The battle did not end with a roar but with a shudder, as if Firelonia itself exhaled after being struck too hard.
Bao Bao was the first to feel the shift. The Starless Legion's creatures—those pale, hollow-eyed constructs—collapsed into dust as their controlling sigils shattered. But one of them got too close before fading.
A shard of void-glass ripped across his side.
He staggered, gripping the wound, breath sharp. Not fatal… but deep. Enough to leave him dizzy.
Naelith saw him fall before anyone else.
She ran, her cloak trailing ash. Her hands glowed as she pressed them to his injury, steady but trembling. "You should have stayed behind the shield line," she said, voice low, trying to sound stern. It came out frightened instead.
"You were out here," he replied.
"I'm not you."
"No," he said. "You're worse. You're reckless."
She almost smiled at that—almost—but tears edged her lashes.
Veylara approached a heartbeat later, hair wind-tangled from the fight, breathing hard. She took one look at Bao Bao and narrowed her eyes at Naelith's hands on him.
"You're healing him wrong," she said.
"I'm stabilizing him," Naelith answered without looking up.
"You're smothering him."
"You're late."
"Because I was finishing the job you abandoned."
"Both of you," Bao Bao muttered, wincing, "please… pick a different time."
They ignored him.
Veylara knelt opposite Naelith, her hand hovering just above his wound. "Move," she said. Calm. Too calm.
"No," Naelith said, matching her tone exactly.
Their stares locked—two storms meeting.
Bao Bao felt the tension like static across his skin. It wasn't about the wound. It hadn't been for a long time.
Rana finally intervened, elbows between them, pushing them back like unruly children. "Enough. He needs both of you focused, not fighting."
Reluctantly, Naelith's magic eased. Veylara added her own—cooler, steadier—and the pain dulled. Bao Bao's breathing evened.
But as they worked, a new sound rose behind them: whispers among the Council, sharp and frantic.
The panic had begun.
The Starless Legion had attacked twice now—openly, boldly—and the Council of the Five Flames no longer had excuses or illusions. Their murmurs carried across the battlefield.
"His Majesty predicted none of this—" "Those creatures moved like they knew our defenses—" "What did the king know? What was he hiding?"
Bao Bao turned his head, listening through the haze. The king again. His father again. That shadow he could never escape.
The truth about the king's connection to the Starless Legion was no longer a quiet suspicion. It was becoming the Council's loudest fear.
Naelith noticed Bao Bao's expression shift. She rested a hand on his shoulder—not glowing with magic, just steady. "Whatever they think they know," she said, "we'll face it before they twist it."
Veylara nodded reluctantly. "The Council is desperate. Desperate people lash out."
"At him?" Naelith asked.
"At anyone," Veylara said. "But him most of all."
Their eyes met again—but this time the sharpness had changed. The battle, the injury, the near loss had stripped away the fragile distance they'd been keeping.
For a moment they both simply looked at him—really looked at him—at the man they had argued over, defended, doubted, trusted.
Naelith spoke first, quietly. "I thought… when I saw him fall…"
Veylara finished it. "So did I."
Bao Bao swallowed. "I'm not that easy to kill."
Naelith brushed a thumb across the blood on his cheek. "Don't make me prove that wrong."
And Veylara, softer than she intended, added, "Don't make us prove it."
A strange peace settled between the three of them—uneasy but real.
The battle was over. The creature dust settled. The fires burned low.
But nothing, not the Council, not the king's secrets, not the Starless Legion, was finished.
And now all three of them knew it.
If you'd like, I can continue straight into Chapter 27.