The sky had begun its descent into dusk when the team returned from their first day of scanning. No solid leads. The air grew heavier, not with weather, but with uncertainty.
Kantara gathered them just on the city's edge, hidden beneath an abandoned structure overgrown with brush and time. Cracks split its stonework and ivy crept along the broken pillars like veins on the skin of a giant long since asleep.
"No fires. We take shifts watching. No exceptions," Kantara commanded, his voice colder than the night settling in.
"Why? We haven't even been spotted..." Cassian began, but the glare Kantara returned shut him up instantly.
"They might already know we're here. That's reason enough." Kantara's tone was final.
And so they rested in waves, sleeping in brief spurts while others stood guard. The silence of the outskirts was deceptive, too quiet. Like a city holding its breath before a storm. Atenyos stared at the stars during his shift, mind churning with questions. Nothing about this mission felt standard. Not with Kantara acting like this.
By the time the second night fell, frustration gnawed at the group. Still no sight of Atus or Veticus.
Kantara, standing before them with arms crossed and the weight of something unseen on his shoulders, finally said what they'd been expecting.
"If we keep this pace, we'll be blind for days. We're splitting up."
He handed out small glinting stones embedded in metallic casings, devices drawn from light fragments, known as flareists.
"Each one's keyed to the others. Press this when you spot them, don't engage. Let the rest of us come to you. Understood?"
Everyone nodded.
"Cassian, Marcellus, you scan the east district. Lucian, Elevora, the west. Revior and Luterra, south. I'll take north with Atenyos, Ipsum, and Mendr."
The groups split and moved without further words, leaping over rooftops and blending into shadow. It wasn't the orders that weighed on them, it was the sense that something was being kept hidden. Something personal.
Atenyos stuck close to Kantara's lead, but his thoughts wandered restlessly.
"They're too composed… They must know we're here. Why act this way? Why not ambush us already?" he pondered.
His mind kept turning the same theory over and over. Two Regressors, no matter how dangerous, wouldn't move like this on their own. They had backing. Someone was pulling the strings.
He turned to speak his thoughts aloud, "Are you sure they're working alon..."
A sudden noise cut him off.
SHHRRRKSKRRRRRRR
GRRRRNNNK
"Stop moving," Kantara hissed, his voice sharp.
The group froze. Mendr's eyes narrowed, scanning. Ipsum clenched his fists, body tense.
Then came a voice. Calm. Too calm.
"Kantara… old friend… you came back after you fucking abandoned us, aye? Come down, brother. I miss you."
Atenyos turned his head toward the alley the voice crawled from. The tone was light, but it dripped venom. The weight in those words twisted something inside Kantara. His face, usually unreadable, was now a war of emotions. Anger. Hurt. Guilt.
"That's… Atus," Kantara said, voice low and distant. "Stay put. Don't move."
Another taunt followed.
"You gonna come down, or should I go up?"
Then came the sound of metal dragging, and pavement cracking beneath the swing of Atus's sword.
Kantara reached for his flareist and tapped it, one signal: location confirmed, hold position. Then, without another word, he jumped.
BOOM.
The ground cracked where he landed. His cloak billowed as his presence hit the street like a pressure wave. Even without activating his true ability "absolute fear" Kantara's presence was enough to make the shadows recoil.
Atus stood waiting, arms open like he was greeting an old friend, not an enemy.
"What are you doing, Atus? You were in hiding, out of our grasp. Why come back now?" Kantara's voice was steel beneath ash.
"New orders, man. You know how it is. New mission, acquire Atenyos, leave with him unharmed. Just give us the kid and we'll be on our way. No one needs to get hurt."
It was casual. Too casual. Like he hadn't just ordered the betrayal of everything Kantara stood for.
"Atenyos? Why? What do you want from hi..."
WHOOSH. BOOMCRACK! SHHHK-VMMM! THWACK-KRCH!
Atenyos moved before anyone could blink. A blur of fury. He dropped from the rooftop, boots crushing stone, fist colliding with Atus's jaw in an instant, snapping it sideways. Then he was gone again, backpedaling fast, creating space.
The street was still.
Atus chuckled as he rubbed his face, realigning the dislocated bone.
"So… you're the infamous Atenyos, huh?" he said, spitting blood. "I see why you're Pritusus's son. You act just like him. Always rushing into battle, thinking you're unstoppable."