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“Who else have you met on your journeys?” he asked Kazhi. “You said there were other purebloods.”

“Many who know old truths, and they do not trust the Council. They would be on our side if we made a move. The Eagle was one. An Alchemist in Bellum. Others who wish to remain unknown. Many are waiting for me to bring you two in and join us.” She turned to Brekt.

“If you’re okay that people know who and what you are and that you are alive, I will bring you in, too. ”

He nodded. It was the Council he was hiding from.

“Why have you waited so long?” Bastane threw his hands up in irritation.

Kazhi pointed an accusing finger at him.

“Because you were a slave to your bloodline.” She turned to Brekt.

“You were afraid of what you were.” Her finger swivelled to me.

“And you were a slave to your hate. Don’t deny it.

I know what that is like, as I was once, too.

But now? Now, things are different. I think a certain evil someone is changing minds—changing the course of the future. ”

“You think the Ikhor has changed my mind? Please.” I let my mask fall into place, hiding what I didn’t want them to see. “She’s just a selfish girl.”

“Watch it,” Brekt growled.

“The Ikhor is a girl now?” Bastane said. “Not an it ?”

“Semantics, Bas. The Ikhor is our enemy.”

He made a sound in the back of his throat. “Is that why you saved her?”

I shrugged the comment off. “You aren’t the only one who’s a gallant hero when a woman is watching.”

Kazhi was on her feet and smacked Bas on the back of the head before he could reply.

I threw him a middle finger before Kazhi could turn her scolding on me, and then flopped onto a chair, moving some books aside to sit back. “I have found nothing in the texts. I believe these were all written by a one-sided narrative.”

“What will you do with that knowledge? Admitting your wrong, Nuo?” Brekt’s smile was smug.

I scoffed at the idea. “Never. What I will do now is find a new library. In a new world. Just so happens we are being shipped to one.”

Brekt straightened. “You’re going to the Aethar lands?”

I waved a hand. “Catch him up, Kaz. He needs to know where we are at.”

She smacked me on the back of the head next, and I rubbed it, cursing her as she retold everything that had happened. “And now you three know as much as I do, as Liv does, and you can join the people who fight for freedom for all legacies.”

“These purebloods,” Brekt said skeptically. “They are part of this so-called rebellion. I’d heard the stories in passing, thinking it was some silly rumour.”

And the Eagle was part of it. I couldn’t wrap my head around it. I thought the hidden players were in the Council, but it seemed like we had some on our side as well. And Liv was going to help them? What the fuck.

“We are unified, more of a family than we ever were,” she said, ending the story in a serious nature. “We are no longer Guards. We only wear their clothes. You all want in on my secrets, then you are no longer even Guardians.”

Brekt whistled. “I can use magic, eh?” He swivelled his annoying head my way. “Hear that? I’m even more important and powerful now.”

I fiddled with a book at my side. “If only your pure blood could have made you better looking.”

“Please, concentrate,” Kazhi pleaded. “Did you hear what I said?”

My chest gave several hard beats before it sunk in what she meant. Kazhi was suggesting we abandon who we were—betray our training—our identities.

“What are we then?” Bastane looked as surprised as I felt.

“Besides fucking legends.” I pushed my hair back, faking calm. I hadn’t expected the conversation to go this way—she was asking us to give up everything we knew, and I could admit, I was … uncomfortable. But I wouldn’t show it.

“I will tell you what I know of the past, our history, that hasn’t been told in the open for a long time. But I can’t risk that conversation, even here.”

“Where then?” I asked.

“As far away from any others as possible. A remote location.”

“I suppose you won’t wait for me to return to be a part of that conversation?” Brekt asked.

“Not if it takes you several more weeks to return.”

What would his thoughts be? What were my own? Would we abandon what it was to be a Guardian to join a cause we knew nothing of?

“That’s a lot to ask without giving us much more information,” I said.

Kazhi didn’t blink. “I can only say so much for now, but don’t forget Nuo—I am not your enemy.”

I let my head fall as I thought. I would never have thought Kazhi was my enemy. Just as I never thought I would fight on the same side as the Ikhor.

Not long after, I collected several bottles of drink for us to pass around.

The four of us settled in, bringing the lounge chairs together.

The cold night warmed as we drank and fell into easy laughter and constant bickering, just as it had always been.

Nothing about the night differed from the hundreds we shared before, but I would remember every moment.

I would hold on to every second with my family.

Brekt left much later, under the cover of night, once again hoping for a sign of the Ikhor. Of Liv. We were all reeling from what Kazhi had told us, wishing she would elaborate on these other pure-blooded legacies who wanted our help. What was this rebellion, and where was its base?

So in the coming days, we trained, waiting to hear from Brekt and waiting to hear the orders that we were to leave for Aethar lands.

Another week passed, and still, no books in the library hinted that the powers stolen from the gods were anything other than evil.

Brekt did not return, and there was no news of the Ikhor.