The Black Border was never meant to be crossed from the inside out, or the outside in. It was a dead zone of jagged permafrost and howling mana-storms. Yet, Elara Valeska pressed on. Her cloak was shredded, and her breath came in ragged, frozen plumes.
Without Nix, the cold was an enemy she couldn't negotiate with. She was using a rudimentary mana-skin technique to keep her heart beating, but her reserves were almost gone.
The Breach
As she crested the final ridge of the Cinder Mountains, she saw it: the Black Border Outpost. It looked like a tomb of obsidian.
"Leo..." she whispered.
The perimeter alarms flared—shrieking sirens that echoed off the ice. A squad of Border Wardens, knights who had been "retired" to this godforsaken place, intercepted her.
"Halt, Noble!" the lead warden shouted, leveling a spear. "This is a restricted zone by Royal Decree. Turn back or be treated as a traitor."
Elara didn't reach for a weapon. She reached for the compass Captain Mara had given her. She smashed it on the ground. A wave of shadow-mana erupted, momentarily blinding the wardens. In that heartbeat of chaos, she sprinted toward the main gate.
The Reunion
The gate didn't open; it was melted from the inside.
Leo stood in the doorway. He wasn't the boy who had promised to protect her at the Selection Ceremony. He was taller, broader, and draped in the heavy, scorched dragon-scale mantle. The air around him shimmered with a distortion that made the falling snow turn to steam before it touched his skin.
"Leo?" Elara stopped, her voice trembling.
Leo looked at her, and for a second, his amber-glowing eyes flickered back to the warm brown she remembered. But the change was fleeting. He looked at her like a stranger looking at a ghost.
"You shouldn't be here, Elara," he said. His voice was deeper, vibrating with a metallic resonance. "This place... it isn't for the living."
The Stranger in the Fire
Elara stepped forward, ignoring the blistering heat radiating from him. "They told the world you were dead. I found the manifests, Leo. I found the towers. I know what they're making you do."
Leo looked down at his bandaged hands. "I'm a contingency, Elara. I'm the fire they use to burn the things they're too afraid to touch. I just destroyed a tower powered by people. I felt them die."
"That wasn't you! That was the King's order!"
"It was my hand," Leo snapped, and a spark of black flame hissed at his feet. "The King wants a weapon. Malakor wants a key. No one wants the boy from Hage anymore."
The Broken Mirror
Elara reached out, her fingers inches from his arm. The heat was agonizing, but she didn't flinch. "I want the boy who grew lilies in the mud. I want the boy who told me magic is a mirror."
She touched his sleeve. The dragon-scale fabric was hot enough to sear, but she held on.
Leo flinched as if he had been struck. The "Certainty" he had felt in the crater began to crack. For a year, he had been surrounded by ice, stone, and enemies. Touching her was like being reminded that he was still made of flesh and blood.
But the moment was shattered. A golden light descended from the clouds—a Royal Messenger Eagle made of pure mana.
"Elara Valeska," the King's voice boomed from the eagle. "You have breached a Level-Zero security zone. Return to the Capital immediately for judgment. Leo, escort her to the transport mages. This is a direct command."
The Choice of Silence
Leo looked at the golden bird, then back at Elara. His jaw tightened. He didn't move to escort her. Instead, he raised his hand and—with a casual flick of black fire—incinerated the King's messenger bird.
The silence that followed was heavy. He had just committed an act of open rebellion.
"Go, Elara," Leo whispered. "The King won't kill you—you're a Valeska. But if you stay with me, you're staying with a monster."
"Then let me be a monster too," she replied, her eyes burning with a resolve she hadn't felt since Nix died.