For several minutes, nobody moved.Patrick stood with one hand resting against the hilt of the Blazing Sword, watching the others across the narrow stone passage while the faint silver light from deeper inside the ruins pulsed against the walls. It was not bright enough to illuminate the entire chamber, yet it was impossible to mistake where it came from. Heather had her bow in her hand.Borius had his spear.Seth stood slightly behind them, looking between everyone with an expression that was far more serious than Patrick had become accustomed to seeing on the centaur's face.Lucy said nothing.Neither did Dwayne.Patrick finally broke the silence."We're going forward."Heather's eyes moved toward him. "After what he told us?""Yes."Borius gave a humorless laugh. "You still trust him?""No."Dwayne's expression tightened, but he did not argue.Patrick looked at him directly."But I don't think we have to trust someone completely to know when we need what they know."Dwayne lowered

The five words remained carved in light across the floor.POWER REQUIRES A CHOICE.Patrick stared at them while the medallion continued to pulse in Lucy's hand, each faint glow sending a ripple of silver across the chamber. Nothing attacked them. Nothing moved. Yet Patrick had the distinct feeling that the entire room was waiting for one answer.Lucy was the one who had to give it.He could see the conflict in her face now, and for once he did not try to pretend that he could not understand it.She wanted the power.That much was obvious.Perhaps she had wanted it for longer than any of them realized.Patrick remembered the conversation they had shared days ago, when she had spoken about what it would be like to possess enough strength that nobody could ever defeat her again. At the time, he had noticed something strange in the way she said it, but there had been too many other dangers surrounding them for him to press the matter.Now the medallion had taken that buried desire and pla

"How much farther?" Seth asked.Dwayne looked ahead."I don't know."Seth sighed."You really should stop saying that.""I'd rather tell you I don't know than lie.""Fair enough."Patrick continued walking.The stone path beneath their feet narrowed as they approached the platform on the other side of the cavern. There was no railing, and on either side the ground dropped into darkness. Patrick could not see the bottom, only the pale glow of energy far below.Heather stayed close to the wall.Borius walked beside her with his spear ready.Lucy was between them and Patrick.She had said very little since leaving the chamber.Patrick had noticed that.He had also noticed that she was walking more slowly than before.Every few steps, she touched her chest as though checking whether her mana had returned.It hadn't.At least, not yet.Patrick glanced at her."You okay?"Lucy looked up."Yes.""You don't have to keep saying that."She gave him a small smile."Neither do you."Patrick looke

For several seconds, none of them moved.The road stretched ahead through the trees, pale beneath the afternoon light, and beyond it sat the settlement with its unfamiliar black-and-red banners hanging from wooden poles. They moved gently in the wind, almost lazily, as though nothing in the world had changed.But Patrick knew something had.He could feel it.Not in the trees or the road or even the strange pull of the medallion against his chest, but somewhere deeper, in the uneasy silence that had settled over the group.They were home.That should have been enough.Instead, every instinct in Patrick's body was telling him to turn around."Patrick," Lucy said quietly.He looked at her.She was staring toward the settlement, her expression difficult to read. Since leaving the medallion chamber, she had been quieter than usual, and Patrick had noticed it even though he had deliberately avoided pressing her. Her mana was still severely restricted after the price the medallion had taken

Patrick had learned a long time ago that silence could be more dangerous than noise.Noise told you where the enemy was.Silence made you wonder.They spent the remainder of the night moving through the ravine, keeping as far away from the Imperial patrols as possible, and although nobody complained, Patrick could feel the question hanging between them with every step.Where was General Titus?More importantly, what had happened to him?Patrick remembered the last time he had seen the man.Titus had been proud, stubborn and infuriatingly confident, the sort of man who seemed to believe that every room belonged to him simply because he had spent enough years commanding people inside it. Their first encounters had been anything but friendly, and Patrick had never forgotten the way Titus had looked at him when they fought.Not with fear.Not even with hatred.With the certainty that Patrick was a problem that could eventually be dealt with.Yet circumstances had forced them into an allia