⚔️ **CHAPTER 14 — The Kindness That Cut First**
The wilds beyond the Crownlands were nothing like the maps.
No clear roads.
No guiding towers.
Only broken land and older silence.
Kael walked for two days without seeing another human soul. Forests twisted unnaturally, trees leaning inward as if listening. At night, unfamiliar stars watched him with quiet judgment.
*This place hates borrowed things,* the second voice murmured.
"Then it should love me," Kael replied softly. "I don't belong anywhere."
On the third day, hunger slowed him.
That was when he saw smoke.
A small camp rested beside a river—real fire, real people. Three figures sat around it: a broad-shouldered man sharpening an axe, a woman stirring a pot, and a boy not much younger than Kael keeping watch.
Kael hesitated.
Trust was a luxury he could no longer afford.
But hunger made the choice for him.
He stepped into view, hands open.
"I'm not armed," he lied gently.
The axe stopped moving.
The man stood slowly, eyes sharp. "Travelers don't wander here by accident."
"I was exiled," Kael said. Not a lie. "I just need food. I'll trade work."
The woman studied his face, then nodded. "Sit. You look half-dead."
Warm soup burned Kael's throat in the best way. The camp felt… normal. Painfully so.
"I'm **Brann**," the man said. "This is **Seris**. And the quiet one is **Iven**."
Kael gave his name—but not his truth.
That night, for the first time since Valenhold, Kael slept without dreams.
Which should have warned him.
---
He woke to steel at his throat.
The camp was gone. The fire cold. Runes glowed beneath his back, etched into the ground while he slept.
Seris stood above him, eyes no longer kind.
"Don't struggle," she said. "The seal reacts poorly to resistance."
Kael's heart sank.
"Bounty hunters," Brann said from behind her. "Didn't expect the Council to exile you so fast."
Kael laughed quietly. "So that's my worth now."
Iven stepped forward, guilt flickering across his face. "They said you were dangerous."
*They always do,* the second voice whispered.
Kael felt the borrowed power stir—but he held it back.
"I shared food with you," Kael said. "You could've just asked."
Seris's expression hardened. "And risk you running? No. The price on your existence is too high."
Chains of light snapped into place, binding Kael's limbs.
That was when the rune circle cracked.
Not from force—
From **refusal**.
The second presence surged forward, not taking control, but *standing with him*.
Two wills aligned.
The chains shattered.
The ground exploded upward, throwing Brann back. Seris screamed as the seal collapsed. Kael rose slowly, eyes glowing—not violently, but decisively.
"I won't be carried," Kael said. "I won't be traded."
Brann charged.
Kael moved once.
The axe missed. The riverbank split. Brann hit the ground unconscious, alive—but defeated.
Seris fled.
Iven remained, frozen.
"I'm sorry," the boy whispered.
Kael looked at him for a long moment.
Then turned away.
"Don't hunt people just because the world points," Kael said. "Next time, they won't survive you."
He walked back into the forest alone.
Behind him, the second voice spoke, quieter now.
*That was the first.*
Kael nodded.
"Yeah," he said. "And it won't be the last."
Far away, in a tower of white stone, a crystal dimmed.
The Council marked a new truth into their records:
**The anomaly resists capture.**
**Authorization for elimination is now granted.**
And Kael Ardyn's name began spreading through the world—
Not as a vessel.
Not as a mistake.
But as something far more dangerous.
A **choice**.
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