Through it all, Kazuki Sato remained silent, standing apart from the chaos. “I can see now, you’re ready for the real world,” addressing all of us.
“Dad, you have to go back,” Sakura pleads, stepping toward him. “If you come with us, you’ll lose everything!”
“Lose what? Nothing is worth losing my daughter for,” he says without hesitation.
“If we’re going to stop this,” I add, backing her up, “we need someone we trust on the inside. Someone to keep an eye on the Council. Feed us intel.”
Vanessa jumps in. “And Rey’s still in the infirmary. Someone has to protect him.”
After a moment, Kazuki nods slowly; the decision takes hold. I see the weight of it, the soldier calculating risks and the father choosing sacrifice.
“You know it’s the right call,” I add softly. He exhales, his breath misting in the cold air. Then he turns to Caleb, gaze sharp and deliberate.
“You.” Caleb stiffens, all his usual swagger disappearing.
“Yes, sir?”
“You protect her, at any cost. No excuses. Understood?”
Caleb nods, swallowing hard. “Understood.”
Kazuki exhales slowly, the weight of the moment pressing into his shoulders. “Alright. I’ll go back. I’ll tell them I was just trying to bring my daughter home. But... someone’s going to have to rough me up. Make it believable.” He scans the group, eyes steady, then locks onto me. “Kai.Stab me.”
I hesitate for a second before stepping forward, blade in hand, heart heavy. The weapon feels wrong in my grip, too sharp for what it’s about to do. Before I can move, Sakura stops me.
“Wait,” she says, stepping between us. Pressing two fingers just below his ribs. “Here. No organs. Just muscle. It’ll bleed enough to sell it, and it won’t… kill him.” The last wordswhispered, Kazuki meets her gaze, and for a second, I see something rare: pride. Quiet, unshaken pride. I nod once and do it. The blade sinks in, clean, and it’s been a long time since violence left a bitter taste in my mouth.
But this time, it does.
The world isa blur of snow, shadows, and adrenaline. The hidden passage is just ahead, a barely noticeable slit between the snowed trees, cloaked in ice. We slip through the trail, moving in sync as if we’ve done this a thousand times before. The scent of earth and stone, thick in the air.
One by one, we pull our masks into place. Caleb lifts his hood, and Sakura cloaks her hair in a temporary black glamour. The manor looms ahead. A pale silhouette against the frosted horizon. Lantern light flickers at the gate, where patrols stand alert. We reach the edge of the woods and crouch low. Every step is careful, each of us attuned to the quiet snap of a branch beneath a careless boot. Sakura pulls a small vial from her bag. The liquid inside shimmers iridescently in the low light. She uncorks it, then flicks her wrist, sparking a small flame on her fingertip.
“Ready?” she whispers.
We all nod. Sakura touches the flame to the glass bottle’s mouth. The air thickens instantly, even as we hold our breath. Then she hurls it through the gate. The glass shatters, and the scent of sleep essence curls in the air, faint at first, then the mist rises, a heavy fog blooming from the broken vial. We shield our minds.
“What was that noise?” a voice calls.
Footsteps scramble toward the gate. Van steps forward, arms outstretched, her mark glowing purple, matching her eyes. She shifts the wind.
“Here! Right here!” voices shout, growing distant as the fog rolls deeper. Vanessa’s wind carries the spell, guiding it as Sandman through the patrol ranks.
Then, thud, thud, thud.
Heavy bodies hit the ground, and silence stretches; the only sound disturbing the peace is Wyll’s chuckles. My eyes flick over the fallen soldiers.
“Let’s move."
We slip onto the manor grounds, silent as phantoms. Moving quickly, packing only the essentials. Rations, weapons, scrolls of information, anything that might give us even the slightest edge in the days ahead. I scan the room one last time, making sure nothing crucial is left behind. My gaze lands on my sketchbook. It stares back at me, quiet and familiar. Without thinking, I grab it and slip it into my bag before heading out. The bikes are waiting for us, the sound of engines humming in the night.
Wyll reaches his bike first, crouching low as he activates the ghost runes. The machine shudders briefly, then falls completely still, silent, invisible. The runes pulse with a soft blue glow under the moonlight, then fade into nothing. Caleb follows suit; his bike slips into the shadows as if it were never there. Sakura climbs onto his back, her form blurring and then blending seamlessly into the background, another spectre.
Wyll turns to me and nods. “Ready, Boss?”
“Ready.”
We push off, and the world falls into silence. The trees, the snow, even the wind, are muted beneath the protection of the runes. We glide through the night, shadows among shadows. The only sound is the low hum of magic pulsing through our bikes. Behind us, our tracks vanish beneath drifting snow,erased almost as quickly as they form. We avoid the main roads, sticking to the remote paths. Vanessa and Wyll ride ahead, clearing the way with effortless sweeps of her power. For now, the world is still. The road will be long, and the darkness is only just beginning. But for the first time in what feels like forever, I feel something I thought I’d lost, hope.
