The rain had long passed by the time Kael returned to Elandor, but its memory clung to him.
Mud still streaked his cloak, dried blood painted the ridges of his gauntlets, and violet arcs of Storm Essence still whispered beneath his skin. The city gates loomed tall and silent, and as he stepped through, something had changed — not just within him, but in the very air of Elandor.
Urgency.
The guild halls buzzed louder than usual. Runners rushed past with sealed scrolls. Commanders barked orders in tighter clusters. Boards that once held scattered job postings now overflowed with red-marked notices.
Varnok sightings were increasing. Fast.
Kael listened. Not just to the words, but the tone in which they were spoken — quieter, edgier. In taverns, guild halls, and even market streets, fear hid behind forced laughter. It wasn't panic yet, but it was a whisper of the past returning.
He'd seen it firsthand. That pack shouldn't have been that close to Elandor — nor that organized.
And something inside him whispered:
You're not ready. Not yet.
⸻
A Month of Fire and Storm.
Kael didn't take another mission immediately.
Instead, he vanished from the regular routines of city life and turned inward — toward growth.
What followed was not quiet, but focused violence, aimed entirely at his own limits.
⸻
Kael stood shirtless in the hollow beneath the guild barracks, a training chamber reinforced with mana-carved stone. Dozens of elemental dummies surrounded him, each glowing with shifting Essence signatures.
He planted his feet. Drew in a slow breath.
Lightning Flash. A short burst spell — once clunky, now reworked into a seamless pulse through his palm, threading arcs along his shoulder into his fingertips. He fired. Clean. Precise.
Stormbind. He twisted mid-air, threading kinetic movement with a spin-kick, fusing lightning into a locking chain of crackling threads — a new crowd-control concept he'd forged on instinct and refined through pain.
Each spell cut tighter, more defined. Every movement faster, cleaner.
⸻
Kael trained alongside War Mage instructors twice a week — not as a student, but a sparring partner.
One duel had him against two advanced War Mages, both older, seasoned.
He ducked the first's blazing arc of fire, slid beneath the second's earth-coated blade, and came up with a palm crackling in violet sparks. A feint with his left, a pivot off his heel, and a kinetic-enhanced elbow to the gut stunned one just long enough for Kael's fingers to trace a lightning glyph into his forearm.
Chain Pulse. A combo spell. Lightning webbed out and stunned both mages long enough for Kael to reset.
He lost that duel — barely.
But when he walked away, he was smiling. Every mistake became a lesson folded into muscle and instinct.
⸻
For three nights in a row, Kael isolated himself on the cliffs above Elandor, where the sky always churned and the wind never slept.
There, he meditated with Essence, drawing it inward, learning its rhythm.
Lightning thrummed along his spine. Storm pooled beneath his sternum. He learned to thread his affinities together — not just cast spells, but bind them to thought, feeling, movement.
At dawn on the seventh day, a flicker of power surged through his core. His breathing sharpened, vision cleared.
He opened his eyes. The storm greeted him with a low growl.
⸻
He spoke with Arlan one late night on the roof of their shared building.
"You've changed," Arlan said, wincing as he adjusted his crutch. "I saw it in your eyes the moment you stepped back through the gate. You've seen death up close."
Kael nodded, looking past the lights of Elandor toward the wilds beyond. "And I want to be ready when it comes again."
"Storm looks good on you," Arlan added after a pause. "Scary, but good."
Kael chuckled. "It feels… right. Like something I've always carried, waiting for the right time."
"And now?"
Kael looked down at his hands. Lightning sparked between his fingers. "Now it's awake."
⸻
One month later.
Kael stood before the mission board, reading scroll after scroll — most were teams, escorts, sweeps.
Then his eyes locked on a solo entry marked in silver ink.
Mission Type: Solo Recon / Elimination
Location: Gloomvale Pass
Threat Level: Unknown — Prior team withdrawn
Objective: Investigate Essence disturbance, eliminate hostiles if found
Reward: Tiered Bonus Based on Confirmed Targets
Kael folded the scroll, tucked it into his belt, and turned.
No hesitation.
No fear.
Just focus.
He stepped outside the hall, the afternoon sun glinting off his shoulders.
The wind whispered across his back — the same wind he now carried within him.
He smiled, just slightly, and whispered to no one in particular:
"This mission will be my testing ground."