The rain had stopped.
Not just for a day or a week but for good. The Rust Sea, once a perpetual storm of grey misery, now basked under a sky so blue it hurt to look at. The ground was still mud, the buildings still rusted, the people still desperate. But something had shifted. Something had healed.
Lee Zaou sat on the roof of the Rust Eel Tavern, watching the sunrise paint the horizon in shades of gold and rose. He was sixteen now tall, broad shouldered, his face losing the softness of childhood. The gold and silver eyes were sharper, and the spiral mark on his chest had grown, spreading across his torso like a living tattoo.
You're brooding again, Onyx Tempest observed. The sword lay across his lap, its black surface drinking the morning light.
"I'm thinking," Lee corrected. "There's a difference."
Brooding is thinking with a furrowed brow and a dramatic sigh. You just sighed dramatically.
"I did not."
You absolutely did. I felt it. I'm literally touching your chest.
Lee sighed again dramatically and stood up. Below him, the Scavenger's Market was coming to life. Tents flapped in the breeze. Merchants shouted their wares. Children ran between the legs of adults, laughing in a way that would have been unthinkable three years ago.
The world was changing.
But not all the changes were good.
"Lee!" Kira's voice cut through the morning like a blade. She was standing at the base of the tavern, her copper hair blazing in the sunrise, her arms crossed. "Get down here! We've got a problem!"
Lee jumped. Three stories. Landed softly, the golden light cushioning his fall. He'd learned a lot in three years.
"What kind of problem?" he asked.
Kira's face was grim. "The kind with red eyes and an army of demons."