Chapter 113: When the Lights Fail

Nothing is more seductive than an answer that arrives too easily.

Lyra carries the soul-fragment of the first dragon warden. The revelation changes the meaning of every earlier victory.

A locked route opens, a witness changes sides, and the opposition moves one step sooner than expected.

Kael Rowan keeps the larger goal in view: master each gate discipline before the ash dragon consumes his identity. The immediate problem is smaller, sharper, and impossible to postpone.

They stand close enough to feel the argument beneath the silence. Neither mistakes desire for trust, but neither can pretend desire is absent.

Kael Rowan must choose between the safe version of the truth and the costly one that can still save others.

The recurring signs of ash, runes, dragonfire return with a different meaning, linking this choice to what came before.

A betrayal closes the obvious escape and leaves only the forbidden route.