The battlefield of Rhyset Vale burned long before Kael Varos ever lifted his blade.
Smoke choked the sky, thick and copper-sweet with blood. The sun hung low behind a curtain of ash, casting the valley in a bruised orange haze. War banners snapped in the heated wind — gold and crimson of the Sun Dominion against the deep indigo of the Moon Court.
Kael stood at the front line, armor stripped of ornament, flame-gilded pauldrons darkened with soot. He wore no helm. He wanted them to see him.
Across the valley, the Moon Court's shadow guard shifted like a living stain along the hills. Their cloaks drank the light. Even at this distance, the air felt colder near them.
A runner staggered up beside him, face smeared with grime.
"My lord, the left flank is failing. Shadow binders have taken the ridge."
Kael didn't look at him.
"How many?"
"Two hundred Dominion infantry pinned. The umbral lines won't break."
Kael's jaw flexed once.
"Signal retreat?"
"No."
The word was calm.
Too calm.
The runner swallowed. "But—"
Kael stepped forward.
Heat pulsed outward from him in a slow, steady rhythm. The ground beneath his boots dried and cracked. The soldiers nearest to him instinctively gave space.
He drew his blade.
The steel glowed immediately — not red, not orange.
White.
The mark along his forearm flared gold beneath his skin.
Across the field, the Moon Court lines shifted. They felt it.
Good.
Kael lifted the blade skyward.
"Advance."
The Dominion surged.
Arrows blackened the air. Shadow tendrils lashed from the ridge, coiling around soldiers, dragging them screaming into the gloom. Fire met shadow in violent bursts of steam and hissing air.
Kael walked forward into it.
He did not run.
He did not shout.
He walked.
A shadow binder broke from the ridge, hands weaving sigils in the air. Darkness pooled at her feet and surged toward him like a tidal wave.
Kael inhaled.
Rage flickered — controlled, measured.
He exhaled.
The world ignited.
Flame erupted from him in a blinding arc, vaporizing the incoming shadow in a roar of white heat. The binder barely had time to scream before the light consumed her.
The Dominion soldiers roared.
Kael did not.
He continued forward, blade carving through shadow constructs, fire trailing each swing. Three more binders descended upon him at once, shadows threading together to form a massive spear of condensed night.
It struck him square in the chest.
The valley went silent.
For half a heartbeat.
Then the spear cracked.
Light bled through the fissures.
Kael's head lifted slowly, eyes molten gold.
"Is this," he said quietly, "the Moon Court's best?"
The spear exploded outward in a shockwave of fire.
When the smoke cleared, the ridge was ablaze.
Moon Court soldiers scrambled, their formations broken.
Kael stepped onto the ridge alone.
He could feel it now — the edge.
The dangerous place where fire wanted more.
More rage.More destruction.More surrender.
His father had taught him that line must never be crossed.
Fire is a weapon.Not a master.
Below, a young Moon Court soldier stumbled backward, barely more than a boy. His shadow flickered weakly at his heels.
Their eyes met.
Fear.
Kael raised his blade.
And stopped.
The fire recoiled slightly at his restraint, angry at denial.
The boy dropped his weapon.
Kael turned away.
"Retreat," he ordered.
The Dominion forces surged to claim the ridge, but the slaughter slowed.
Below, horns sounded from the Moon Court lines — a controlled withdrawal.
The battle was won.
But not ended.
Kael stood alone at the ridge's edge, looking toward the distant obsidian towers barely visible beyond the valley.
Somewhere within those walls, the Moon Court's ruling council watched through scrying mirrors.
Let them watch.
Let them remember.
The Heir of the Sun Dominion did not lose.
Behind him, General Torvek approached cautiously.
"My prince. Casualties are lighter than expected. Your intervention—"
"Was necessary," Kael said.
Torvek hesitated. "There are rumors among the men."
"There are always rumors."
"They say your flame burned white."
Kael sheathed his blade.
"Men say many things when they are afraid."
Torvek did not press further.
But Kael felt it.
The whisper in his blood.
White flame.
Too close.
He had not surrendered fully — but it had answered faster than before.
Dangerous.
A horn sounded again, distant and unfamiliar.
Not Dominion.
Not Moon Court.
Kael's head turned.
On the far horizon, beyond both armies, a thin column of black light pierced the sky.
Not smoke.
Not fire.
Something else.
The air shifted unnaturally — neither warm nor cold.
Every Solar mark on the field flickered.
Even the remaining shadows stilled.
Torvek's voice was low. "What is that?"
Kael didn't answer.
Because for the first time in years…
His fire recoiled.
Not from shadow.
From something deeper.
Something wrong.
The black column pulsed once — then vanished.
Silence fell across Rhyset Vale.
War had rules.
This… was not war.
Kael's gaze hardened.
"Send scouts."
"Yes, my prince."
As the Dominion secured the ridge, Kael remained motionless, staring at the place where the sky had split.
He did not know yet that in the capital of the Moon Court, a woman with silver-veined skin had felt the same pulse in her bones.
And that soon—
He would be bound to her.
Whether he wished it or not.