My covered blade lay in my hand. My bare skin against its reverent grip.

  Before me was my parents and Fenrick. Covered in dirt, scrapes, and bruises.

  Their frantic smiles were deeply concerning. If they were all friends why were they just trying to hurt each other a second ago?

  After asking them what happened my mother began to open her mouth but my father put his hand over her mouth. Then he shushed her.

  I glanced at Fenrick, he held his soft smile with closed eyes.

  My eyes shot back to my dad. I raised an eyebrow and he also gave the same stupid smile.

  Mariel took a step closer to the three of them. “Can you please explain what happened here for us?”

  The smiles wore off.

  “Fine.” My father started. “But inside, we don’t want another accident.”

  Fenrick and my mother nodded, but what could that possibly mean?

  Mariel and I followed them inside.

  Fenrick and my father sat down and gestured for us to sit down across from them. My mother brought us tea.

  It was dead quiet in the room. Maybe a handful of candles lit. You could hear a feather if it hit the floor.

  My father sat, thinking. It felt like he was contemplating the very concept of the universe.

  His eyes stayed focused on his cup of tea. “Cade.” He began. “You’re aware you were adopted.”

  I nodded. “Yes, officers can’t procreate because it may drift their attention away from their duties.”

  Without his eyes moving off his tea he nodded slowly. “Right. And you’ve seen the papers to prove it right?”

  My head continued to nod. “Mhm.”

  Vance — my adoptive father looked me in the eye finally. “I’m sorry, son. You were never adopted. You’re our real child.”

  What?

  No words formed. But many thoughts raced, just the same as my heartbeat did.

  I didn’t have to look at Mariel, I knew she was making the same face I was.

  Utter dismay from both of us.

  Fenrick, my mother, even my father tried to immediately console me but I was drowning in my thoughts.

  I shifted in my chair. “So. Let me get this straight. You two illegally had a child, that is me. Then you lied about me to the empire for fifteen years. And you lied to me about me for fifteen years.”

  They nodded.

  I turned to Fenrick. “Fenrick, you knew this?”

  He couldn’t look me in the eye but every part of his face told me he knew.

  I laughed.

  Everyone’s face turned to concern.

  “Okay one more time. Let’s just go through the motions and make sure we’re on the same page.” I was laughing through my words. “I’ve been a felon since birth, and now Aldric Veran suspects my background as a felon, and wants to strike me with Witherband.”

  They cocked their heads. Apparently they didn’t know that part.

  In an instant they accused each other and began fighting with words.

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  “HEY!” I interrupted them the same as before. My hand gripped my blade’s handle. Underneath the cloth there was a subtle purple glow.

  “Uh, Cade?” My father said, “Why’re your eyes glowing purple?”

  Apparently my eyes were glowing purple like they did a few years back. Not an intense glow, a very subtle and soft hue. But noticeable.

  The same color as the runes of Gravewake.

  And the same color of Nythris’s eyes.

  “Irrelevant.” I replied.

  My eyes turned back to normal and the blade’s runes fell asleep. “What you do need to know now is simple. This changes both everything and nothing simultaneously.”

  Vance started to speak again, but I interrupted. “Cecilia’s not on our side but she’s quieting Veran. This won’t hold true forever. So we need to figure a plan out for after. There are nearby towns to hold down in and—”

  “No.” Mariel’s voice cut through my sentence. “You’re not leaving anywhere. We’re figuring something out to help you stay here. I will not leave you, and I won’t allow you to leave me.”

  I looked in her eyes and she was deeply upset that I suggested leaving. Since she believes it’s best we stay, I’ll agree with her on this.

  “Alright Mariel. We’ll ask Jerek to help clear the air.” I said, then turned to my parents. “And what will you two do?”

  Their eyes shifted from me to each other, then back to me.

  My mother softened her mood. “Sorry, son — no we don’t.”

  Were they living the last fifteen years without a plan?

  “You have no plan?” I snapped at them.

  Fenrick jumped in between me and my parents. “Kiddo, let them be for now. This is probably my fault. Their plan was for this not to get out. And their backup was to say I was your real adopter. There was a leak and—”

  I was in no mood. “I don’t care. Vance and Kestria illegally had me. Their backup was to give me to their best friend, not exactly a good plan in theory. To make it even worse, there was not even the prospect of an idea as to if the secret got out in its entirety.”

  Their heads slumped.

  It had been about an hour of back and forth, attempts for how to proceed but no luck.

  There was a knock on the door, so I went to open the door.

  It was Eric and Mariel’s mother — Taylor.

  They had a sad and angry look on their face.

  I opened the door wider so they could see Mariel was there. “I’m sorry. Time got away from us and—”

  “He knows.” My mother said to them.

  They walked in and closed the door. “What? Why?” Eric said frantically.

  My fathers head was slumped but he looked up at Eric. “Veran’s onto him.”

  Eric’s eyes widened. So did Taylor’s.

  The conversation got more intense. I hated that.

  Every word said. Every argument made. Every lie uncovered. It made me madder and madder.

  I couldn't take it.

  Why was I the epicenter of this fallout?

  Without saying a word I stormed off and grabbed my relic and ran out the door.

  People tried calling me but I was far too fast to be caught.

  The relic began its soft glow underneath the wraps and I climbed across rooftops until I was at a high vantage point of the city.

  I heard screams and cries all over, I could feel my heartbeat steady but loud. I felt more in tune with reality and with the environment around me than ever before.

  And beneath me?

  A large scale cleansing caravan.

  I took off the wraps around the blade. And tied it around my face to avoid recognition.

  Then without hesitation I leapt down.

  Although I leapt without hesitation I had a moment of reflection before I landed beneath me. This was irreversible… The thought came and passed, as this was going to save lives.

  In an instant my blade cut directly down through the helmet, then skull, then brain, then down the windpipe, through the heart, intestines, ribs, reproductive organs, and in the blink of an eye the soldier was cut vertically in two.

  The two halves of his body fell to the ground. I smelt fear in the other soldiers before I saw it in their eyes.

  But their eyes turned from fear to hatred in an instant.

  Where did this sense of pride come from?

  They watched their comrade just get severed and they’re trying to fight me?

  I drowned my thoughts out.

  My sword swung with utter fluidity.

  My fighting style—breakcurrent—swiftly broke through bones, severed arteries, burned tissue.

  With every kill the blade reacted to the kill.

  Not only did the blade appear to get lighter, but the runes glowed brighter.

  Hotter.

  After clearing about twenty of the soldiers I had about three left to kill. I blocked, parried, and even began offensive strikes on them. They were better than the others.

  But they weren’t good enough.

  I purposefully swung a momentum-full strike and missed one guard, using the current of the momentum, breaking through the very wind it skimmed across. I struck a blow against a sword and it shattered the sword in an instant, delivering a killing blow.

  With just two left I used similar techniques to wipe them from the planet.

  I felt a larger sense of clarity. But it wasn’t over yet.

  The point wasn’t to kill, it was to free the space near the caravan to heal.

  And that’s exactly what I did.

  Although my lucen magic was not as potent as Mariel’s, I began healing as many as possible. All of their injuries or sicknesses weren’t severe.

  I told them it’s best to leave town, just like all the other people I’ve saved. There were countless towns nearby that were abandoned that they could use as a place of hiding.

  Then I vanished before any law enforcement could show up on the scene, which wasn’t for a while after. Considering the soldiers were dead, in the heart of the night, and the survivors wouldn’t blab to authority and risk themselves dying.

  When I left I made my way back to the top of the roof to breathe the same air I had breathed earlier in the night.

  I wanted to hide the blade like Fenrick taught me.

  After concentrating I felt a low pain shoot through the nerves in my arm.

  Ow.

  I tried again, and mustered through the pain.

  It hurt. Not agony, but it still hurt a lot.

  The blade returned to the low glow in the runes. Then the blade allowed me to mask it as a normal blade.

  It was like the blade was detecting my kills by blood pouring over the runes. Then by mixing my intent of the swing and absorbing the blood it would convert into energy. That energy allowed it to be swung faster, but the runes gave off heat with more charge.

  I understood it now. At least partially.

  If I absorbed the energy instead of letting it calm itself down, I’d wind up directly forcing that energy through my hand into my arm. It’d cause a lot of pain, but I could wind down the blade that way if need be.

  Drawbacks, but also positives. I liked that.

  With any luck my relic would help me understand more about myself, and about the world.

  I removed the cover from my face and tied the sword to my back. I didn’t need to go home tonight. What I needed was rest. There was no school the following day so I fell asleep on the roof.

  A lot of questions were both answered and born that night. But I felt myself walking closer to a line so fine it couldn’t be used to sew.

  And the weird part was I didn’t feel afraid. At all.