Kael's POV
I'm burning alive from the inside out.
My eyes snap open in darkness, and I can't remember where I am or why my blood feels like molten iron in my veins. Every breath is knives. Every heartbeat is agony.
"Mother?" I croak. "Father?"
"They're dead, Kael." A woman's voice cuts through my delirium. "And you will be too if you don't stop thrashing."
Hands push me back down onto something soft. A bed? No—a bedroll on cold stone. My vision swims, and I see Sarah Chen's face hovering above me, lit by a single candle.
"Where... where am I?" My tongue feels too thick for my mouth.
"Beneath the old temple. The Sanctum abandoned these tunnels fifty years ago." She presses a wet cloth to my forehead. "You've been screaming for six hours. The soldiers think you have plague. They won't come near the isolation room I put you in."
Isolation room. Right. The potion. I drank it to—
Everything crashes back. Father's execution. Mother's poison. The rebellion. Evidence hidden in three locations.
"My mother—" I try to sit up and immediately vomit onto the floor.
Sarah catches me before I fall. "She died an hour after you left. Brother Aldric tried to save her for interrogation, but the poison worked too fast. I'm sorry."
The words should hurt. They do hurt. But I'm burning so hot that grief feels distant, like it's happening to someone else.
"She died to free me," I whisper.
"She died so you could finish what your father started." Sarah wipes my mouth with the cloth. "Now rest. The fever will break by morning, and then we have work to do."
"Can't... rest..." My eyes are closing against my will. "Need to... find proof..."
"You will. After you survive." Her voice softens. "Your mother's last words were about you, you know. The healer who tried to save her told me. She said, 'Tell my son I'm proud. Tell him to be braver than his friend.' She meant Gareth."
Rage flares through the fever. "Gareth's a coward."
"Maybe. Or maybe he's just a boy who loves his sisters more than honor." Sarah stands. "Get some sleep. We'll argue philosophy when you're not dying."
But I can't sleep. The fever has me in its claws, and my mind spirals into nightmares.
I see Father on the execution block, but when the axe falls, it's my head that rolls.
I see Mother drinking poison, but this time I'm the one holding the cup to her lips.
I see my brothers fighting, but they're fighting me, screaming that I should have saved them.
And then I see something else. Something that doesn't feel like a dream.
I'm in Father's study three months ago, hiding behind his desk because I fell asleep reading. Father enters with a stranger—a dwarf with a copper beard and burn scars on his arms.
"You're certain about this?" Father asks, voice tight.
"I forged the weapons myself, Lord Evan." The dwarf spreads papers across the desk. "These axes, these swords—all made in my forge in the Ironspine. All reported stolen two months ago. And all recovered from 'orc raiders' after the village attacks."
Father's hands shake as he examines the papers. "So the raids were—"
"Staged. Humans dressed as orcs, using stolen weapons to make it believable." The dwarf's voice is bitter. "My own creations used to start a genocide. The Sanctum approached me months ago, offered me gold to make weapons 'for protection.' I didn't know. I swear I didn't know."
"This is enough to prove conspiracy." Father straightens. "With this evidence—"
"You'll be dead within a week." The dwarf grabs Father's arm. "The Sanctum has eyes everywhere. If they even suspect you know, they'll eliminate you and everyone you love. You need allies, Lord Evan. Powerful ones."
"I have to try." Father meets the dwarf's eyes. "Innocent orcs are being slaughtered. If I do nothing, I'm complicit."
The dwarf sighs. "Then hide the evidence well. And pray your son is half as brave as you."
The memory—if it is a memory—dissolves into fever again.
I wake gasping, and this time it's daylight streaming through cracks in the ceiling. My fever has broken. I'm soaked in sweat but alive.
Sarah sits against the wall, sharpening a knife.
"You talked in your sleep," she says without looking up. "About a dwarf. Copper beard. Burn scars."
My heart stops. "That was real? That happened?"
"If you're describing Thrain Ironfoot, then yes. He's the one who first contacted the rebellion about the false flag attacks." Sarah tests the knife's edge. "He's also the one who told us your father was gathering evidence. We tried to extract him before the Sanctum moved. We were too slow."
"The dwarf is still alive?" Hope flares in my chest.
"Last I heard. He runs a black-market forge somewhere near the border." Sarah finally looks at me. "Which brings us to our problem. Your father hid evidence in three locations. But he didn't tell the rebellion where because he didn't fully trust us yet. You're the only one who knows."
I think of Father's coded message. Mother's final words. Three locations that could save thousands.
"And if I tell you," I say slowly, "how do I know you won't take the evidence and leave me to die in the penal legions?"
Sarah smiles, but it's not friendly. "You don't. You'll have to trust me. Just like I had to trust that your mother wasn't lying about you being worth saving."
We stare at each other.
"The trading post near Crimson River," I say finally. "That's the first location. Documents proving the Sanctum paid bandits to dress as orcs."
Sarah nods. "That's three days' ride from here. We'd need horses, supplies, and a damn good excuse for why a penal conscript is traveling with a healer."
"Can you get those things?"
"Maybe. But there's a complication." She leans forward. "Brother Aldric put a bounty on your head this morning. Five hundred gold for you alive, two hundred dead. He wants the evidence locations, and he knows you know them."
My blood runs cold. "How long until—"
The door explodes inward.
Soldiers pour into the room—six of them, swords drawn. Leading them is Gareth Ashford, his face pale but determined.
"I'm sorry, Kael," he says. "But they have my sisters in a cell. They'll execute them unless I bring you in."
Sarah's knife is in her hand instantly. "You little—"
"Don't." Gareth's sword points at her throat. "I don't want to hurt anyone else. Just come quietly, Kael. Please. Let me save my family."
I'm unarmed, barely recovered from fever, facing six armed soldiers and my former best friend.
Behind Gareth, I see something that makes my heart stop—one soldier isn't wearing Sanctum colors. He's wearing rebel gray, and his eyes meet mine with desperate warning.
A spy. In the Sanctum's ranks.
The spy's hand moves slightly, pointing toward a crack in the wall behind Sarah.
An escape route.
"Well?" Gareth's voice cracks. "Will you come peacefully?"
I have three seconds to decide: surrender and get tortured for the evidence locations, or trust the rebel spy and run—leaving Gareth to face Aldric's fury for losing me.
Sarah's eyes flick to mine, asking the question.
I grab her arm and dive for the crack in the wall.
"STOP THEM!" Gareth screams.
We crash through rotten wood into a pitch-black tunnel as swords clang behind us.
"Where does this go?" I gasp.
"No idea!" Sarah pulls me forward. "But anywhere's better than—"
The tunnel floor disappears beneath our feet.
We're falling through darkness, and I can hear water rushing below.
The last thing I think before we hit is: I really hope that's water and not rocks.
Then everything goes cold and wet and black.
"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.