The messenger was dying.
He lay on a cot in Mags' back room, his body covered in wounds that smoked and sizzled demon wounds, Lee recognized, the kind that didn't heal naturally. His skin was pale, his breathing shallow, but his eyes were alive with desperate urgency.
"Please," the man whispered. "You have to warn them. The Shadow Weaver is moving. He's gathered the clans. The Lotus Archipelago... he's going to burn it all."
Lee knelt beside the cot, placing a hand on the man's chest. The golden light flowed from his palm, warm and gentle, knitting the worst of the wounds.
"Slow down," Lee said. "Who are you? Who sent you?"
The man coughed. Blood flecked his lips. "My name is Akio. I was a scout for the Emerald Coalition. We've been watching the Shadow Weaver for months. His power... it's grown beyond anything we anticipated." He gripped Lee's wrist with surprising strength. "He's not just gathering demons anymore. He's building something. A weapon. A weapon that can unmake the world."
"A weapon?" Kira asked from the doorway. "What kind of weapon?"
Akio's eyes went distant. "He calls it the Eclipse Engine. It's powered by souls thousands of them. Maybe more. He's been raiding villages, taking prisoners, draining them of their life force." His voice cracked. "I saw it. I saw what he does to them. It's not death. It's something worse. Something eternal."
Lee's blood ran cold.
Inyocha had been consuming souls for years feeding the Sleeper, feeding his own power. But this was different. This was industrial. This was a machine designed to turn suffering into fuel.
"Where is he now?" Lee asked.
"The Lotus Archipelago. He's made a deal with the Shadow Clans the ones who were exiled after the Shattering. They've been hiding in the deep places, waiting for a leader strong enough to unite them. They think Inyocha is that leader."
"Are they wrong?"
Akio looked at Lee really looked. His eyes widened. "You're him. The Light Bringer. The one who freed the souls of the Sunken City."
"That's what some people call me."
"They call you something else too." Akio's voice dropped to a whisper. "The Demon's Brother."
Lee flinched.
That's going to leave a mark, Onyx Tempest murmured.
"The Emerald Coalition wants to meet with you," Akio continued. "They're gathering an army. The Great Nations are finally waking up the Iron Dominion's remnants, the Sky Palaces, even the Sunken Court has sent emissaries. They all know what's coming. They all know that if the Shadow Weaver isn't stopped, there won't be anything left to save."
"And they want me to lead them," Lee said. It wasn't a question.
"They want you to inspire them. There's a difference." Akio coughed again, weaker this time. "You're not a general, Lee Zaou. You're a symbol. A reminder that the light still exists, even in the darkest times. That's what they need. That's what we all need."
Lee was quiet for a long moment.
He thought about Inyocha about the boy with the red eyes and the broken smile. About the brother who had been thrown away so Lee could shine. About the twelve years of loneliness and hunger and darkness that had shaped Inyocha into the monster he was becoming.
"I'll go," Lee said finally. "But not to lead. Not to inspire. I'll go to save my brother. One last time."
Kira stepped forward. "And we'll go with you. Right, Taro? Ren?"
Taro nodded from the corner, his thin frame tense. "I've been practicing. I can help."
Ren just smiled that calm, unreadable smile. "I've been waiting for this. We all have."
Lee looked at his friends. At the family he'd built from nothing. At the bonds that had kept him alive through the worst of it.
"Then let's go save the world," he said.
"Again," Kira added.
"Again," Lee agreed.