The city did not sleep.
It hunted.
Temple alarms rang across Elaris in long, piercing waves. Ivory-clad guards flooded the streets, their armor reflecting torchlight like shards of broken suns. Sigils flared on rooftops. Search wards activated, scanning for corrupted magic.
Scanning for her.
Aeris ran.
The lower district of Elaris was nothing like the marble terraces near the High Temple. The streets narrowed here, twisting between stacked stone homes and hanging cloth awnings. The air smelled of smoke and iron instead of incense.
Kael moved ahead of her, swift and precise, shadow slipping around him like a second cloak.
"Left," he said.
She obeyed.
A beam of white light streaked overhead, slamming into a distant wall. Stone exploded outward in a spray of dust.
"They're not holding back," she said breathlessly.
"No," Kael replied. "They've moved to eradication."
The word made her stumble.
Eradication.
Like she was rot beneath the skin of the city.
A group of guards turned the corner ahead of them, luminar blades igniting in unison.
Kael didn't slow.
He stepped forward and flicked his fingers.
Shadow peeled off the alley walls, swallowing torchlight and plunging the corridor into sudden darkness. The guards shouted, disoriented.
"Move," he said.
Aeris felt the shadow inside her respond instinctively. It stretched outward, weaving into his magic without instruction.
The darkness thickened.
Not suffocating.
Sheltering.
They slipped past the guards unseen.
When they emerged into the next street, the world snapped back into color.
Aeris pressed herself against the wall, heart racing.
"You could have killed them," she said.
"Yes."
"But you didn't."
"I do not kill blindly."
Her gold-and-black gaze flicked toward him.
"You expect me to trust that?"
"I expect nothing."
That honesty unsettled her more than arrogance would have.
Above them, bells rang again—three sharp strikes.
Kael's expression shifted.
"They're sealing the outer gates."
Her pulse spiked. "Already?"
"You are not a fugitive," he said quietly. "You are an existential threat."
Something inside her recoiled at that.
"Stop calling me that."
He looked at her then—really looked.
"You fractured their certainty," he said. "That is more dangerous than an army."
Another wave of light swept the street behind them, this one stronger—more focused.
Aeris felt it graze her skin like static.
"They've tuned the wards to you," Kael muttered.
She swallowed.
"How?"
"Your magic has a signature now."
Of course it did.
Everything about her was split.
Recognizable.
Traceable.
A heavy pulse rolled through the ground beneath their feet.
Both of them froze.
"That's not a search ward," Kael said.
The air shifted.
Then—
White fire erupted at the far end of the street.
Not from a torch.
From a blade.
High Justicar Alaric Vale stepped through the flames.
Armor gleaming.
Sword burning with concentrated luminar energy.
Guards lined behind him.
Aeris's breath left her lungs.
"Father…"
His gaze locked on her immediately.
Pain flickered there.
But it was buried beneath command.
"Stand down," he ordered.
Kael moved subtly in front of her.
The shadow around him sharpened.
Alaric's eyes shifted to him.
"Noctari filth," he said evenly.
Kael's tone remained calm. "Justicar."
"Release her."
"She is not yours to claim."
"She is my daughter."
The words cracked through the street.
For a moment—
Everything stilled.
Aeris stepped forward slightly.
"I didn't choose this," she said.
"I know," Alaric replied.
Her heart leapt.
But his next words crushed it.
"That does not absolve you."
The guards advanced.
Kael's shadow deepened.
"You cannot outrun the Order," Alaric continued. "Return willingly. We can still attempt containment."
Containment.
Like a disease.
"Separation almost killed me," she said.
"It failed because you resisted."
"I resisted because it was tearing me apart!"
Luminar energy flared brighter along his blade.
"You are being manipulated."
"By who?" she demanded. "Him?"
She gestured toward Kael.
"He hasn't lied to me once."
"And that is how deception works," her father replied.
The shadow inside her stirred, uneasy.
Not at Kael.
At the conviction in her father's voice.
For a flicker of a second—
Doubt slipped in.
Kael sensed it.
"They do not know what you are," he said softly to her, not taking his eyes off Alaric. "And what they do not know, they destroy."
Alaric stepped forward.
"I will not ask again."
He raised his blade.
Aeris felt the light within her respond instinctively.
Not defensively.
Yearning.
It recognized him.
Recognized its origin.
Her breath hitched.
The shadow tightened in reaction.
The two forces pulled in opposite directions—
One toward blood.
One toward truth.
Kael's voice cut through the noise.
"Choose."
Again.
Always choose.
Her father lunged.
Not at Kael.
At her.
The blade came down in a streak of blinding white.
Time slowed.
Instinct exploded outward.
Light surged from her left side.
Shadow lashed from her right.
The two forces met her father's strike midair—
Not clashing.
Merging.
The impact rippled down the entire street.
Windows shattered.
Stone cracked.
Guards were thrown backward.
Alaric staggered but did not fall.
His eyes widened.
Not in rage.
In realization.
The magic around her did not repel him.
It adapted.
Balanced.
The luminar blade in his hand dimmed slightly where her power touched it.
He stared at it as if seeing something impossible.
"You…" he breathed.
Aeris's voice trembled but held steady.
"I am not your enemy."
The ground shook again.
Stronger this time.
From the direction of the High Temple, a pillar of blinding white light shot into the sky.
It wasn't controlled.
It was violent.
Kael turned sharply.
"They've activated the Purge Beacon."
Aeris looked up.
The beam expanded outward like a second sun rising.
"What does that mean?"
"It means," Kael said grimly, "they are not just hunting you."
The beam fractured—
Splitting into dozens of streaks that arced across the sky toward the lower districts.
Where shadow was strongest.
Where the poor lived.
Where Noctari sympathizers hid.
Her stomach dropped.
"They're burning entire sectors."
Alaric's jaw tightened.
"They're cleansing infestation."
Infestation.
The word snapped something inside her.
"That's not cleansing," she said. "That's slaughter."
"It is protection," he replied.
"For who?" she demanded.
A distant explosion rocked the city.
Smoke began rising beyond the rooftops.
Screams followed.
Aeris turned toward the sound instinctively.
Kael watched her.
And understood.
"You wanted proof," he said quietly.
"There it is."
Another blast lit the horizon.
White.
Too bright.
Too merciless.
Her father's voice hardened.
"This ends now."
Guards regained their footing.
Luminar sigils formed in coordinated formation.
A capture net.
Wide enough to swallow the entire street.
Kael stepped closer to her.
"If you stay," he said softly, "they will cage you again."
Another explosion.
Closer this time.
Children screamed somewhere in the distance.
Aeris's heart broke.
"They're using my escape as justification," she whispered.
"Yes."
The shadow inside her burned with fury.
The light within her trembled.
Protection.
Healing.
Justice.
All the things she had been taught.
All the things she believed.
And now—
White magic was tearing through civilians in her name.
Her father lifted his blade again.
"Last chance."
Aeris stepped back.
Not in fear.
In clarity.
"You said I carry your name," she said.
His expression flickered.
"I do."
"Then remember it."
She lifted both hands.
Light and shadow rose together.
Not wild.
Not unstable.
Focused.
The capture net descended.
Her magic expanded outward—
Not attacking.
Redirecting.
The net dissolved midair, threads unraveling into harmless sparks.
Gasps rippled through the guards.
Aeris turned to Kael.
"Take me somewhere they can't reach."
Without hesitation, he reached for her.
But before the shadow could fully wrap around them—
Alaric moved.
Faster than she had ever seen him.
His blade pierced through the merging magic—
And drove forward.
The tip struck her shoulder.
White fire exploded through her body.
She gasped, collapsing against Kael as pain tore through her nerves.
The light inside her recoiled violently.
The shadow roared in fury.
Alaric froze.
Horror crossed his face as he realized what he'd done.
He hadn't meant to kill her.
But he had meant to stop her.
Kael's eyes turned deadly.
"You have made your choice, Justicar."
Shadow erupted outward in a violent spiral, forcing every guard back.
Aeris felt herself being lifted—
Carried.
The street dissolved into darkness.
The last thing she saw—
Was her father standing alone in the ruined alley.
Blade lowered.
Smoke rising behind him.
And doubt finally breaking through his certainty.
They emerged beyond the city walls.
On a cliff overlooking Elaris.
The Purge Beacon burned in the distance like a false star.
Aeris collapsed to her knees, clutching her wounded shoulder.
The white burn mark spread slowly across her skin.
Kael knelt beside her, pressing shadow against the wound.
It cooled the fire instantly.
"You cannot return," he said quietly.
She stared at the city.
At the rising smoke.
At the light that claimed to be holy.
Her voice was no longer trembling.
"I wasn't planning to."
Wind howled across the cliff.
Below them, the forest stretched into darkness.
Ahead—
Exile.
War.
Truth.
Behind—
Everything she had ever known.
Aeris rose slowly.
Her gold-and-black eyes reflected the burning skyline.
"If they want a monster," she said softly,
"They should have been careful what they created."
The storm above Elaris deepened.
And for the first time—
The shadow inside her did not whisper.
It listened.