ISSUE 10 — “DIVIDED BANNERS”

  The man’s name is Rask Volen.

  Once, he was a commander in the Northern Rebellion. Now, he is something more dangerous—a survivor who outlived too many ideals.

  “They say you’re a miracle,” Rask says, circling Kael in the council chamber. “They also said that about the Halo when it was first activated.”

  Kael doesn’t respond. He’s learned silence can be safer than honesty.

  Rask stops in front of him. “Do you know how many cities burned because of it?”

  Lyra steps in. “That was the Ascendants. Not him.”

  Rask’s eyes flick to her. “And who built the Halo?”

  The room tightens.

  “Your sister,” Rask says to Kael. “One of the architects. One of the Ascendants’ voices.”

  Kael feels it like a knife twisting deeper than any wound Gravehound left behind.

  “She made a choice,” Rask continues. “Just like you will.”

  The council fractures almost immediately.

  Some of the Northern Rebels see Kael as a weapon—the first real chance to challenge the Ascendants head-on. They argue that the Halo responds to him for a reason, that destiny or design doesn’t matter if it can be turned against their enemies.

  Others see him as a liability.

  A walking beacon. A reminder of everything that failed before.

  “He draws monsters,” one rebel snaps. “Gravehound followed him here.”

  “And if the Ascendants track him?” another asks. “We lose the North.”

  Lyra watches the argument tear through the room and realizes something chilling:

  This isn’t about Kael.

  It’s about fear.

  Rask finally raises his voice, and the room obeys.

  “We don’t hand our future to something we don’t understand,” he says. “Especially not something connected to the Halo.”

  He turns to Kael.

  “You want our trust? Then you earn it.”

  “How?” Kael asks.

  Rask gestures toward the frozen horizon beyond the settlement. “There’s an Ascendant rey buried in the icefields. It feeds surveilnce data straight to the capital.”

  A test.

  A suicide mission.

  “Destroy it,” Rask says. “Without losing control. Without waking whatever else the Halo attracts.”

  Some rebels nod in approval.

  Others look uneasy.

  Lyra meets Kael’s eyes. She knows what this is. Rask doesn’t want him to succeed.

  He wants proof.

  Proof that Kael is either the North’s salvation—

  Or the reason it will fall next.

  As the council disperses, Kael stands alone beneath the rebel banners, feeling the weight of every gaze.

  For the first time, the question isn’t whether he can fight the Ascendants.

  It’s whether anyone will stand with him when he does.