The wind screamed.
Thal ignored it. He held Neo against his shoulder as they arced over Lion's Gate's northern district, the city blurring below. He landed on the great outer wall with a sound like stone breaking.
Dust exploded outward. Thal didn't stumble. He set Neo down, his bare feet gripping the weathered stone, toes curling against the rough surface. The new kilt settled around his waist, the fabric still stiff from Merek's shop.
Alinda landed behind them, her boots skidding. She straightened slowly, her long white hair settling around shoulders that sagged with weight. Her pale face was turned downward, crimson eyes dimmed.
"I failed him," she said, her voice barely carrying over the wind. "I walked out and I didn't see it. I didn't know until he told me."
Thal turned on her immediately, his eyes already slit, gold bleeding into black.
"You left him."
Alinda's head snapped up, the dejection cracking open to reveal heat. "I know I left him! I was in that back room while an Archon was sizing him up. I get it, Thal. I screwed up but you standing there throwing it in my face like I don't already have it carved into my skull isn't helping."
"You don't get to be dejected," Thal said, his voice dropping low as he stepped toward her. "You walked out blind. Velmyn could have been standing right next to him, wearing a second body, and you wouldn't have seen it because you didn't know what to look for. That's how he works. He tells you just enough to make you doubt — leaves you in the space between knowing and not knowing until your own mind does the rest. And you walked straight into it."
He stopped, jaw tight, certain he'd said the thing that ended it.
"Wouldn't I?" Alinda laughed, sharp and bitter. "You just said it yourself. Sound familiar, Thal?"
She stepped closer. "You tell me to keep him safe but you don't tell me from what. You leave me in that same space — between knowing and not knowing — and then you blame me when I fill the gaps with my own assumptions."
"And you know what the worst part is?" She turned to Neo. "Velmyn knew. He looked at Neo and said 'Thal never told you.' He used your secrets against us."
Thal turned away from her. "We're done with this."
"We're not," Alinda said. "You trust me with his life. You hand me the boy and walk away and every single time I'm supposed to keep him breathing on nothing but instinct and half a picture. I'm making decisions in the dark, Thal. About threats I don't have names for, because you never gave them to me."
"You know what you need to know."
"I knew what you gave me," Alinda said. "That's not the same thing." The heat in her voice dropped into something quieter and harder. "The silence isn't protection." She glanced at Neo then, just briefly. "It's control. And he's been living inside it his whole life."
Thal's jaw tightened. "That's enough."
"No, it's not." Neo's voice cut through, deeper than before, steady despite the shaking in his hands. Both Thal and Alinda turned to look at him. He stood away from the merlon now, his brown eyes fixed on Thal, his jaw set. "Velmyn said you never told me. He said it like a weapon, like he knew exactly how much it would hurt and he's right, isn't he? You never tell me anything."
Thal's expression shifted, the black in his eyes stuttering. "Neo—"
"Don't." Neo stepped forward, closing the distance, and despite the height difference, he didn't flinch. "You keep me in the dark 'for my own good.' You treat me like I'm still ten years old hiding in a cellar but I'm not, Thal. I'm not ten and ever since Quincy died, you've been locking everything up tighter."
Thal's jaw tightened. "You want to know why I don't tell you shit?"
"Yeah," Neo shot back. "I do."
Thal looked at him for a long moment. Something moved behind his eyes and was put back down. "You're Kruu'Voth," he said. "That's why they want you. That's why I keep you close. That's enough for now."
"That's not an answer," Neo said. "That's what you always do. You give me the edge of it and call it the whole thing."
"It's what you need—"
"Don't." Neo's voice cracked on the word, harder than he meant it. "Don't tell me what I need. Velmyn told me the King doesn't want me dead. He told me you never told me things. He said it like he'd been watching us for years and knew exactly which door to knock on. So whatever you're protecting me from — it already knows where I live."
Thal's jaw worked. He looked away, out over the city below, and for a moment he was simply still.
"Fine." He exploded forward, closing the distance in one stride. He grabbed Neo's arm — not hard, but grounding — and turned him toward the city below. "You're a Kruu'Voth. One of three. There can only be three in existence at any given time — never more, never less. Velmyn is one. The King has another. And you—" His grip tightened. "—you're the third."
The words hit like a physical blow. Neo's breath caught, his eyes going wide.
Alinda's head snapped toward Thal, her crimson eyes widening. "Three?" she breathed. "What do you mean, three?"
"Exactly what I said." Thal shot her a glance, his voice sharp as a blade. "This isn't common knowledge, Alinda. Not even among the Nephilim. Only the Voth know, and they don't share."
He turned back to Neo, leaning down, his face inches away. "That's why Velmyn sought you out. You're his brother in this, whether you want to be or not. The triad only functions when all three are turning, and the King needs you to complete the set."
Neo swallowed hard. "How do you know this? If no one knows—"
"Because I get involved," Thal said. "I walk where they don't. I see the patterns they ignore." His jaw tightened. "That's all you get."
He finally released Neo's arm. He turned away, pacing toward the merlon, his fists clenching at his sides.
"But you're different," Thal continued, his voice rising, raw and jagged. "Kruu'Voth abilities develop based on environment — what they need, when they need it. Velmyn's gift is multiplicity. He can be in many places at once, many bodies, one mind. It grew from needing to scatter himself — to be nowhere and everywhere so no single hand could hold all of him."
He stopped. His right hand unclenched, then slammed into the stone merlon.
Crack. His hand sank into the stone. He held it there, fingers curled inside the solid rock, and when he opened them—just flexing outward—the stone carved itself into channels around his palm like wet clay. Dust drifted down.
"Your gift—" Neo flinched. Gift? "—grew from following me." Thal caught the look on his face, jaw tightening. "Not a gift. A wound that learned to open doors. You bled into the void until it recognized your shape."
He turned back. "You should have died," Thal said bluntly. "When you were six. You followed me into a tear in reality. You stepped into the Rim and you should have frozen. Your Dustborn body isn't made for the space-between."
He stepped closer, and suddenly the air felt heavier. Not from anger — from presence.
"I exist in both realms," Thal said. "Empyrean and Rorrim. Always have. Nothing else does. Not mages. Not gods. Not even other Kruu'Voth." He jabbed a finger into Neo's chest, hard enough to push him back a step. "But you leaked into where only I should exist. You imprinted on the Rim. You carry my shadow in the void between worlds. You're the only one. Ever."
Neo's hand drifted to his chest, fingers brushing the gem hidden beneath his clothes. "The cold," he whispered. "When you're near. That feeling like something is standing behind you."
"That's your shadow in Rorrim," Thal said. "Small. Faint. But real. That's why Rikia felt pressure when she looked at you. Why Sera froze. They don't know what they're sensing, but their instincts know you're anchored somewhere you shouldn't be."
Alinda stepped forward. "If the Rim is only for your kind and he's not your kind—"
"Then he is a bridge where there should be a wall," Thal said.
"And here's what no one else knows, what the histories don't record," Thal continued, turning back to Neo. "The Kruu'Voth are the natural enemy of the Triad. Always have been. Three against three. If all three Voth align—"
He spun back, eyes blazing. "So yeah, I keep you in the dark. I don't give a shit if you're twenty-four or fucking one hundred — you're a child to me. I will not apologize for trying to keep you from being the third gear in their machine, even if that means you hate me for it."
He stepped closer, his voice dropping to a ragged snarl. "The more you know about what you are, the stronger the pull. The triad calls to itself, Neo. The second you accept it, the second you embrace it, they can find you. They can track you through the resonance and I will not let them take you."
He turned away again, shoulders rigid. "And now every single Archon who was listening knows that the third gear has been named. The King knows you're aware. Velmyn knows you're aware and they'll come faster now, because you can't unring that bell."
The wind howled between them, cold and sharp.
Neo stood frozen. Alinda moved to his side, her hand finding his wrist, grounding him.
He started toward the stairwell. "We're going to the safehouse. Now. You want to be angry at me for keeping you in the dark? Fine. Be angry — but you walk behind me, you keep your head down, and you don't ask any more questions until we're behind wards. Understood?"
Neo nodded, mute, his brown eyes still wide with the weight of what he'd learned.
They descended in silence, the three of them moving through the narrow stairwell with Thal in the lead, Neo following with dazed steps, and Alinda bringing up the rear, her eyes scanning every shadow. The air grew colder, damper. Neo's hand drifted to his chest again, feeling the gem, feeling the phantom chill of something he now had a name for.
Halfway down, Alinda spoke.
"Thal," she said. "That shadow. If they can feel him in the Rim—"
"They can hunt him there," Thal said from below, voice echoing off cold stone. "The King doesn't just want a warm body to complete the set. He wants a Kruu'Voth who can walk in the space-between."
Neo stopped on the stairs. "I'm a weapon."
Thal's voice floated up from the darkness. "You're a doorway. And if they get you to believe you're one of them — if you accept the triad — you become the key to a door they thought was sealed against them forever."
Neo didn't answer. He kept walking.
When they emerged onto the street, the late afternoon sun hit them like a mockery. The merchant district bustled around them, oblivious to the fact that one of the Three had just been named on a wall.
Thal spotted Valen immediately — leaning against the doorframe of Joren's open forge, arms crossed, looking bored and impatient in equal measure. He straightened when he saw them, relief washing over his face, then confusion as he took in their expressions — Thal's rigid fury, Neo's stunned silence, Alinda's protective stance.
Further down, at the entrance to Sera's shop, Tar stood waiting, his massive bovine head bowed, his single eye fixed on the ground. The minotaur's usual imposing presence seemed diminished somehow, weighed down by a heaviness in his shoulders that spoke of shame.
"Finally," Valen called out. "What happened? You all look like someone died."
"Not now," Thal growled.
Valen's eyebrows rose but he knew better than to press. He jerked a thumb toward the forge's interior. "Merek's been waiting. He's got the rest of your kit laid out in there."
Thal turned to Neo. The boy wouldn't meet his gaze — just stared at some point over Thal's shoulder, jaw tight, hands stuffed in his pockets.
"Tar," Thal called down the street.
The minotaur's great head lifted. He moved toward them with slow, heavy steps, and when he reached Neo's side, he dipped his head in silent acknowledgment.
"Go with them," Thal commanded, nodding toward Neo and Alinda. "Keep them safe."
Tar rumbled then, low and mournful, taking his place beside Neo, his shadow falling over the boy like a protective canopy.
Neo finally looked up. "You're not coming?"
"I'll meet you at the safehouse," Thal said. His voice came out rough, scraped thin. "Go with Alinda. Just go."
Alinda's hand found Neo's arm, gentle but insistent. "Come on. We need to move."
Neo hesitated another heartbeat, searching Thal's face for something — absolution, perhaps, or explanation. Thal gave him neither. He stood motionless, golden eyes flat as coins, until Neo finally turned away.
Thal watched them go. Neo's broad shoulders, Alinda's pale form in her black armor, Tar's massive silhouette towering over them both, until they disappeared around the corner.
"Thal," Valen said quietly.
"What?"
"Your hand."
Thal looked down at his right hand. He'd been holding it clenched so tight that his fingernails had cut crescents into his palm, blood welling up and dripping onto the cobblestones below. He hadn't noticed. He never noticed anymore.
He relaxed his fingers. The wounds closed instantly, flesh knitting together without leaving so much as a scar, the blood drying to rust on his skin.
"Doesn't matter," he said.
Valen sighed and gestured toward the forge. "Let's get you inside."
Thal followed, but his gaze lingered on the corner where Neo had disappeared — aware that he had just told the boy he was an impossibility, and that somewhere in the city, Velmyn's many eyes were already adjusting to hunt the only Kruu'Voth who could walk where gods walked.