"Even if you're right—and your punishment ends up being just a controlled amount of violence—you're still on the receiving end of it. How can you be so casual about that?" Marcel asked, peering at the confident sixteen-year-old through the small barred opening in the thick wooden door.
"Are you asking why I'm so calm when I know I'm going to be beaten for your lies?" Orion asked flatly, his tone a mixture of exhaustion and sarcasm.
The three young men on the other side of the door said nothing. The silence in the corridor was thick, heavy with the weight of things unspoken. The faint echo of birds chirping in the distance was the only sound that dared intrude.
Orion looked down and smirked. Then, in a low voice that carried just enough to reach the men outside—though barely discernible to anyone but Samuel, whose hearing was keener than his companions'—he muttered, "I'm no stranger to getting beat up."
Memories of his bouts as a teenage boxer in his previous life flashed through Orion's mind — his many wins, his losses, and the pain that came with them. They had been difficult at the time, but those experiences forged his current grit and resilience.
Xander tilted his head slightly, studying Orion through the bars, or at least the fragments of his figure that were visible in the dim light seeping through the cracks. His sharp eyes glimmered with disdain.
"Are you done?" he asked, his tone dripping with condescension.
Orion didn't answer.
Xander scoffed quietly, as though trying to hold back a cruel laugh. His lips curled into a knowing smirk—the kind that always came before he said something designed to wound.
"You asked why your brother gave you up in exchange for that bottle I handed him, right?" Xander said. Immediately, Orion's intrigue was piqued, though his face betrayed only a cautious stillness. That was exactly the reaction Xander wanted.
"A few hours ago," Xander continued, his voice lowering as though he were recounting a secret, "right after I realized that the girl I slept with was the chieftain's daughter—and that all my efforts since becoming a Foci were about to collapse because that single mistake could cost me this very crucial assignment—a blonde-haired, blue-eyed boy suddenly approached my crew and me. He said he'd overheard our conversation and that he could help."
It didn't take a genius to imagine what had happened next. The instant Eden admitted he had overheard Xander's frantic conversation about accidentally defiling the chieftain's daughter, Xander must have thought about silencing him. From his behavior so far, it wasn't a stretch to assume Xander was impulsive—reckless, even to consider doing that.
After all, what kind of well-adjusted soldier would sleep with a random girl on the very day of such an important mission? Just a little patience or a shred of caution would have saved him from disaster.
Had he bothered to ask, or even pay attention, he would have realized that Azalea was the chieftain's daughter. But instead, he learned the truth the hard way—when he and his men stood before the chieftain at the supplementary military corps welcome ceremony hosted by the chieftain, only to see Azalea standing proudly beside her father, introduced as his only child.
"So," Orion said, glaring through the bars, "what did he ask for in exchange for giving me—his own brother—up to you scumbags?"
Xander grinned like he couldn't wait to say his next few words. "He said he was running out of time and needed a way to stop it before it was too late."
Orion's brow furrowed. A flicker of worry in his eyes as he stepped closer to the barred opening, his voice now sharp and edged with unease.
"Running out of time for what? Stop what before it's too late?"
"Before the wave of rebirth hits," Xander replied, his smirk deepening. "You see, your brother believes he's a Veilborn. And when the wave of rebirth starts, he'll be forced to undergo the tests—just like every other Veilborn. Pass it, and he becomes a Foci like us. Fail, and he turns into a mimic of a Splinter Beast known as a Wraith-Liar."
He paused, letting the words sink in before adding, "I don't know whether your brother's fears are true or not, but he believed in them strongly enough to throw you under the bus for an elixir that could help him skip the tests entirely. That kind of desperation… is worth taking seriously."
Orion's heart sank. His mind went numb for a moment, trying to process what he had just heard.
"Eden… is a Veilborn?" he asked softly, disbelief and shock washing over him like a tide.
Veilborn—a name given to those who would one day become either Foci or Wraith-Liar—were rare beings. Around the sixth month of conception, their bodies develop a new and unique organ—one not found in ordinary humans. It serves as the source of their potential power—the seed of their ability to one day command the world's elemental forces.
That organ was—for lack of a better word—their core, their lifeline. Damaging it could mean death, or something far worse: the irreversible decay of body and mind.
But because of how small and obscure that organ was, identifying a Veilborn before the wave of rebirth was almost impossible. The only way to do so was to open up their body and locate it—a near-impossible task in a maze of flesh and blood that would almost certainly kill them before any discovery could be made.
That then raised the most crucial question: how did Eden know he was a Veilborn at all?
The answer, though, was simple—yet deeply unsettling.
Eden had always been… different.
Unlike most people, his consciousness hadn't been born after his birth. It had awakened before it. While still in his mother's womb, he had developed a mind—an awareness that grew alongside his forming body. He had felt his organs grow, his veins stretch, his heart beat for the first time. He had even felt that strange, foreign organ take root within him—the very same one that marked him as a Veilborn.
Not realizing he was different from the majority of people—believing everyone developed a new organ months after conception—Eden thought he was normal. But the day he discovered the truth, everything changed, and he hasn't been the same since.
When their mentor, Kay, told the brothers about the wave of rebirth—the mysterious tests that all Veilborn faced—Eden's fear had taken root. For years, he dreaded the day he would turn sixteen. And now, that day had come and gone—barely a month ago. The arrival of the supplementary military corps in town only heightened his anxiety, signaling that the wave of rebirth was drawing near.
Eden had no confidence that he would pass the tests. He didn't even know what the tests truly entailed—only that failure meant becoming a monster. And if that happened… he would die— killed by those sent to protect the town.
Then Orion would be left alone, with the impossible burden of taking care of Kay by himself. It was already a struggle for both of them as it was—how could Orion possibly do it alone?
So Eden, desperate and terrified, searched for a way out which brought him to Xander and they made their deal.
He would give up his brother in exchange for the one thing he thought could save him, an elixir that would help him bypass the tests entirely.
Eden had planned to confess everything once Orion's punishment was over. Knowing his brother's forgiving nature, he believed Orion would understand—especially if he revealed his reasons. But now that Orion knew the truth, he couldn't decide whether to pity Eden or hate himself for not realizing what his younger brother was going through.
If anyone deserved blame, it wasn't Eden—it was Xander, who had exploited his brother's fear and used it for his own gain.
But then, another thought struck Orion like lightning. If Xander had such an elixir—one capable of bypassing the tests of rebirth—then why hadn't he simply given it to Eden without a catch? Why the need to make a deal with Eden when it would prevent the appearance of a Wraith-Liar in the town they swore to protect?
Orion's eyes widened as the realization dawned.
"Wait a minute…" he said, lifting his gaze to meet Xander's through the bars. "Our father was a well-informed man. He told us everything he knew about the Foci, about the tests of rebirth, and I remember Eden once asking him if such an elixir could be made. But Father said it was impossible—that the tests were a mysterious phenomenon, beyond human comprehension or interference. So tell me, Xander…" His tone sharpened, every word cutting through the air. "How is it that, in such a short time since then, you have the very same elixir my father claimed could never exist?"