"While you were inside the Legacy Domain, Sevrak tried to attack the Velari Kingdom," Liora said, lifting her head to meet Adyr's eyes. "It was Sir Wanderer Merchant who stopped him."

Thankfulness and rage shared her face like two shadows crossing the same light. Thankfulness that a Rank 5 Adept had turned aside a catastrophe. Rage because that hateful Dragon Rider had still killed a few of their citizens.

The memory in her mind rose quickly and hot from the time she returned to the kingdom and saw bodies brought to the gates, their skin charred to a coal-black sheen, the air around them carrying a bitter, metallic scent. Her anger climbed her throat and sat there, one of those scenes she would never forget and would have to live with.

For the Astra Path and Velari culture, citizens—mortals—were not numbers but family, bound by duty and care. That was the teaching of their culture and of the God Astrael. She had failed that duty, and the failure left a clean, searing ache.

"I see," Adyr said, releasing a slow breath.

It did not surprise him that the Dragon Rider would lash out; he had been forced to watch his own grandson—and the Rank 1 and Rank 2 Practitioners—die before his eyes.

What he had not expected was an attack while a Rank 5 Adept was still in the region. Now that the Adept had left for good, a second strike felt inevitable, almost procedural.

"Current Velari, at the moment, is weak and fragile," Soulforge Throgar said, his voice rolling in steady pulses like a hand on a drum. "If you need a hand, we will give it."

The dark-green ogre straightened his broad frame. His small eyes, bright under a heavy brow, rested on Adyr with the patient confidence of an aged chef who knew exactly when to turn the fire up.

Two-headed Brakhtar and the other Gorathim formed a line behind their chiefs. No one spoke. The set of their shoulders said enough: one word, and they would march toward whatever war would decide a kingdom's fate.

Sevrak had long threatened every race in the Region; that alone was reason enough. With Adyr at the center of the conflict, this was the right moment to show goodwill, forge a lasting alliance, and finally remove a problem that had been allowed to fester for too long, solving two problems at once.

"I wanted to invite you to our place as a guest first, but…" Zephan Silverlight's tone was even and assured. "I can wait until this matter is handled."

A quiet storm moved in his silver eyes, faint currents flickering as a fighter sensed a worthy clash. His support was clear not just in what he said but in his bearing.

A war without the Lunari was the kind of thing people mentioned only in jokes and idioms.

"So, is this finally the time?" Balech Aqua stepped forward. Behind him, Maruun and the Aqualeth watched with hard, bright focus, their anger banked but hot.

They, too, had grown tired of Umbraen excess, and it was an opening that would not be missed.

Soon, the Obsidren and the Houndkin signaled the same intent, each adding their weight to an unnamed alliance forming in Velari's defense.

Liora took them in one by one and felt a brief, clean shock. In all her years, she had not seen so many hands extend toward a single purpose.

When she had pleaded for help against the Colossith, not a single hand had moved. Now they were stepping forward in turn, offering more than aid—offering the will to stand against a Rank 4 Titled Practitioner and the strongest race in the Region.

She gathered herself quickly, pressed the surprise down where it could not sway her, and looked to the man who had bent the region's course by simply standing in it. She chose silence and waited for Adyr's decision.

Their choice to unite against the Umbraens was not startling in itself; it was a decision that should have been made long ago and had only been postponed. Still, it was Adyr's presence that made it feasible now and gave it shape and timing.

"Thank you for your intentions." Adyr smiled genuinely, then turned to Liora and held her gaze.

"It is still your kingdom and your people, so you are the one who should decide for them." The words left no doubt about his stance and gave Liora the respect due her place.

But his tone darkened on the next breath, his crimson eyes sharpening as a cooler edge entered his voice. "Do you want to eradicate the threat… the Umbraens?"

Liora looked into those eyes and felt as if a crowd of faint silhouettes peered back, waiting for a single word that would tilt countless lives.

For the first time, she sensed that Adyr was not only of the Astra Path. A low shadow lived under the ash-gray of his skin, not loud, but present.

She did not step back. Something in her steadied and then hardened into heat.

"As long as it is to protect my people, I do not care if it becomes a big war, a total bloodbath." Her voice held like a drawn line, clearer than it had ever sounded.

Lucen and Mirela stood with her in silence, resolve plain on their faces as well.

Watching them and measuring the set of the other races around him, Adyr's mouth tilted by a fraction.

From the moment he first met the Umbraens, his decision was set. If he wanted to take root in the Outer Region, he had to remove a race that would never submit to order or accept anyone else's control.

Now the turn had come in such a way that he was not the one calling for war.

He simply angled their will to align with his own, letting them choose the road so that when the bloodshed came, no one could hang the word 'tyrant' on his neck alone.

Today keeps getting better and better. He thought it, then gave it voice.

"If it is what you wish." He summoned his wings again. Flesh parted and bone shifted with a wet, grotesque sound; the span opened fast to either side, one white wing and one black.

"Let's save this region from the Umbraen problem in a decisive and absolute way," he declared, like a hero ready to give his life for his homeland.

—

Meanwhile, as the races aligned around a single purpose, a different design gathered in the shadows of the Velari Kingdom.

"It has been a while since Liora the Earthshaker left her kingdom. Do we move now?" a figure whispered from the dark between jagged rocks.

From his vantage point, he watched a cluster of short-statured Velari working with quiet focus, digging through the soil as if searching for something buried.

"We cannot draw attention," another shadow murmured at his side. "Send the Rank 1s. Seize the three women and return the moment it is done."

Their intent was clear. By using low ranks to slip beneath the Rank 5 Adept's notice, they planned to abduct the three women named by their lord, the Dragon Rider.

They were sure that abducting those three women would strike hardest at Liora and, more than anyone, Adyr, giving them the revenge they wanted while the wound was still fresh.

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