I turned my focus back to Aria.

Her injuries looked manageable from here. Not as bad as they could have been.

Can I use healing magic?

Worth trying.

I raised my hand.

"Remis."

Soft silver mana flowed through the wound as the bleeding stopped instantly.

It worked.

She would be awake in a few minutes.

Beside the Duke, Seraphina spoke quietly.

"Don’t start. Not here. Not in front of everyone." She kept her eyes forward. "Kael won the duel by his own ability. Are you going to announce it, or should I."

Lucian sat back. Closed his eyes for a moment.

"Did you know," he said. Not a question exactly.

He meant the elements. Three of them. Wind, earth, space none of which Kael was supposed to have.

Seraphina had not known. She was the closest person to her son in this household and even she hadn’t known. But she answered without hesitation.

"Yes."

"And you never mentioned it."

"Have you ever cared about your children?"

Nobody around them heard. They never did. The Duke and Duchess had learned long ago how to have conversations that didn’t carry.

Their marriage had always been political. A contract between families. After Seraphina found out about Lucian’s infidelity the pretense had thinned considerably. They functioned. They appeared together when required. They did not speak unless necessary.

"Wind, earth and space." Lucian’s voice was low. "I always thought he was trash. Rebellious and empty."... A cold snort. "I wonder sometimes if he’s even mine."

The air beside him went very still.

When Seraphina spoke her voice was quiet and precise, the way sharp things were quiet before they moved.

"Don’t ever say that to me again. Don’t put me in the same category as the women you keep. I have overlooked a great many things in this marriage but not that."

"...."

"And don’t forget if I decided to act on it, not even the king would be able to stop what comes next."

It wasn’t an empty threat. Seraphina was a daughter of House Aether, one of the pillars the empire had been built on. The previous Duke and Duchess of Ardyn had died fighting daemons Lucian’s backing died with them. Hers had not.

She stood. And Walked away without looking back.

***

In the arena, Aria’s face twitched.

Pain is still sitting in her body, dull and insistent. She opened her eyes slowly.

The first thing she saw was Kael.

She took her position. The arena floor. The handprint still pressed into the stone around her.

I lost.

"Yes," Kael said, quietly. "You did."

She startled slightly; she hadn’t realized she’d said it out loud. Or maybe she hadn’t. Either way he had read it off her face without difficulty.

She moved to sit up and he stopped her for a moment. One hand, brief, settling on top of her head.

Not condescending. Not performative.

Just there.

Then he stood and turned to face the Duke without another word, leaving Aria sitting in the middle of the arena trying to work out what had just happened.

Lucian gritted his teeth.

He had always disliked Kael. The rebellion, the attitude, the years of deliberate waste none of it had ever sat well with him. But dislike was something he could manage. This was different. This required him to say something out loud that he had been certain, for years, he would never have to say.

"The duel between Aria and Kael is concluded." His voice carried across the arena without effort. "The victor is Kael Ardyn. He will be recognized as the new heir to this dukedom."

He must be absolutely furious right now, Kael thought, and said nothing.

He didn’t wait. Staying longer would only invite whatever his father was building toward. He turned and moved away from the center of the floor.

Then he stopped.

Should I say something? They are going to be my soldiers eventually.

He looked at the trainees arranged around the arena. Not the main unit that were deployed against the daemons at the border. These were the next generation. Young, uncertain, and currently looking at him with something caught between fear and confusion.

No admiration yet. That was fine. Admiration took time. Fear was a reasonable start.

He stepped forward.

"Relax." His voice was even. "I’m not here to make a speech about loyalty and honor. You don’t owe me either of those things yet and I’m not going to pretend otherwise."

He looked across the group slowly.

"Most of you called me trash. Some of you did it today, standing right here. I’m not angry about it, you ."

...

"I’m not anymore. And I won’t have that word attached to this house or to anyone standing under it. Not me. Not you. Not the name Ardyn."

Nobody spoke.

"I’ll be making changes. The weak don’t stay not because I enjoy removing people, but because the daemons at our border don’t care about potential. They care about what’s in front of them. So be something worth putting in front of them."

He let that sit.

"If after everything you saw today you still have doubts about following me, the door is open. Leave now and there’s no consequence. But if you stay, you stay properly." His eyes moved across the group one more time. "Do you understand?"

Then, all at once...

"Yes, Young Lord!"

Kael looked at them.

"Young Lord."

"The Duke just announced the succession in front of all of you. Try again."

"...Yes, Young Duke!"

"Better."

He almost smiled.

They’re not fully convinced yet. That’s fine. They will be.

"Someone take my sister to be treated." He turned to go. "And tell Lina I’m on my way back."

***

"Where were you, Mister?"

"Mister was playing a game."

She was sitting on the bed with her knees pulled to her chest, looking at me the way she looked at things she hadn’t fully decided about yet.

"You left without telling me. My head started hurting because I was so bored."

"..."

Is she regaining her memory!

The thought arrived before I could stop it. And with it, everything that followed.

If her memory was coming back it meant today might be the last day she remembered none of it. The forest. The piggyback. The cave. Mister’s Miss.

After today she would know exactly who she was.

And she would have no idea who I was to her.

I crossed the room and pulled her into a hug before I thought about it too much.

She was surprised by the hug and then settled.

I held it a little longer than usual.

Then I let go and left without saying anything.

The corridor was quiet.

It’s fine, I told myself. It’s better this way. She gets her life back. That’s the point.

It didn’t feel fine.

I had known from the beginning this was temporary. She was the main heroine. She had a story that had nothing to do with me, a path that had been written long before I arrived in this world. Whatever this koala, lost puppy, Mister’s miss it was always going to end when her memory came back.

I needed to go home anyway.

Better to be forgotten than to complicate something that was never mine to keep.

I kept walking.

It still felt like something.