The headquarters of the Black Thorns was not a castle; it was a crumbling stone manor overgrown with sentient, snapping ivy located on the muddy outskirts of the capital.
"Home sweet home," Captain Mara announced, kicking the front door open. "Don't touch the walls. They bite."
Leo met his new squad—a collection of outcasts: a mage who could only animate spoons, a former noble who slept twenty hours a day, and a scout who spoke exclusively in rhymes. They didn't fear Leo. In fact, they barely noticed him. To them, he was just another "broken" knight.
The Joint Mission
The peace didn't last long. The next morning, a high-priority scroll arrived.
"Listen up, weed," Mara said, tossing a map to Leo. "There's a disturbance in the Whispering Ravine. Usually, we'd ignore it, but the Silver Eagles are heading there too. The Magic King wants you 'integrated.' That's fancy talk for 'don't let the nobles kill you.'"
When Leo arrived at the ravine, he found the Silver Eagles already there, looking immaculate in their polished armor. At the front was Elara.
"Leo," she said, her voice a mix of relief and duty. "My Captain sent me to coordinate with you. There are reports of mana-warped beasts attacking the local water supply."
The Depth of the Bond
As they hiked deeper into the damp, fog-heavy ravine, the tension between the two squads was palpable. The Silver Eagles mocked Leo's tattered mantle, but Elara stayed by his side.
"How are you holding up?" she asked softly, her Water Spirit, Nix, swirling around her shoulders like a miniature dolphin made of liquid light.
"I'm tired of people waiting for me to explode," Leo admitted. He summoned a small vine to clear some thorns from her path. "My grandfather says my magic is about life, but all I've shown is destruction."
Elara stopped and reached out, touching the rough fabric of his sleeve. "Magic is a mirror, Leo. If you only see yourself as a monster, the mirror will show you flames. But look at this vine—it's delicate. It's precise. That's the 'you' I see."
The First Test
Their conversation was cut short by a low, vibrating growl. From the shadows of the ravine emerged Mana-Leeches—slimy, obsidian creatures that fed on magic.
"Don't blast them!" Elara warned. "The more magic you throw at them, the bigger they get!"
The Silver Eagles ignored her, firing beams of light that the Leeches simply swallowed, growing to the size of horses.
"Leo, now!" Elara cried.
She summoned a Mist of Stillness, dampening the air to slow the creatures down. Leo understood instantly. He didn't use the Hellfire. He didn't even use his offensive vines. Instead, he knelt and pressed his hands to the mossy ground.
He channeled his mana into the roots of the surrounding trees. Suddenly, the entire floor of the ravine came alive. Thousands of tiny, non-magical root-hairs wrapped around the Leeches' mouths, muzzling them. Since the roots were biological and contained very little raw mana, the Leeches couldn't eat them.
"Water them, Elara!" Leo shouted.
She unleashed a gentle rain, causing the roots to swell and harden, pinning the beasts to the canyon walls. It was a perfect synchronization of nature and spirit.
The Shadow Lingers
The Silver Eagles stood in stunned silence. They had expected a massacre; instead, they saw a commoner and a Valeska noble working in perfect harmony.
As they began to bind the creatures for transport, Leo felt a familiar chill. High above on the cliffside, he saw a shimmer in the air—a man in a black coat with gold lines.
The man didn't attack. He simply raised a hand in a mock salute and vanished into a swirl of golden dust.
"He's watching me," Leo whispered.
"Who?" Elara asked, stepping toward him.
"The clock," Leo replied, remembering the villain's words from his dreams. "It's already started ticking."