Yoa stared off at the waterfall in the cave, embracing the sound of Nova's heart thumping steadily and calming his own, as the sound of hushed thunderous water washed over him. He wondered where he would be right now if not for Atia and Aiyana. That trial had been about accepting who he could become if he let it.
There was light and dark in all of them. It wasn't the presence of one of the other that mattered, but how they faced the tests, whether shaped by the island or caught in Solkara's burning threads of fate. Who would rise and who would fall—that was what defined them.
Nova's breathing evened out as fatigue claimed her. It had been a long day, and the shock of discovering Vulcan had also been a Marked Child, on the same path as him to become Yiska, guardian of the Tayun, wore off, her questions settling.
