Cassian had been unconscious until the stench of ash forced his eyes back open. He gasped, coughing hard as thick smoke poured into his lungs. The pain from Azhur’s blows mixed with the burning heat pressing in from every direction at once. His ribs ached with every breath. His head pounded in time with his pulse.
Then the realization hit him all at once.
Zayd and Aurelia were nowhere to be seen.
Images flashed through his mind Azhur lifting them both over his shoulders, that cold, easy smile, the way he’d simply walked away into the burning forest without a backward glance. What if they’d already been killed? What if they were already gone, and he’d never even get to know?
Without a second of hesitation he pushed himself upright and started running. He hadn’t been out long. If he moved fast enough, he might still catch up. Carrying two unconscious people had to slow anyone down, even Azhur.
Then he stopped dead in the middle of the street.
"My father..."
The thought cut through everything else at once, sharp enough to hurt.
"What if he’s being killed right now? What if I’m too late already?"
"But my friends"
He stood frozen, torn cleanly in half. He could go after Zayd and Aurelia though that would likely end exactly the way the last fight had. Or he could go looking for his father.
He ran.
Not toward the forest.
Not toward his friends.
Into the village. Into the screaming.
The air turned thick and black the instant he crossed into the streets proper. The heat scorched his exposed skin. He didn’t stop for any of it. Houses he’d known his entire life were collapsing in on themselves, roofs falling inward, walls cracking and toppling into the road. And in the middle of it, lying in the dirt, was a body.
"N-no. No, this has to be a dream. There’s no way any of this is real."
It was the old merchant the friendly man who always smiled when Cassian passed his stall, who’d pressed fresh fruit into his hands more times than he could count without ever asking for payment. The same man whose white hair had once been the only other white hair Cassian had ever seen, apart from Aurelia’s.
Dead.
Another body lay across the street from the first. Then another. A woman who used to scold him for running through the square too fast. A boy only a little older than him who’d once shared dried meat with him without being asked. The whole village had been slaughtered, and Cassian stood in the middle of it, entirely alone.
Until
"Hey — there’s another one still alive!"
"KILL HIM!"
Three men charged toward him at once. Cassian didn’t even try to run. Something inside him wanted, quietly, to just let it happen. The old man with the fruit. The woman who always told his father when he’d done something wrong. His friends. Everyone was gone, or as good as gone. If everyone was already gone, what was even left worth fighting for?
He just stood there, ready to take whatever came next.
"CASSIAN, OUT OF THE WAY!"
A familiar voice cut through the roar of the fire. A man carrying two curved, single-edged swords, the steel rippled with a wave-like pattern, sliced through the space between Cassian and his attackers before he’d even finished turning around. Cassian dodged on pure instinct. Vogel used the opening at once, striking hard and fast two of the three men fell back, one of them already down for good.
"Get up, kid. As long as you’re breathing, not everyone’s dead," Vogel said, sliding both swords back into their sheaths in one smooth motion.
"W-what about my f-father?"
"He’s alive."
Hope broke across Cassian’s face so sharply it nearly hurt more than the fear had.
"Come with me, Cassian. We have to move." Vogel hauled him up by the arm.
VRRRR
"I-I can’t move."
A new voice cut through the smoke, calm and almost pleasant.
"To think I’d meet you again, Vogel."
Vogel’s head snapped up. "It’s been a long time."
"That voice" The words had barely left his mouth when both of them were thrown sideways at once by a sudden, invisible force.
BAMMM!
The impact rolled through the entire street. Vogel slammed into a wall hard enough to crack the plaster and slid down it, already bleeding.
"K-Cassian..." His voice came out tight with pain. "T-this girl she’s too strong for me. If I tell you to run, you run. Understood?"
Cassian stared at him. His body refused to obey him.
Run? After everything? He’d already lost Zayd. He’d already lost Aurelia. He couldn’t lose Vogel too. Not on top of everything else.
"B-but"
"No buts." Vogel forced himself upright, tightening his grip on both swords through the pain. "Just run."
Cassian’s fists trembled at his sides. Every instinct in him screamed to stay and fight anyway.
Then
"CASSIAN!"
Vogel’s shout snapped him back to himself. Cassian turned and ran.
One step. Then another. His legs grew heavier with every one of them. Smoke filled his lungs until each breath scraped raw. None of it mattered enough to stop for.
Please. Please let him be okay. His teeth clenched hard enough to ache.
He ran faster. His thoughts dissolved into noise. Zayd. Aurelia. Vogel. His father. Their faces flashed through his mind one after another, refusing to settle.
I can’t lose everyone. Not all of them. Not today.
His breath came in ragged pulls now. Tears started at the corners of his eyes. He wiped them away without slowing down at all.
I already lost my friends. I can’t lose him too.
Then another thought hit him like a physical blow.
What if I’m already too late?
His heart sank straight through the floor of his chest. "No..." He shook his head hard, as if he could shake the thought loose. "No, no, no"
He ran even faster. Vogel had said his father was alive. That had to be enough to hold onto. It had to be.
"Dad..."
For the first time since the fires had started, Cassian let himself hope, just a little. He only had to reach him. Just had to make it in time. Because if his father was still alive maybe, just maybe, there was still something in this burning village worth saving.
He kept running. Footsteps pounded somewhere behind him.
"DON’T LET HIM ESCAPE!"
His heart slammed hard against his ribs. He glanced back over his shoulder three men chasing him through the burning streets now, gaining ground. One of them raised a hand.
"Got you!"
A burst of fire shot toward him. Cassian threw himself sideways. The flames passed inches over his head and slammed into a burning house instead, feeding the blaze higher.
BOOM!
He didn’t stop. "Damn it"
Another man stretched out an arm, and the ground beneath Cassian’s feet cracked wide open. He jumped forward just ahead of it, landing badly, nearly going down. His legs kept growing heavier. His lungs kept burning. He kept running anyway.
Dad. I have to find him.
Another attack came a wave of wind that tore past overhead and shredded a wooden wall just in front of him.
"GET HIM!"
Cassian cut between two burning houses, hoping the narrow gap would slow them down. It didn’t. One of the men slammed a palm flat against the ground, and the air around Cassian turned suddenly, crushingly heavy, forcing his whole body down toward the earth.
"Ghh!"
He fought against it, knees nearly buckling under the weight. He forced himself clear and kept running, gasping.
I can’t die here. Not now. Not before I see him.
Another attack came at him. He twisted at the last possible instant and missed it by less than an inch. The men were closing the gap fast.
"HE’S HEADING TOWARD THE CHIEF’S HOUSE!"
His eyes went wide. They knew exactly where he was going. He pushed harder still. Smoke filled his lungs until his vision blurred at the edges. Everything hurt at once.
Then he saw it.
The familiar house. His father’s house.
His heart skipped painfully. "Dad" He sprinted the last stretch, the men still closing behind him.
He reached the door and stopped, staring at the entrance. This was the place he’d spent his entire childhood where his father had taught him to throw his first punch, where they’d eaten dinner together every night without fail, where everything had always, always felt safe.
Now even this place felt wrong. The door hung half open. Smoke drifted out through the gap.
"Dad?"
No answer.
He stepped inside. Empty. Chairs overturned across the floor. A plate still sitting on the table, food gone cold on it hours ago.
"Dad...?"
Still nothing. His heart sank all over again. "No..."
He stepped back outside. Footsteps, close now. He turned.
The three men had finally caught up, spreading out to surround him from every side at once. Cassian looked from one face to the next. There was nowhere left to run.
One of them smiled. "You really thought you’d get away?"
Cassian backed away, legs shaking, exhausted past the point of caring, barely able to draw breath. He looked behind him. Then ahead. Nowhere left to go at all.
They closed in until his back hit the wall of his own house. Trapped.
One of the rebels raised a hand, power gathering visibly around it. Cassian’s whole body locked tight.
His friends were gone. Vogel was still fighting somewhere behind him. His village was burning to the ground around him. And his father was nowhere he could find.
I’m going to die.
He clenched both fists. He didn’t want to die. Not yet. Not before he saw his father one more time.
"Dad..."
The rebel attacked.
But before the strike could reach him
BOOM!
A powerful force slammed into the man and hurled him clear across the street. The other two froze in place.
Cassian’s eyes went wide. Someone was standing in front of him now. A man, his back turned.
Cassian knew that back. Knew that presence, even through the smoke.
His eyes filled with tears before he’d even fully understood why.
"D-Dad..."