For the first time, Kael considered the unthinkable.
What if he could be replaced?
The idea terrified him not because he feared death, but because he feared failure. Passing the burden meant risking the world.
Yet clinging to it forever meant eventual collapse.
He began to search not for power, but for compatibility. Souls capable of restraint. Of choice. Of humanity under pressure.
He found none immediately.
That was both comforting and alarming.