Kaine's knuckles whitened around the hammer's handle."This has nothing to do with—"
"Of course not," Rissa cut him off."Just as your absence from the infirmary has nothing to do with fear."
"I'm not afraid," Kaine said, the lie tasting like ash on his tongue."I'm being practical.Someone needs to rebuild our defenses, and I can't do that sitting by a bedside, watching failed attempt after failed attempt to wake her."
"Ah, so it is practicality that keeps you here," Rissa nodded, turning the metal sheet to work on its opposite side."Nothing to do with the fact that you cannot bear to see her like that, or that you blame yourself for not stopping her from entering the chamber alone."
Kaine set down his hammer with deliberate care."Are all Isle Wardens this intrusive, or is it a special talent of yours?"
"We live on ships and in fortress-whales," Rissa shrugged."Privacy is a luxury we cannot afford.We learn to read each other, to speak plainly about what mainlanders leave unsaid."
"Well, we're not on a ship," Kaine said, picking up a measuring tool and checking the dimensions of the panel."And I didn't ask for your observations."
"No," Rissa agreed."But perhaps you need them all the same."
They lapsed back into silence, the work proceeding smoothly despite the tension between them.Kaine lost himself in the familiar tasks of heating, shaping, and joining metal, allowing muscle memory to carry him through the motions while his mind wandered.
He should be there.He knew it, felt the truth of it like a physical weight in his chest.Roran had stayed, hadn't he?Hadn't moved from Thalia's side since they'd found her unconscious in the chamber, her skin cold as ice but somehow still breathing.Even Luna, practical and unsentimental Luna, had devoted herself to the task of waking Thalia, coordinating with the Isle Wardens and their strange storm magic.
But Kaine couldn't do it.Couldn't sit there, watching her face for the slightest twitch, the tiniest sign of return.Couldn't be in that room with Roran, both of them raw with the same fear but expressing it in such different ways.Roran turned his pain outward, into desperate action; Kaine pulled his inward, transmuting it into detached efficiency.
"Roran's being a fool," he said abruptly, breaking the lengthening silence."Exhausting himself, refusing food and rest.He'll be no use to anyone if he collapses."
Rissa didn't respond immediately.She continued her work for several moments before saying, "And yet, he is there.Where she can hear his voice, feel his presence.If she wakes—whenshe wakes—his will be the first face she sees."
The implication hung in the air between them.Kaine felt a surge of anger, hot and bright as the forge."You think I don't care?That I wouldn't trade places with her in an instant?"
"I think," Rissa said, her tone measured, "that different men show love in different ways.Some keep vigil.Others build walls to protect what they cannot bear to lose again."
Kaine opened his mouth to retort, then closed it.What was the point?Rissa had already seen too much, read too deeply into wounds he preferred to keep covered.He turned back to his work, focusing on the smooth glide of metal against metal as he fitted two panels together.
The barrier was taking shape, slowly but surely.The design was elegant in its simplicity: interlocking panels of forge-hardened iron, each one inscribed with channels similar to the glacenite veins Thalia had discovered in the cliff face.
Once assembled, the storm-callers would maintain a continuous electrical charge through these channels, creating a field that—in theory—would repel the black tendrils of the Deep Ones.
In practice, Kaine had no idea if it would work.None of them did.They were grasping at straws, trying anything that might buy them another day, another hour.
"Movement at the north approach," called a sentry from above, interrupting Kaine's thoughts.
He looked up, shielding his eyes against the afternoon sun.From his position, he could just make out figures on the winding path that led from the coastal road to Frostforge's main gate.His stomach tightened.More refugees.The academy was already well beyond its capacity, with people sleeping in shifts, food stores stretched dangerously thin, and tension growing between Northern and Southern factions despite the common enemy at their door.
"How many?"he called back to the sentry.
"Little over a dozen," came the reply."Mixed group—looks like they've seen fighting."
Kaine set down his tools and moved to the edge of the battlements for a better view.The approaching group moved with the weary determination of those who had traveled far and lost much.Most were civilians, bundled in whatever clothing they'd managed to salvage, carrying packs and supporting each other over the rough terrain.But at their head walked a handful of fighters, their postures alert despite obvious exhaustion.
The leader was young—too young, Kaine thought, to bear the responsibility of so many lives—but he carried himself with the confidence of someone who had survived too much to doubt his footing.Even at this distance, the Northern features were unmistakable: the sharp jaw, the proud set of the shoulders.Something about the way he moved tugged at Kaine's memory, a ghost of recognition that he couldn't quite place.
The group drew closer, and Kaine found himself moving toward the steps that would take him down to the courtyard.Behind him, Rissa called something, but her voice was lost in the sudden roaring of blood in his ears as the leader's face came into clear view.
The world narrowed, sound fading as though he'd been plunged underwater.It couldn't be.The odds were impossible.And yet—
Those were his father's eyes, but without the cruelty that had hardened them.That was his mother's mouth, the one feature of hers that Kaine himself had inherited.And the way he walked—that was pure Jorik, the same determined stride he'd had as a child, when he would follow Kaine everywhere despite being told to stay behind.
Jorik.His brother.Alive.
Kaine was moving before he made the conscious decision, taking the steps two at a time, crossing the courtyard in long strides.Guards were already opening the smaller postern gate, weapons raised cautiously as they assessed the newcomers.Kaine pushed past them, ignoring their protests.
