“Then stop looking for an option,” she whispered. “And start looking at me. Not as a soldier. Not as a liability. As the person who knows you cried for three days after your first kill. Who knows you hum off-key when you’re scared. Who knows that you’re not a monster, Kaelen—you’re just a man who’s been told so many lies he’s started believing them.”
“Mira,” he said. Not a plea. Not a command. Just her name, spoken like a prayer he’d forgotten he believed in.
Kaelen opened his eyes.
The bell tolled again. Fourth call. The Rite required ignition at the fifth. Dilemma of Devotion -Ch.2 Ep 4.5- By PulseHaven...
To be continued in Dilemma of Devotion – Ch.2, Ep. 5: “The Weight of Mercy”
“I called it necessary.”
Mira sheathed the dagger. Slowly. Deliberately. Then she took his face in both hands. “Then stop looking for an option,” she whispered
“I can’t.” His voice cracked on the second word.
“That was before I became the one who had to decide.”
He had fifteen minutes.
Somewhere below, the first chant began. The Order was moving without him.
“I took vows to protect people, Kaelen. Not to burn half the city to prove a point.”
Kaelen stood at the broken railing, his knuckles white against the wet stone. Below, the fires of the Obsidian Uprising flickered like false stars. Above, the evacuation bells tolled for the third time. He could feel her presence behind him—that familiar warmth that used to mean home. Now it meant a choice. Not as a liability
He turned. Rain plastered dark hair to his forehead. She looked small without her commander’s cloak—just a girl in a gray tunic, holding a dagger she’d refused to draw. Against him. Always against him .