The night was quiet, save for the distant roar of the sea against the cliffs. A lone figure stood at the edge of a dense forest, her silhouette framed by the flickering torchlight of the outpost behind her. Shenna Duskbane, once a rider of the Fourth Wing, now a fugitive of Basgiath, tightened her grip on the hilt of her dagger.

She wasn't alone.

A man stepped from the trees, his presence unsettling the very air around him. Tall, with sharp features and eyes that gleamed like polished obsidian, he moved with the eerie grace of someone who had spent a lifetime walking the line between worlds. Sorcerer Ryun Duskbane, her husband—and the reason she had been exiled from her own people.

Between them, wrapped in a cloak far too large for his small frame, stood their son.

Kai.

Only five years old, with wide golden eyes that held too much understanding for a child his age. His fingers clutched the edge of his mother's riding leathers, his other hand fisted in his father's sleeve. He didn't cry. He didn't ask why they were here, in this hidden clearing far from both the dragon roosts and the sorcerer sects.

He already knew.

This was goodbye.

SCEEBREAK

"He can't stay with me," Ryun said, voice low. "Not with the clans hunting cursed bloodlines. They'll kill him the moment they sense what he is."

Shenna's jaw tightened. She knew he was right. The Jujutsu world had no mercy for those born between light and shadow—especially not a child who carried both dragonfire and cursed energy in his veins.

But Basgiath was no safer.

"If they find out he's mine—" she started.

"Then we make sure they never do," Ryun interrupted. His hand settled on Kai's head, fingers brushing through dark hair streaked with the faintest hint of crimson. "You take him. Raise him among the riders. Teach him to hide what he is."

Shenna knelt, cupping her son's face. "You'll have to be strong, little storm. Stronger than anyone else."

Kai nodded, solemn. "Like you?"

Her throat burned. "Stronger than me."

SCEEBREAK

A gust of wind stirred the trees. Somewhere in the distance, a dragon's cry echoed over the cliffs. Time was running out.

Ryun pressed a sealed scroll into Shenna's hand. "When he's ready, this will lead him to the answers he needs."

She tucked it into her coat without looking. "And if he's never ready?"

Her husband's smile was bittersweet. "Then we've doomed him for nothing."

With one last glance at their son, Ryun turned and vanished into the shadows—leaving behind only the faintest whisper of cursed energy.

Shenna exhaled, then lifted Kai onto her hip. "Come on," she murmured. "We're going home."

And as they walked toward the outpost, the first embers of Kai's future flickered to life—a spark caught between two worlds, waiting to ignite.