The wind over the Burning Planes carried ash and the smell of old smoke.
Kaelith sat on the crumbling edge of the watchtower, legs dangling over a hundred-foot drop into red stone. Cigarette smoke curled from his fingers and vanished into the dry air. Below, the planes stretched out like a burned map, cracked and quiet.
Cyrin leaned against the tower's stone pillar, arms crossed. He didn't smoke. He watched Kaelith instead, like he was trying to figure out how much of him was still there after everything.
"You look like hell," Cyrin said finally.
Kaelith exhaled a thin line of smoke. "I feel like I've been dragged through hell and asked to pay rent."
They were quiet for a while. In the distance, the sky was still stained faint orange from the fires of the last battle.
_The Burning Planes._
"Dragon's Teeth held," Cyrin said. "You heard?"
Kaelith nodded. He tapped ash off his cigarette. "Thane Stonefist and Bracken Ironbeard. They sent a raven two nights ago. Said the walls stood. Said the courtyard didn't."
Cyrin's jaw tightened. "Ravenna hit them with everything. Shadows, undead, Lilith herself. They should've broken."
"They would have," Kaelith said. "If it weren't for Keiran Vexar."
Cyrin looked up at that. "The kid from Burning Valley."
"Harlen's nephew. Vexar bloodline." Kaelith's voice was low. "Fire woke in him during the siege. He rode alone through the pass and split Ravenna's line with a wall of flame. Ember's Fury, they're calling the blade now. Without him, Dragon's Teeth would've fallen before dawn. Erenhall's north would be gone."
Cyrin let out a breath. "So the old blood isn't dead. Good. We'll need it." He paused. "Kid's got a target on him now. Lilith saw him. She won't forget."
Kaelith took another drag. "Ravenna pulled back. Lilith vanished. But that's the problem. We haven't heard a whisper from the rest of the Shadow Army since."
Cyrin's eyes narrowed. "No scouts. No patrols. No raids. It's like they dissolved into smoke."
"They're regrouping," Kaelith said. "Or they're moving somewhere we aren't looking. Ravenna doesn't retreat unless she's planning something worse."
Cyrin nodded, then shifted to the other threat. "Valen Ashencrow's army is still marching. Redkeep is the line in the dirt."
Kaelith's mouth curved, but there was no humor in it. "Garrick Blaze finally gets his war. He's been waiting for it since the day Valen burned his outpost ten years ago. He's been sharpening that axe like it's a prayer."
"If Redkeep falls, the west opens," Cyrin said. "If Garrick holds, Valen bleeds. Either way, it'll be a slaughter."
They fell quiet again. The ash in the air settled on Kaelith's boots.
Then Cyrin said it. The name they'd both been avoiding.
"Claude."
Kaelith's cigarette paused halfway to his lips.
"My brother," Cyrin said. "Elder brother. Commander of the White Lions. Still holding the river line for Ardentia. Or he was."
Kaelith finished the cigarette, crushed it under his boot, and lit another.
"He's gone," Kaelith said. The name felt heavy. "Corvus used him. Turned him. Sacrificed him for the Shadow King's resurrection."
Cyrin's knuckles went white against the stone. He didn't speak for a long time.
"And I avenged him," Kaelith said quietly. "He manipulated Claude, used him, fed him to the Spires.
Kaelith's voice went low. "I didn't give him a second chance. I burned him. My flames took him. Corvus died screaming in fire, just like Claude did in the battle of cinderfall in erenhall . Claude's death was avenged."
Cyrin stared out over the Planes. His throat worked, but no words came at first.
"He didn't die alone," Kaelith said. "And he didn't die unavenged."
Cyrin closed his eyes for a moment. "Then we find him. Before the Shadow King does. Before there's nothing left of Claude to bring back."
Kaelith looked at him for a long moment. Then he nodded.
The wind picked up, carrying more ash. Somewhere far off, a war was marching toward a keep. Somewhere else, a black banner waited in the trees. And somewhere in the dark, Ravenna's army was silent.
Too silent.
Kaelith lit his second cigarette. "One war at a time, Cyrin."
Cyrin smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes. "We don't have that luxury anymore."