Six months passed.
The Rust Sea changed. With the Sleeper weakened and the souls freed, the monsters that had plagued the wastes began to retreat. Rust worms burrowed deeper. Shadow eaters faded into myth. The rain itself grew lighter, less oppressive, as if the world was finally healing.
Lee Zaou grew.
At thirteen, he was taller, stronger, more confident. The golden light in his chest had dimmed to a soft glow still there, always there, but no longer blazing. He trained with Onyx Tempest every day, learning the sword's secrets, learning to channel the light into his strikes.
His friends trained too. Kira had discovered a talent for fire literal fire, shooting from her hands when she got angry enough. Taro had learned to bend his body in impossible ways, slipping through gaps no one else could fit through. And Ren... Ren had revealed that he wasn't entirely human.
"I'm a half demon," Ren said one night, sitting around a campfire at the edge of the Rust Sea. "My mother was human. My father was... something else. Something from the deep places."
"That explains a lot," Kira said.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Nothing. Just that you've always been a little too calm. A little too controlled. Like you're hiding something."
Ren smiled. "I'm hiding a lot of things. But not from you. Not anymore."
They were a team now a real team, bound by blood and battle and the knowledge that they'd faced a world ending threat and survived.
But Lee couldn't stop thinking about Inyocha.
He dreamed about his brother almost every night. Dreams of shadows and fire, of red eyes and broken smiles, of a boy who had been thrown away and was now trying to remake the world in his own image.
You're worried about him, Onyx Tempest observed one night.
"Of course I'm worried about him. He's my brother."
Brother by blood. Not by choice.
"Doesn't matter. He's still family."
The sword was quiet for a moment.
You know he's going to cause trouble, don't you? You know he's going to hurt people. Maybe even kill people.
"I know."
And you still want to save him?
Lee looked up at the stars real stars, visible now that the rain had lessened. They were beautiful. Cold and distant and beautiful.
"Everyone deserves a chance," he said. "Everyone deserves to be saved. Even the ones who don't want to be."
Even the ones who can't be saved?
"Especially them."
The sword sighed a sound like wind through dead leaves.
You're going to break your heart, Lee Zaou. You're going to give everything you have to people who don't deserve it, and in the end, you're going to have nothing left for yourself.
"Maybe," Lee said. "But at least I'll know I tried."
He closed his eyes and went to sleep, dreaming of his brother, dreaming of the darkness, dreaming of the world that was still waiting to be saved.