The torches along the corridor flickered as Seris leaned heavily against the cold stone wall, her breathing shallow and ragged.
She shouldn't be here, she shouldn't care.
But every beat of her heart hammered the same truth into her bones: Kael was gone, and some part of her soul had gone with him.
Duty or not, loyalty or not, she could no longer pretend the emptiness didn't hurt.
Find him.
The thought was a constant drumbeat behind her eyes, impossible to silence, she straightened, pulling her cloak tighter around her. Somewhere beyond these walls, Kael suffered. And somewhere in the dark, her memories ,
their memories, waited for her to be brave enough to claim them.
Tonight, she would not be the empire's pawn.
Tonight, she would be the woman she had once been, the woman who loved a boy with fire in his blood and the weight of kingdoms on his shoulders.
Seris made her way back to her chambers, moving quickly but carefully. If anyone saw her now, lingering where she had no reason to be, the council would suspect.
They already questioned her loyalties, she had heard the whispers:
"The Commander grows soft.
The prisoner has poisoned her mind."
They weren't wrong.
But they had no idea how deep the poison ran, or how sweet it tasted.
Once in the safety of her chambers, Seris threw the bolt across the door and collapsed into the chair by the hearth, trembling.
The flames licked at the air, casting long, trembling shadows across the floor. She stared into them, her mind slipping sideways into memory.
Memory Flash
A field of gold at sunset.
Kael chasing her through the tall grasses, both of them breathless with laughter.
When he caught her, they tumbled together, limbs tangled, hearts pounding.
He kissed the tip of her nose, grinning like a fool.
"You're mine," he whispered. "Even if the gods tear the world apart."
And she had believed him.
The memory burned so fiercely that Seris rose without thinking, pacing before the fire like a caged thing.
Where had they taken him?
What were they doing to him?
She thought of the empire's interrogators, their methods cruel and merciless.
A cold dread coiled in her stomach.
If Kael remembered her fully, if he refused to bend, they would break him.
Or kill him.
And she would lose him all over again.
The thought was unbearable.
With sudden resolve, Seris crossed to the hidden panel in the far wall.
It was a secret only the highest commanders knew, a forgotten passageway that wound through the castle like a vein through stone.
She had never used it before.
Tonight, she would.
Wrapping herself in a dark cloak, she slipped into the narrow passage, the torchlight swallowed instantly by darkness.
Each step echoed with the weight of betrayal.
Not of the empire, but of herself.
Because she knew, deep down, this wasn't about loyalty or treason, it was about love, a love she had never truly forgotten.
Elsewhere ,The Holding Cells
Kael hung from the chains, his body battered, his spirit bleeding.
The interrogators had been relentless, questions, pain, more questions.
But he had said nothing, not because he was strong, but because he was stubborn, because he could still feel her.
Even now, even here, he felt Seris's presence like a flame flickering in the distance, she remembered, he had seen it in her eyes.
And so he endured.
Every lash, every cruel word, every moment of agony, he bore it all for the chance that she might come back to him.
That they might have even a sliver of the life they had lost. He closed his eyes against the pain, and somewhere deep inside, he whispered to her across the darkness:
"Lyra, come back to me.
Seris — Secret Passage
The passage opened onto a side courtyard, half-buried in snow. Seris moved quickly, her heart hammering so hard it hurt.
She knew where they would keep a prisoner, too valuable, and too dangerous, to kill without council approval.
The old tower. Once a watchtower, now a place where the empire's worst enemies disappeared.
Her boots crunched softly over the frost-hardened ground as she slipped from shadow to shadow, the night wind slicing at her face.
When she reached the edge of the tower's walls, she paused, pressing herself against the stone.
A single guard paced before the door, one.
They underestimated her, good. She moved like a ghost, silent and swift.
Before the guard could even cry out, she had him disarmed and unconscious at her feet.
She caught the keys from his belt and slipped inside the tower, her heart pounding.
The air reeked of damp and blood.
She moved downward, descending into the bowels of the tower where the worst secrets were kept.
And at the end of the hall, behind a heavy iron door, she felt it, like a heartbeat.
Kael.
Inside the Cell, Kael stirred as the lock clicked. His senses, dulled by pain, sharpened instantly.The door creaked open, and he blinked against the sudden torchlight.
At first, he thought it was another dream, Seris, standing there, cloaked in shadow and fury, her eyes burning with something wild and unchained.
He thought he might weep, instead, he managed a crooked smile.
"Took you long enough," he rasped, his voice barely more than a whisper.
Seris
The sight of him shattered something inside her, bruised, bloodied and shackled like an animal.
This was what they had done to the boy she had once loved, this was what they had made her forget.
Rage flared inside her, sharp and terrible. Without a word, she crossed the cell and began working at the shackles, her fingers trembling.
"Don't," Kael said weakly. "If they catch you—"
"Let them," she hissed, the words ripped from her chest. "Let them try."
The last shackle clattered to the ground.
Kael sagged into her arms, and for a moment, they simply clung to each other, breathless. Two broken pieces trying desperately to fit back together.
Memory Flash
A stolen night in the woods.
Her hands in his hair.
His breath warm against her throat.
A promise made with lips and tongue and heart:
"No matter what comes, I will find you."
Present
Seris drew back just enough to cup Kael's face between her hands, tears blurred her vision.
"I'm sorry," she whispered. "I forgot. I let them take you from me." His hands came up, weak but certain, covering hers.
"No," he said hoarsely. "You found me. That's what matters."
And in his gaze, she found not blame, but faith.
Faith that even after everything, they could still find their way back.
Outside the tower, a horn sounded, sharp and shrill.
The alarm, they had been discovered.
Kael's body tensed, but Seris only smiled grimly, helping him to his feet.
"Come on," she said. "We're not done yet."
Together, they stumbled into the shadows, fleeing into the cold and the dark.
But for the first time in a long, long time, Seris didn't feel alone, she felt alive.