The city slept under heavy clouds, unaware that a battle for its survival had already begun. Zindra and Liyaya sat together in the small apartment, rain tapping gently against the windows as if the storm had given them a moment of peace.
Liyaya looked at him — no longer just Zindra the quiet man she'd fallen in love with, but Zindra the sentinel of another world. The truth still felt unreal, but the warmth of his hand in hers reminded her this was real enough.
"Tell me everything," she said softly.
Zindra explained the truth of Cyne — a world of warriors, magic, and sentinels born to protect not just their own world but any place Sanavak's hunger might reach. He told her about the Meakery Senlord — the living artifact now part of him, and how Sanavak could not be truly killed in one battle.
"It breaks into fragments," Zindra said, his voice steady but his eyes heavy with the weight of what was to come. "Each piece can grow and feed until it's strong enough to strike again. If we don't find them, Earth will fall — like so many other worlds before it."
Liyaya's heart raced at the thought, but fear turned to determination. "Then we find them," she said firmly. "Together."
Zindra couldn't help but smile. In that moment, he realized that for all his strength and training, it was her courage that made him whole.
They packed what they needed — maps, a small bag of tools, and the ancient symbols Zindra drew by hand, markings that would help them sense Sanavak's hidden pieces. As dawn broke, the city woke with them, unaware that two hunters — one human, one sentinel — were preparing to hunt shadows no human eye could see.
Standing at the door, Liyaya turned to him. "Do you think your people know you're alive?"
Zindra glanced up at the brightening sky. "They'll know soon enough. And when they come — they'll find us ready."
Outside, the wind carried a whisper — a fragment of Sanavak drifting through alleys and rooftops, searching for a new place to hide. But this time, it would be hunted.
Hand in hand, Zindra and Liyaya stepped into the dawn. The fight was far from over. But for the first time, neither of them would face it alone.