The echo of Eren's words still lingered in the Seer's ring when the mist closed behind the last of the Covenant watchers.
They had listened.
They had left.
But no one in the camp believed it was over.
Syra stood at the ring's edge, arms folded, scanning the trees for motion that hadn't yet come. Elira was pacing, eyes narrowed, lips moving in silent counting she was calculating, planning, already thinking of the next move.
But Eren?
He sat in the center of the circle, Akreth resting across his knees, blade still glowing faintly.
Not because it burned.
But because it remembered.
The sword had always whispered, always pulled. Now, it pulsed in rhythm with his breath. It no longer led. It listened.
Elira approached first.
"You're quiet," she said.
"So is the world," he replied. "For now."
She sat beside him, not speaking for a moment. Then,
"You know what you did today wasn't just defiance."
"I know," Eren said.
"You declared a truth."
He nodded.
"And truth demands a response."
That evening, the camp brimmed with tension.
Those who followed Eren not just Syra and Elira, but the scouts, the villagers, the broken few who had fled flame to find purpose stood in loose circles around the fire. They whispered now, not in fear, but in awe. Many of them had never seen the Covenant. Never heard their voice. And now they had watched one turn away.
It changed something.
Not just perception.
Belief.
The fire crackled. Sparks rose into the dark.
Syra stepped into the light.
"You've started something," she said.
"I didn't want to," Eren replied.
"But you did," she said. "You became the first voice to answer theirs."
Elira added, "And they'll answer back."
Eren stood.
"I want to be ready."
"You won't be," Syra said. "Not for what's coming."
He met her gaze.
"Then I'll make sure the people who follow me are."
They didn't sleep that night.
Not because they feared ambush, but because the air wouldn't let them rest. It shimmered faintly. Carried sound in strange ways. Words spoken in one tent echoed through another. Shadows stretched too long under the moon.
And then, near dawn, came the sound.
Hooves.
Not charging. Not fleeing.
Marching.
Elira was the first to spot the banners grey and gold, crestless, but unmistakably of Covenant design. A single column, perhaps thirty riders strong, descending from the eastern ridge under a flag of parley.
Syra cursed under her breath.
"They're not here to fight."
"No," Eren said. "They're here to ask questions."
He walked to the front line alone, Akreth sheathed but visible, cloak fluttering behind him like a second banner.
The leader of the riders dismounted before him.
She removed her helmet slowly.
Sharp features. Eyes like polished brass. Her hair was braided tightly against her scalp, and her robes shimmered faintly with rune-thread.
"Bearer," she said.
"Covenant," Eren replied.
She inclined her head slightly. "I am Envoy Kethra. Voice of the Ninth Archive."
"I'm not familiar with your titles."
"They change often," she said. "As truth evolves."
"And what is your truth today?"
Kethra took a step forward.
"That the flame has chosen. That it has remembered. And that memory is dangerous."
Eren said nothing.
She continued.
"You were meant to be studied. Preserved. Categorized. We sent watchers. We sent warnings. And still you defy the current."
"I don't walk by current," Eren said.
"I am the flame."
Kethra's gaze hardened.
"Then speak as it."
Eren's hand drifted to Akreth.
"I will speak."
He turned, facing his people.
Not just the camp.
The riders too.
"The flame is not a weapon."
He raised the sword.
"It is not a banner."
He looked at each face, one by one.
"It is a voice. And that voice has been buried too long beneath war, prophecy, and fear."
Kethra listened, silent.
Eren continued.
"I do not carry this blade to conquer. I carry it to remember. To burn away what was forced onto it. The lies. The rituals. The silence."
He lowered the blade.
"This is the first voice. It will not be the last."
Kethra stepped forward again.
"And if the next voice challenges yours?"
Eren met her eyes.
"Then let it speak."
She studied him for a long moment.
Then she said,
"You will be recorded."
"Not followed. Not embraced. But known."
Eren nodded.
"That's all I ever wanted."
Kethra turned, mounted her horse again.
She looked back once.
"When the next archive opens, your words will be there."
And then she rode.
Syra joined Eren.
"You didn't push them."
"I didn't need to."
"You gave them room."
"Now we'll see who steps into it."
Elira's voice came from behind.
"They're not the enemy."
"No," Eren said. "They're the beginning."