Ren unrolled the parchment, scanning the rushed handwriting. As his eyes traced the ink, a tight, heavy knot he had not realized he was carrying finally uncoiled in his chest.
Sirius and Liu had secured the elemental ring…
They failed to retrieve the core, leaving it as a bitter consolation prize for Selthia's surviving horde.
However, claiming the two rings was a massive strategic victory. It guaranteed that the corruption would not possess the complete set of keys required to unlock the third chamber of their ancient vault.
But it was the final paragraph of the report that truly steadied his breathing. It was the only piece of intelligence that genuinely mattered.
In the casualty section, added now the final piece to his knowledge spanning the aftermath of all three fronts, not a single familiar name was listed.
His childhood friends, his mentors, his family, the people he cared about most; they were all alive.
