Kardki led me to a cavernous chamber filled with lanterns, tables, chairs, and mattresses. Wrinkled blankets draped each makeshift bed, and imprints marked pillows, but whoever had slept here had now vacated. Only two people remained: my father lay on a mattress, and Fraschkit crouched at his side.

I jogged over and dropped to my knees beside Fraschkit. My father's chest rose and fell with shallow breaths. Sagging skin carved deep creases around his mouth and eyes, and his shirt-pant set hung loose on his gaunt frame.

I swallowed hard. "Dad, it's me, Remgar. Are you ok?"

He showed no sign of having heard me, and I wasn't sure what else to say. After several seconds passed in silence, I turned to Fraschkit. Her black shirt-pant emphasized the fiery orange of her hair, but her face looked washed out, her usually golden skin faded to Demon-pale except for the dark bags beneath her eyes.

"Do you think he might have hit his head?" I asked.

She breathed a sigh. "The Sitaklasa doctor came by earlier, and she doesn't think he sustained any injuries."

"Maybe he needs water? Or... has he eaten recently?"

"Remgar... you won't be able to get him to take food or water right now."

"Right. Did anyone try putting a wet cloth on his forehead?"

"Yes, we tried that. We tried many things."

My shoulders sank with my shaky exhale. "Of course you did." They didn't come get me at the first sign of trouble—they came to me as a last resort. They doubted I'd be able to help perhaps as much as I had doubted it, and I was proving to be just as useless as I had feared I would be.

When Fraschkit sent me a sympathetic glance, I forced a grim smile. "Thanks for being here with him. It must be hard to take the time away from everything else you have to do."

"Your father helped us too. Without his visions, Borgal would have led us all into the barn by now." Then she checked her watch, and her brow furrowed.

"You need to be somewhere else?"

"Sorry? Oh—yes, I need to go meet with Bakvar and the other leaders of the Mantle, but that's not what I was looking at." She rubbed her palms across her eyes. "I was hoping for a report from the team we sent out to warn Borgal's followers, but it looks like the Mantle isn't connected to the Guardian's underground network."

Though this wasn't good news, it was easier to discuss this than to talk about my father. "How is that team doing? They gave you an update before we left Sitaklasa, didn't they?"

She nodded. "They visited Anyalasa yesterday, since it's close and low-risk. That went well. The mayor is skeptical of our news but equally skeptical of Borgal, so she promised to pass on the warning. But today's mission might be harder... there are more Guardians in Torglasa, and they rarely agree on anything."

"They are going to Torglasa today? Isn't your family still there?"

"Right."

I frowned. "But you're not going?"

"There's too much to do here." She eyed her watch again. "Hey, I really need to leave for that meeting. Can you look after Vosgar?"

"Of course. He's my—" My voice crackled, and I cleared my throat. "He's my dad."

I hadn't intended to make any great statement, yet my own words hit me hard. Had I really considered not even coming to see him? He was the only family I had left, and I could lose him at any moment.

Fraschkit punched my shoulder, too gently—more like a nudge. "I'm sorry, Remgar."

When she left, silence hung like a suffocating blanket. In a couple hesitant motions, I laid my hand over my father's hand. Once, his hand had encompassed mine so easily. Now our hands were the same size, but his felt so fragile. Bony, cold, dry.

He had been helpless in many ways for years, but this was the first time I had really faced the imminent possibility of his death. I should have visited him more. I should have hired someone to take care of him. I should have done more to help him through his grief.

Drawing a breath, I forced myself to speak. "So, I know you probably don't really want to see me right now, since I've, uh... I've disappointed you." I choked a little on the last words. "But I wanted to see you because... well, because I still love you."

I searched his face for any sign that he had heard me. When he remained motionless, I played with his fingers, pushing them straight one at a time, just like my father had once done while singing to me at bedtime. He always praised Hefgar more, but he had spent just as much time with me before bed each night.

My eyes burned itchy-hot, and I bit my tongue to prevent tears from coming. "These last fourteen years have been hard for us. Really hard. But before that, you were a really good dad. You did so much for me—and for Mom and Hefgar. What happened to them... it ended my childhood, and it broke your spirit. But it shouldn't have destroyed our relationship. We shouldn't have let it. I shouldn't have let it."

Tears blurred my eyes now, a cool balm calming the itchy burn. "I always blamed you for not visiting me, but I didn't visit you much, either. So... so, I'm sorry, Dad. And also..."

The other thing I wanted to say terrified me, even though he probably couldn't hear it. Drawing energy from our touching hands and from the ground beneath my knees, I forced it out.

"And also, I'm sorry that I've disgusted you by defending the Demon who killed our family." I spoke quickly to make sure I wouldn't stop. "But it didn't happen the way you think it did—or the way I thought it did. I'm not sure even Isalio fully understands what happened. What I do know is that Isalio has a good heart, and he's trying his hardest to make things right. I guess that's all any of us can do. Just like me...and like you, too."

For some reason, that was easier to accept while watching him sleep. When he was awake, I was always bracing myself, ready for him to mistake me for Hefgar, ready for the guilt, ready for the pain. Now, holding his hand while he slept, it was easier to remember the good times—and easier to forgive the bad.

His hand spasmed.

My breath caught. "Dad?"

His eyelids twitched, and he moaned something indiscernible.

"Dad, I'm here. Are you ok?"

His eyes remained shut, and his words passed through barely-parted lips. "The Lord of the Night..."

I leaned closer. "Isalio? What about him?"

"I was so wrong. We were all so wrong."

"What are you talking about, Dad? Are you having another vision?"

"Now we've done it. All this war, all this chaos, all this agony..." His hand clenched mine, nails digging painfully into my skin. "Oh, we've done it now."

"Now we've done what?"

"We unleashed the beast."

His harsh whisper sent chills cascading down my spine, but I shook my head. "You mean the Morgabeast? Isalio summoned the Morgabeast fourteen years ago."

"Not summoned. A beast that powerful can't be summoned. The beast saw the right moment, the right trauma...the right conduit."

My throat dried. "Conduit?"

"Someone it could use; someone it could control. Its favorite power sources are fear and pain."

His claim was bizarre...but it also made a strange kind of sense. The more I learned about Isalio, the more I became certain that the boy who had sat on the top floor of the palace staring at the towns on the horizon had craved love and acceptance, not power.

His memories of the night he Snapped were all hazy. It felt like an extension of myself...I was in multiple places at once, and I was also nowhere at all. I remembered his expression that night: emotionless, I had thought, but now I realized it was a step further than emotionless.

It was vacant.

Maybe Isalio hadn't suddenly changed the day he Snapped. Maybe the beast had been controlling him even then.

"Then how do we destroy the Morgabeast, Dad? Can you see that?"

He was silent for a long minute, motionless except the flicker of his eyelids, as though he was watching something play out just behind me. I wanted to know what he saw, but I was afraid to push him too hard. His prophecy could save the world, but the world didn't mean much if the people on it didn't care about each other.

Gently, I squeezed his shoulder. "Hey, are you ok? Do you want some water, or—"

"Earth and sky."

"...what?"

"Lightning seeks the ground. The ground needs rain to flourish. Only earth and sky together can save the world."

Thoughts whirred through my mind at a dizzying speed. "Earth and sky meaning Guardians and Demons?"

"But not him...you can't have him. No, not my boy. Why does it have to be him? I've already lost one boy—I can't send another to fight."

A chill crawled up my spine. "It has to be...me? What has to be me?"

"The forest is calling."

He had delivered that baffling proclamation once before, and this reiteration only confused me further. "The Forest of Lost Beasts? What do you mean, it's calling?"

My father opened his mouth, but his lips trembled—and then the tremor spread to the rest of his body. He began to shake, harder and harder, hard enough that the mattress squeaked and shifted beneath him.

"Dad? Dad!" I grabbed his hand hard to keep hold of it, like steering a malfunctioning warper. "Come back to me. Please."

The shaking subsided, and his eyes slowly opened. He squinted, then blinked twice. "Remgar?"

I expelled a breath I hadn't realized I was holding. "Yes, I'm here."

"Why?" He tugged his hands free from mine and propped himself on his elbows. "Don't you have somewhere better to be?"

Once again, the sharp turn in his demeanor cut straight through my defenses. But this wasn't the time for my silly insecurities, so I swallowed hard and forced my feelings aside.

"You were scaring people, Dad." Scanning the room, I spotted a pitcher of water nearby. I pushed to my feet to grab him a glass. "You started shaking, and then you wouldn't wake up. But you said my name, so Kardki brought me here."

"Pfft, I'm fine. Kardki is too sensitive."

"Leader Fraschkit was worried, too."

He paused a bit longer at that one. "Well, I guess Fraschkit hasn't lost enough people close to her—unlike us."

I frowned. She had lost Leader Rakimar, and she had arguably also lost Borgal. But that wasn't my story to tell, and it wasn't what my father needed to hear. What he needed to hear was a much harder thing for me to say.

"I was worried too, Dad."

"But I said..." His eyes shimmered with unshed tears. "I said I was finished."

"Well, Isalio insisted that—" That you still love me. "That I should come."

His breath hitched. "The High Prince said that?"

"Yeah."

In the empty chamber, I could hear his every reaction: the shifting on the mattress, the explosive exhale, the ragged inhale. "Well, that's just...he probably just...is that the only reason you came?"

A cord of desperation cut through that last question—or at least, that's what I wanted to believe. And while it was important for him to know that Isalio had reconnected us, he also needed to know how my own feelings had contributed.

"If you want to walk away from me, you can do it," I said, "But only when you're healthy. When you're sick, I'll still be here."

The tears in his eyes welled over now, streams following the creases in his face. "I'm supposed to be taking care of you, son. Not the other way around."

"The best thing you can do for me right now is to look after yourself." I poured some water in a glass. "Here, drink this."

He sat up fully and accepted the glass of water. While I watched him drink the water, I dug my nails into my skin, debating how to ask my next question. I didn't want to risk setting him off again, but I needed to at least know how much he knew.

"So...do you remember anything of what you just told me?"

"That I should be taking care of you?"

My chest fell. "That's not what I was talking about, but that's ok."

"Oh, there was something before that. A vision. I had a vision, didn't I? Something about... about the Lord of the Night. And...you. I saw something important about you."

"You said it has to be me. What has to be me? Can you see that?"

His eyes pinned on the ceiling above. "It's slipping away, but I still see something, and I have this feeling that...yes, it comes down to you."

I shook my head. "That doesn't make sense. How can I do anything to stop the Morgabeast? Legendary Guardian fighters had been destroyed in seconds, and I'm just an ordinary Guardian. I would have died several times by now, but the High Prince saved me by giving me his..."

I trailed off as pieces realigned in my mind. He gave me lifeforce twice, and those were the two times my fighting abilities had surpassed all expectation. I never knew you could fight like that, Fraschkit had commented after this last battle. And after Isalio and I had narrowly escaped the Forest of Lost Beasts, he had asked, When did you become such a badass?

Earth and sky together. Could exchanging lifeforce somehow unleash a hidden power, an untapped potential, a secret weapon to defeat the Morgabeast?

Someone cleared their throat, and I craned my neck to see Kardki at the entrance. She twisted her hands together and swallowed.

"Brother Remgar, I'm so sorry if I'm interrupting. Brother Vosgar, are you well?"

My father blew a breath through his lips so they flapped. "I'm fine, always fine. You all should stop wasting your time on an old man."

I frowned at him. "It's not a waste of time. However..." I turned to Kardki. "Do you know if Leader Fraschkit is still meeting with the leaders of the Mantle?"

"Yes, I believe so. Would you like to attend?"

I hesitated. Really, I wanted to talk to Isalio first, but the leaders needed all the information available to plan appropriately—and I hoped I could somehow persuade them to approve a dangerous request.

"If you don't mind staying here with Vosgar, I think I need to share something with the leaders."

My father shook his head. "I already told you, I don't need someone to—"

"I'll stay with him." She shot my father an apologetic smile. "Sorry, Brother Vosgar, but you'll just have to put up with me for a while. I'll try not to bother you too much."

"I don't need coddling just because I'm an old man."

I could have pointed out that this hardly counted as coddling given his recent seizure, but I decided something else was more important to say. "You'd do the same for me, Dad."

Despite everything that had happened between us, I knew that was still true. And he apparently couldn't deny it either; his mouth slowly fell shut, and he sighed through his nose.

"Kardki," I said, "Which way to the meeting?"