother says quietly.
My blood turns to ice.
"You're lying." But Aldric sounds uncertain.
"Am I?" Mother laughs, and it's the saddest sound I've ever heard. "Check my lips. Smell my breath. I drank it an hour ago, Brother. Before you could use me to control my son. He marches to war free of leverage. You can't threaten him with my death when I'm already dying."
"You stupid woman!" Aldric's voice loses its kindness. "We could have used you for months! Do you know what you've cost us?"
"My son's freedom." Mother's voice is fading. "Worth every drop."
"There's an antidote—"
"Which takes two hours to prepare and one hour to work." Mother coughs. "I know my poisons, Brother. I have ninety minutes left. Not enough time for your antidote. Not enough time to torture information from me. Just enough time to tell you that my husband hid evidence that will destroy you."
"WHERE?" Aldric roars.
Mother laughs again. "You'll never find it. But my son will. And when he does, the whole continent will know what you really are."
Something hits the floor—Mother's body.
"No!" I almost burst through the door, but her last words echo: Don't trust anyone in Sanctum white.
If I reveal myself now, Aldric will torture me for the locations.
"Get me a healer!" Aldric shouts. "NOW! She can't die yet!"
Footsteps thunder downstairs.
I wait five heartbeats, then slip from the passage. Mother lies on the floor, her lips already purple. Her eyes find mine.
"Go," she whispers. "Find... Sarah Chen... she knows... more than..."
Her eyes close.
"Mother? MOTHER!"
I grab her hand. It's already cold. Her chest still rises and falls, but barely.
She's not dead yet. But she will be soon.
Just like she planned.
I hear soldiers returning with a healer. No time. Mother did this to buy me freedom—I can't waste it.
I kiss her forehead and run.
The servant passages lead down to the kitchen, then out through the root cellar. I emerge three streets away from the manor, still holding the poison cup like an idiot.
The village is chaos. Soldiers everywhere, rounding up men for conscription. They're burning our family seal from public buildings. Someone's already repainting the manor gates with the Sanctum's symbol.
"Kael!" A hand grabs my arm and yanks me into an alley.
It's the girl from yesterday—the one who volunteered as witness. Up close, she's older than I thought, maybe mid-twenties. She wears simple traveler's clothes, but her eyes are sharp, calculating.
"Your mother told me you'd come." She glances at the poison cup. "Smart woman. Aldric can't leverage what's already dying."
"Who are you?" I demand.
"Sarah Chen. Combat surgeon for the rebellion—the real one, not the Sanctum's fake war." She pulls me deeper into the alley. "Your father contacted us three months ago when he started finding evidence. We've been trying to get him out before the Sanctum moved. We failed."
My head is spinning. "The rebellion? What rebellion?"
"The one that knows this war is manufactured. The one trying to stop a genocide." She meets my eyes. "Your father wasn't the first to discover the truth. He was just the first noble brave enough to gather proof. We need that proof, Kael. Where did he hide it?"
I think of Mother dying to protect me. Father's coded message. Three locations that might save thousands of lives.
"Why should I trust you?" I ask.
"Because in thirty minutes, soldiers will come to march you to Fort Bloodstone. Once you're in the penal legions, you're as good as dead." Sarah pulls out a small vial. "Or you can drink this. It'll make you look sick enough that the garrison healer will isolate you for three days. That gives us time to recover at least one of your father's evidence caches before they move you."
I stare at the vial. It could be anything. Poison. Truth serum. Actual medicine.
"My mother said not to trust anyone," I tell her.
"She also told you to find me." Sarah's voice softens. "Your father died for the truth. Your mother's dying for it right now. The question is: will you?"
From the main street, I hear soldiers calling my name.
"Kael Thornhaven! Present yourself for conscription!"
Sarah holds out the vial. "Choose fast. Trust me and maybe live long enough to expose the conspiracy. Or trust the Sanctum and definitely die with the truth buried forever."
I think of Father's last words: Find the truth.
I think of Mother's sacrifice: Don't trust anyone in Sanctum white.
I think of my brothers' blood on the stones and Gareth's cowardice and everything I've lost.
The soldiers are getting closer.
I take the vial.
"What's in it?" I ask.
Sarah's smile is grim. "Swamp fever symptoms. You'll wish you were dead for twelve hours, but you'll live. Probably."
"Probably?"
"Seventy percent survival rate. But hey—better odds than the front lines."
The soldiers round the corner.
I drink.
The liquid burns like fire going down. My vision immediately blurs.
"There he is!" A soldier points at me.
I try to run, but my legs give out. The world tilts sideways.
The last thing I see before darkness takes me is Sarah Chen stepping between me and the soldiers, her hand already pulling out a healer's badge.
"Stand back! This boy has plague symptoms! Unless you want your entire regiment infected..."
Then nothing.
I wake up somewhere dark, and someone is screaming.
It takes me three seconds to realize the screaming is coming from me.