Kaelen woke slowly, the morning light soft against the shutters.
He was warm. Tangled. One of Lysander's arms lay heavy across his waist; Alistair's chest rose and fell steadily against his back. For a few quiet seconds he simply stayed there, breathing them in, pressing a lazy kiss to the side of Lysander's throat, then turning just enough to brush another against Alistair's shoulder.
Memory returned in pieces.
Aliar's voice the night before. The lowered tone. The reports from the southern marshes. Blue light rising from the ground between the trees. Cultivators who had not returned.
And beneath that memory, the system's quiet, unyielding prompt, unseen by anyone else, unheard by anyone else.
[System Task: Close the newly opened dungeon]
[Reward: Memory Fragment]
[Sub - mission available: Investigate the anomalous lights in the southern marshes.
Time remaining before irreversible escalation: 3 days.
[Failure consequences: regional catastrophe. ]
