Alliot didn't stop until he reached the outskirts of Wentouk. Not because he o rest—his undead body had no such requirements—but because his mind refused to process what he'd witnessed any further while in motion. The a ruins around him were familiar, f even, their crumbling tours a stark trast to the chaos ing inside his head.

  He stood amid the broken stone pilrs, his firag patterns on a moss-covered wall as if seeking stability from its solid presehe night had desded fully now, the moon casting silver highlights across the rubble. In the distance, Heart of the Forest pulsed with its eternal rhythm, calling to him like a bea.

  But Alliot couldn't face Ainorrh yet. Not until he found some order in his thoughts.

  One hundred lives. One hundred human lives. Snuffed out like dles in a breeze. Even if they were barbarian lives, it was… wasteful…

  Alliot didn't see much, only the reprise of the events he town's wall. But the images refused to settle—rangers falling like withered leaves, their life energy sucked away ibeats. Their bodies crumpled, desiccated husks left as grim markers of Aira's passage. And then Li. Dead, broken Li transformed into... something else entirely.

  She was an enlightened now. But how? At what cost? Supposedly, she was dead before she was transformed. Unnatural! How was that even possible?

  He'd built his entire existence around duty, around order, around the natural progression of things. But this? This was an unbearable disorder, a fual viotion of everything he believed about the enlightened way.

  "We don't force transformation," he whispered to the empty ruins. "It es naturally. Or through the ritual. Not... not like this."

  A fallen n served as his seat as he sank down, head in his hands. The weight of what he'd witnessed pressed against him like a physical force. Aira had raised the dead. Not just animals, like that gnarlfang she'd mentioned. A human. Something even the most potent shamans couldn't aplish.

  And there was something inside him that whispered how useful such power could be.

  That thought terrified him more than anything else.

  The Heart of the Forest hummed with activity even at this te hour. Enlightened moved betwee trees with purpose, their eyes glowing faintly in the darkness. Alliot made his way through familiar paths, his steps automatic despite the heavy burden of his thoughts.

  Ainorrh was waiting for him in her favorite spot, not too far from the Source, as if she'd sensed his approach long before he arrived. And she probably did.

  The High Shaman of Wentouk sat cross-legged on a woven mat, her firag symbols in the air that left faint lumirails. Without looking up, she gestured for Alliot to enter.

  "You've returned soohan expected," she said, her voice carrying a hint of judgment. "And alone."

  Alliot stid just ihe doorway, his posture military in its precision. "High Shaman, I must report a—"

  "Sit," Ainorrh interrupted, finally looking up. Her eyes narrowed as she studied him. "Whatever troubles you so deeply be discussed as equals."

  Equals. The word nearly made Alliot flinch. There was nothing equal about their positions, and they both k. Still, he plied, l himself to a sitting position across from her.

  "Aira killed approximately one hundred humans at Mountain View," he stated ftly. "Systematically. For their energy. To gather suffit skill points."

  Ainorrh's expression remained unged, her fingers tinuing their invisible pattern-making. "Skill points? Iing. And?"

  The single word struck Alliot like a physical blow. "And? They were lives. Potential enlightened. Resources wasted."

  "Resources," Ainorrh repeated, a hint of something—amusement?—c her tone. "Is that your ? The inefficy of it all?"

  Heat rose to Alliot's face. "It was... wrong."

  "Wrong how?" Ainorrh tered. "Were they is? Or the same humans who tortured her panion? Who would have sughtered both of them given the ce?"

  "That's not the point," Alliot insisted. "The point is what she did after. She... she raised Li from the dead. Transformed her. Without a proper ritual. Without a e to the Source."

  Now Ainorrh's fingers stilled. For the first time, something like genuine surprise flickered across her features. "She revived a fully dead human? You're certain?"

  "Yes. Li was dead. I felt her energy signature extinguish pletely. And then... it wasn't. She was transformed. Into one of us."

  The chamber fell silent, the only sound the distant rustling of leaves from outside. Ainorrh's eyes took on a distant quality, focused on something far beyond the wooden walls of her dwelling. When she finally spoke, her voice had a new edge to it.

  "The aberrant has surpassed even my expectations," she said softly.

  "Aberrant," Alliot repeated, the unfamiliar term hangiween them. "Is that what you call her? Not an omniarc?"

  Ainorrh's gaze snapped ba, sharp and assessing. "Been talking to your dissident friends again?" She waved away his startled expression. "Yes, I know about your little gatherings. They're harmless enough... mostly."

  She rose in a fluid motion, moving to a shelf where various tainers sat i rows. Seleg one, she poured a dark liquid into two small cups and offered oo Alliot.

  "Drink. It will help ter you."

  Alliot accepted the cup but didn't drink. "Why did you seh her if you knew what she was capable of?"

  "I sent you because I o kly what she was capable of," Ainorrh corrected, sipping from her cup. "And you… You are as straightforward as an arrow. Running bae as soon as you felt something going against the natural order. And now I've learned something about her abilities. More than I anticipated, in fact."

  "You used me."

  "I assigned you a duty," she tered. "Which you abandoned prematurely."

  Alliot set the cup down untouched, his hands trembling slightly. "I couldn't stay. Not after what I witnessed."

  "A you must return to her."

  "What?" Alliot's voice cracked uncharacteristically. "No. I ot—"

  "You must," Ainorrh cut ione hardening. "Our scouts report they're moving again. Likely heading toward Ziemrot. They'll pass close to our territory."

  "High Shaman, with respect—"

  "This isn't a request, Alliot." The air in the chamber seemed to thin, a subtle pressure building as Ainorrh's power flexed. "She trusts you, or at least accepts you. You may have ruihat. But you'll have to make an effort. We hat eaintained."

  "To what end?" Alliot demanded, his careful trol fraying. "So she sughter more humans? So she raise more undead without proper ritual? Everything she does threatens our bance—"

  "Bance?" Ainhed, the sound sharp and without humor. "We've been banced on the edge of extin for turies. Our numbers dwihe humans breed and multiply. Their teology may be primitive now, but for how long? sidering our life spans, it would be a mere blink of an eye before they would threaten us again. Would you prefer we wait until they rediscover how to hunt us effitly?"

  She leaned forward, her eyes bright with iy. "Aira is a tool, Alliot. A on we direct. With her power at our disposal, we could reshape the retionship between enlightened and humans. We could ensure our survival for millennia to e."

  "At what cost?"

  "Whatever cost necessary," Ainorrh replied without hesitation. "And don't fet your pce. You are a tool as well. Try not to outlive your usefulness."

  Alliot stared at her, truly seeing her for the first time. Had she always been this calg? This ruthless? Or had power and time simply revealed what was always there?

  "The dissident group," he said slowly. "They said you were pnning something. Something that would upset the baween the enlightened settlements. Is Aira part of that pn?"

  Ainorrh's expression softened, being almost maternal. "Oh, Alliot. Always so direct. So... literal." She sighed. "Politics between the enlightened cities has grown stagnant, yes. Ziemrot hoards its earth-shaping. Lamcada keeps its f teiques to itself. Veskai refuses to share elemental water advances. We are meant to be one people, yet we fracture ourselves over petty power struggles."

  She spread her hands. "Aira could ge all that. She bridges the elements in ways we never sidered possible. Imagine what we could learn, what we could bee, if we embraced her methods rather than ging tid traditions."

  "And if the other cities resist this... ge?"

  Ainorrh's smile didn't reach her eyes. "ge always es, whether weled or not."

  The realization struck Alliot like a physical blow. Ainorrh wasn't just pnning to use Aira against humans. She inteo use her against other enlightened settlements if necessary. The implications staggered him.

  "You'll reposition yourself to intercept them tomorrow," Ainorrh tinued as if they'd been discussing something as mundane as patrol schedules. "You'll apologize for your abrupt departure. You'll cim it was necessary to report to me. And then you'll tinue your mission as pnned."

  "And if I refuse?"

  The air pressure in the room dropped suddenly, making Alliot's ears pop. Ainorrh hadn't moved, yet somehow, she seemed rger, more imposing.

  "You won't," she said simply. "Because despite your fusion, your fear, you uand duty. It's woven into your very being. And deep down, you know I'm right. The old ways are failing us. We need new paths forward."

  She was right about ohing, at least. Duty was the foundation of his existehe bedrock upon which he'd built every belief, every a. To abandon it now would be to abandon himself entirely.

  But what if duty itself had bee corrupted?