Chapter 38: Proof of Life

Some warnings arrive loudly. This one waits until everyone is listening.

Kael Rowan follows the first clue deeper into a continent protected by seven gates and bonded dragons, where every answer creates a more dangerous question.

A locked route opens, a witness changes sides, and the opposition moves one step sooner than expected.

Kael Rowan keeps the larger goal in view: master each gate discipline before the ash dragon consumes his identity. The immediate problem is smaller, sharper, and impossible to postpone.

They stand close enough to feel the argument beneath the silence. Neither mistakes desire for trust, but neither can pretend desire is absent.

Lyra Voss offers help but withholds the one fact that would make trust easy.

The recurring signs of ash, runes, dragonfire return with a different meaning, linking this choice to what came before.

A familiar symbol proves the threat began long before either of them arrived.