After about four hours after the attack, the worst of the screaming had faded, not because the pain had gone, but because the wounded had... no energy left.

People were still moving. The ones who could be healed were healed; those who couldn’t... they... they were being given momentary relief, dulling their senses during their... last moments so they could say their goodbyes.

Others were cleaning—debris, the blood, everything. Some were lifting the stones, some had already started rebuilding, while some... had returned to their quarters.

During all this, Kael stood near the center lane of the Stonefang Quarter, where the snow had turned dark from ash and blood. Together with him were Aurelia and Lavinia.

Aurelia had asked a question, and Kael—

He had decided to answer.

He told her what he knew, about the tribes gathering outside, about Stonefangs coming to them, the outsiders helping Stormcallers—everything.

And once Aurelia was up to date—

"That makes more sense."

She spoke, nodding to herself, as if something that wasn’t making sense in her mind finally did.

"What does?"

Kael turned toward her and asked with a frown.

Aurelia did not answer immediately.

Instead, she crouched and picked up one of the black shards with two fingers. Then she looked at it closely. It looked like... glass.

Aurelia’s gaze went distant for a moment, like she was looking into an old memory.

Then she spoke.

"These shards... were popular in the Main World twenty years ago."

"Popular?"

Kael tilted his head.

"Popular in war, for raids, for... killing fast."

Aurelia nodded.

She rubbed the shard between her fingers. Then she flicked it. It made a thin, sharp sound.

"The Sky Kingdom created the first versions thirty years ago. We called them Blackened Death. They explode into shards that cut deep and burn if the core powder is mixed right."

Kael’s throat tightened at those words. Lavinia narrowed her eyes, understanding what Aurelia was trying to say.

"Stormcallers shouldn’t have this."

She muttered.

"They shouldn’t."

The Sky Serpent General nodded. She then tossed the shard back into the snow.

"This is not a level of craft a tribe in this place should have. Someone gave it to them."

Kael clenched his fists. Aurelia, however, wasn’t done yet. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

"And there is more."

She muttered.

Kael frowned. Aurelia then pointed at the sky.

"Airborne attacks are not simple,"

She began.

As someone from the Sky Kingdom, she knew about these matters more than anyone here did.

"To be as clean, timed, and accurate as this... one needs... proper training.

And more than proper training, one needs... proper artifacts."

"Artifacts?"

Lavinia tilted her head.

Aurelia nodded. She then glanced at the broken roofs, the center lane, the patterns of the blast marks.

"To avoid your scouts’ eyes, they would have had to fly high. Very high. Higher than a normal glider would dare. Higher than a rider without proper artifacts could survive for long."

"Why?"

Kael frowned. Aurelia’s eyes flicked to him as she answered.

"Because the higher you go, the less air you have."

And Kael’s expression changed.

He...

He hadn’t thought of that yet.

His mind was so occupied by the thought of the enemy breaching the wall without him knowing that he never once gave it clear thought.

Aurelia, on the other hand, continued—

"A human can’t stay that high for long. Not without coughing blood. Not without their vision blurring. Not without losing their hands and dropping whatever they’re holding."

Kael nodded at those words. Aurelia lifted her hand and pointed at the sky.

"So if they did this from above, they had help.

They had tools.

An artifact that keeps the body working by pushing air into it."

Something like an oxygen cylinder.

Kael thought inwardly, and his jaw tightened.

Aurelia’s gaze hardened as well.

"All of this makes one thing clear."

"Stormcallers didn’t do this alone."

Lavinia spoke.

Aurelia looked at her for a long second.

Then she nodded.

"Someone helped them.

And that someone is from the Main World."

Kael’s fists clenched.

Lavinia’s face did not change, but her eyes turned sharper, colder, like a plan was forming behind them.

Kael’s mind was moving quickly as well.

This wasn’t news for them. He knew Stormcallers had help—he even had a rough guess as to who that help was.

Both he and Lavinia did.

Aurelia stared at them in silence, reading their faces, then—

"Even if it is Drakthar, you won’t have evidence."

She spoke directly.

Kael and Lavinia looked at her, and Aurelia continued—

"Not the kind you can use.

Drakthar would never place himself directly inside this."

"Because of the treaty."

Lavinia narrowed her eyes.

"Because of the treaty."

Aurelia nodded.

Kael’s fingernails dug into his palm. His anger rose, but together with anger, there was something else.

Helplessness.

After all, even if he knew Drakthar was behind this...

There was nothing he could do about it.

He had no proof. Even if he tried to find something, Drakthar wouldn’t have left anything—not something he would be able to find anytime soon.

Aurelia, on the other hand, looked away from Kael and scanned the quarter.

She looked at the Velmourn soldiers carrying Stonefang elders, the Stonefang warriors letting Velmourn hands touch their wounded children without even a slight change in their expression, as if they had accepted them.

She looked at Vandra and the Dawn members still moving like their bodies had forgotten how to stop.

And for a moment, she was... surprised.

To think...

Velmourns and Stonefangs looked... united together.

Just... how was this even possible?

As someone who had always been interested in Heights, this was... something she just couldn’t believe.

Who made it possible?

She thought inwardly. Then, her eyes once again turned toward Kael.

The answer was here.

This man, this... broken, angry... helpless man was behind this.

When that realization struck, Aurelia turned back toward the people. Then she looked at their faces.

Fear.

Shock.

Pain.

And something else.

Doubt.

Uncertainty.

A question that had... begun to form in a few heads.

And Aurelia’s face tightened.

Then she looked back at Kael.

"You need to take action,"

She spoke directly as she always did.

"We are taking action. We have healed the injured, rebuilding has start—"

Kael’s answer came, but before he could complete it, Aurelia cut him off.

"Not only that."

Kael stopped, and Aurelia’s voice became heavier.

"If you do nothing beyond healing,

everything you built so far will collapse."

Kael froze for a moment, but Aurelia did not stop.

"The Stonefangs will doubt their choice.

They joined the Velmourns, and their children, women, and elders got hurt because of their decision."

Kael’s eyes flicked to a Stonefang mother sitting in the snow, holding a child who wasn’t moving anymore.

Her face was... blank.

Her tears had dried up.

Her eyes looked... empty.

Aurelia continued.

"The Velmourns will feel unsafe even behind their wall.

If the wall can be breached once, what’s stopping it from happening a second time?

It was the Stonefangs this time, but aren’t they the main target?

Who is to guarantee they wouldn’t be targeted next?"

Kael’s breathing deepened. This time, his eyes turned toward a group of Velmourn soldiers, and he noticed their... hesitation, their nervous expressions as they talked.

Aurelia’s voice then became even sharper.

"And the Stormcallers?

They will win without taking the wall.

They will win by making you break yourselves."

For a moment, silence fell.

Kael did not know what to say.

He seemed... vulnerable.

And in his vulnerability—

He asked directly—

"What do I do?"

That was when Lavinia answered.

"We prepare."

Her mind already thinking of the next actions.

"Anti-air measures.

Watchers.

Nets.

Wind alarms.

Flying patrols.

Anything that tells us when something moves above."

Aurelia listened.

Lavinia continued, faster.

"We train healers.

We teach them methods; we provide them better tools. We can’t keep treating burns with cloth and prayer. We can’t keep losing limbs because we don’t have the skill to stop infection."

Then she narrowed her eyes.

"And we can lure another strike,"

She spoke after a brief pause.

"We can feign weakness, leave a target empty.

If they come again, we catch them.

Alive."

Lavinia’s voice stayed calm, but her eyes... burned with purpose.

Kael felt his heart leaning toward those words.

It sounded... clean and controlled.

But—

"No."

Aurelia shook her head.

"No?"

Lavinia frowned.

Aurelia looked at her.

"This is what you do when you are ruling a united kingdom,"

Aurelia said directly. Lavinia’s frown deepened. Aurelia looked at her and continued—

"Everything you have experienced, everything you have learned... is from Drakthar’s perspective."

Lavinia’s eyes tightened. She did not like being associated with that word, but she couldn’t deny it.

She knew that as well.

Aurelia continued.

"You only understand one banner, one law, one chain of command.

But here?"

She swept her gaze across the quarter again.

"You have two sides with twelve hundred years of hatred dividing them."

Lavinia’s mouth tightened, and Aurelia spoke the truth.

"Tactics that require patience will fail.

Plans that require trust will take too long."

Aurelia then stepped closer, her face now more solemn, and her voice dropped into something... darker.

"You need something quicker.

Something that seals mouths.

Something that shuts doubt.

Something that makes... even the cowards feel brave again."

Kael stared at her, and Lavinia asked in a careful voice,

"What are you talking about?"

And Aurelia—

"Revenge."

She answered.