The following days blurred together. Wake before dawn, descend to the rocky plateau, fight without magic until exhaustion, return to the tower, forced rest. Kael felt his muscles awakening one by one. His bones cracked less. His strikes came more cleanly. Kira, for his part, never seemed truly tired.
They barely spoke during the sessions. Their bodies did the talking. But in the evenings, around the brazier, their tongues loosened.
That night, the wind blew hard. The tower shuddered in gusts. Kira had prepared a rudimentary stew in the pot. Kael ate without complaint, his gaze lost in the flames.
"What are you thinking about?" Kira asked.
"You."
"Me?"
"You've changed."
Kira didn't answer right away.
"I know."
"You're calmer. More solid. Before, you were nervous. Always on edge. Like a dog ready to bite."
"And now?"
"Now you observe. You wait. You think before you strike."
Kira slowly stirred the contents of the pot.
"I had time to learn."
"What did you learn?"
"Many things."
Kael looked at him.
"Then tell me."
Kira leaned back against the wall, arms crossed.
"You really want to know?"
"I wouldn't have asked."
"It's long."
"We have time."
The wind howled around the tower. Kira took a breath.
"After your fall, I left the palace. The Neverdie Realm still stood, but I couldn't find my place. I wasn't an officer. I wasn't a warrior. I was your assistant. And you were no longer there."
"Where did you go?"
"I wandered. First in Noctyra. Then in the human world. I searched for clues. Rumors. Anything that could explain what had happened."
"And you found some."
"Not right away. It took me months to understand that Elara's spell wasn't a simple defeat. That your mind was imprisoned. And even then, I didn't know how to get you out."
"But you kept going."
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because I couldn't stop. Every lead, every fragment of knowledge, every forbidden book… it brought me a little closer. And at some point, I no longer knew if I was doing it for you or for me."
Kael said nothing. He waited.
Kira continued, his voice lower.
"I traveled to places I never could have imagined. Sunken libraries. Abandoned mental prisons. Black markets where stolen memories were sold. I met people who knew things about mind magic. Mad mages, traffickers, exiled scholars."
"And normal people?"
"Also. Mostly."
Kira smiled slightly.
"I lived in a small coastal town for a year. I fished in the mornings. I mended nets in the afternoons. I drank warm beer in the evenings with sailors who talked too loudly."
"You?"
"Me. It might sound strange, but I loved it. The silence. The slowness. The simple gestures."
"What made you leave?"
"A dream. One night, I dreamed of you. Well, not exactly. I dreamed of the scar."
Kira touched his left cheekbone.
"I woke up with a start, with the feeling that you were calling me. And I understood that I couldn't stay there. Not as long as you were imprisoned."
"So you left again."
"Yes. But I wasn't the same. The town had changed me. The people had changed me."
"Changed how?"
"I no longer saw humans the way I used to. As enemies, prey, instruments. I saw them as people. They had lives. Hopes. Fears. They weren't so different."
Kael watched Kira intently.
"You fell in love."
It wasn't a question.
Kira held his gaze.
"Yes."
"Tell me."
"Her name was Lena. She was a fisherman's daughter. Not beautiful in the way you'd mean it. Not refined. But she had a laugh that made you want to stay."
"Where did you meet her?"
"At the harbor. She was mending her father's sails. I helped her carry a crate of fish. She told me I carried like a demon."
A sad smile crossed his face.
"She didn't know how true that was."
"Did you tell her?"
"No. Never. She knew me as Kaelan. She thought I was a wanderer, maybe an old soldier. Not a half-demon."
"Did you love her?"
"More than I ever thought possible."
"What happened?"
"The memory war eventually caught up with us. One night, men came. Trackers. They were looking for information about your awakening. They'd heard about my research. They searched the town, threatened the inhabitants. Lena wanted to help me flee."
"And then?"
"And then they found me. They took Lena. They used her to make me talk."
Kael felt a cold anger rise within him.
"What did they do to her?"
"They killed her. Not because she knew anything. Because she was protecting me. She held them back long enough for the others to escape. She told me to leave."
"And you left."
Kira looked up.
"I killed the men who touched her. All of them. But I couldn't save her."
The wind swept through the tower. The brazier's flames flickered.
"Why are you telling me this?" Kael asked.
"Because you wanted to know what I'd been through."
"No. Why are you telling me this now? After all this time."
"Because you need to know that I'm not the same. I'm not that kid seeking your approval anymore. I loved. I lost. I killed. I nearly died a hundred times. And I kept going."
"For me."
"For you. For me. For her too, in a way. She believed I deserved to find the one I was searching for. She said it was rare, such loyalty."
"She was right."
"Maybe."
Kael stood. He walked around the brazier and sat down beside Kira.
"You carried this alone."
"I had no one else."
"Now you have me."
Kira turned his head toward him, surprised.
"This isn't a declaration of love," Kael clarified. "It's a fact. You no longer have to carry what you've been through alone."
"Neither do you."
"Neither do I."
They sat there, side by side, listening to the wind. The fire crackled softly.
"Did you find their trail?" Kael asked after a long silence.
"The trackers?"
"Yes."
"I killed some of them. The others scattered. They don't know you've returned."
"They will soon."
"Yes."
Kael placed a hand on Kira's shoulder.
"We'll take care of them."
"I know."
"Not out of vengeance. Because they're a threat."
"I know."
But Kael could see the wound was still there, beneath the surface. The grief. The guilt. The rage.
"She loved you," he said simply.
Kira closed his eyes.
"Yes. She loved me."
"Then don't let her death define you. Let it remind you what it feels like to be alive."
"That's what I'm trying to do."
"Are you succeeding?"
"Not always."
Silence fell again. Outside, the night stretched over the mountains, vast and cold.
Kael withdrew his hand.
"Tomorrow, we train again."
"Yes."
"And after that, we'll talk about Lena again."
"Alright."
Kira opened his eyes again. He seemed slightly lighter.
"Thank you," he said.
"Why?"
"For not telling me it was in the past."
"It is in the past. But the past never disappears."
"No. It never disappears."
They exchanged a long look, complicit, marked by years of pain and survival.
Then they stood.
The night continued. The fire continued.
And Kael's training had only just begun.