The storm had passed, but the air still crackled with tension.

Kael, Lira, Ryn, Selene, and Ashen sat around a campfire deep inside a hidden cave—an ancient place carved into the cliffs by time and magic.
The walls were painted with symbols older than memory: fire, water, earth, air… and something darker.

Kael stared into the flames.
They had gathered four of the five reborn warriors. Only one was missing now—the Shadowborn, the master of illusions, stealth, and secrets.

Ashen spread the old, battered map across the ground. One final sigil pulsed faintly—a deep purple glow buried in the mountains to the east.

“He was the hardest to find even in the old wars,” Ashen said grimly. “His name was Dain. No one knows if he truly survived the Frost King’s first attack—or if what returned was really him.”

Selene, her voice still raw from her storm-fueled breakdown, frowned. “Are you saying he might already be corrupted?”

Ashen nodded. “Or worse. He could be the Frost King’s spy among us.”

A heavy silence fell.

Kael’s gut twisted. Dain… she remembered laughing with him once, sharing secret signals during battles, vanishing into enemy lines like smoke.
But memory and reality were different beasts.

Lira broke the silence first. “We need him. Whether he’s broken or not.”

Ryn grunted. “And if he’s Frost-touched?”

Kael stood. Her voice was steady, but fire danced at her fingertips. “Then we bring him back—or we stop him. Either way, we finish this.”

Ashen folded the map. “We move at dawn.”

Later That Night…

Kael couldn’t sleep. She wandered to the mouth of the cave, staring out at the endless dark sea.

Behind her, footsteps approached—quiet, careful.

Selene stood there, arms crossed, lightning still faintly flickering along her skin.

“You’re worried about Dain,” she said softly.

Kael nodded. “I can feel something pulling at us. Like a rope around our necks. And it’s getting tighter.”

Selene hesitated. Then she said, almost too quietly:
“What if it’s not Dain?”

Kael turned sharply. “What do you mean?”

Selene looked back into the cave, where the others slept.

“We’re assuming the Frost King would use the last one as his pawn. But what if he already… turned someone else?”

Kael’s blood ran cold.

Selene met her gaze, stormlight flashing in her eyes.

“Trust no one,” she whispered. “Not even me.”

Elsewhere – Frost King's Domain

Deep in his frozen citadel, the Frost King moved a single chess piece across a cracked board.

A figure stepped into the icy chamber, cloaked and hooded, kneeling.

“It is done, my king. They suspect the wrong one.”

The Frost King’s laughter echoed off the cavern walls—cold, endless, hollow.

“My shadow already walks among them.”