The rooftop of the Veil Academy was silent.

The kind of silence that felt ancient like the world itself was holding its breath.

Clouds drifted thinly across the moon, leaving silver trails over the stone tiles. The city lights shimmered far below, small and distant like fading lanterns on dark water.

A breeze moved.

Then

A presence appeared.

Not with noise.

Not with spectacle.

Just… presence.

Master Isen stepped out of the shadows, golden hair catching moonlight like threads of dawn. His black-and-silver robes fluttered quietly behind him. Calm blue eyes traced the sky, the moon, the distant world he vowed to protect.

He didn't greet the other figure already waiting.

He didn't need to.

The air between them already knew their names.

Lucere stood on the edge of the rooftop, pink wolf-cut hair ruffling in the wind, his mismatched eyes swirling like stitched embers. He gazed up at the stars lazily, hands in his pockets, posture relaxed too relaxed.

Like a predator conserving energy.

Isen finally spoke, voice steady, warm… yet edged with something sharp.

"…It's been a long time, Lucere."

Lucere smirked without turning.

"Long enough for the moon to get boring without you around, old friend."

Isen walked forward, stopping several steps behind him.

"You took five shards." he said quietly.

Lucere chuckled.

"Not enough. I need ten."

"For her."

Lucere's smile froze a fraction.

The wind shifted.

Lucere finally turned slightly, his swirling eyes glancing at Isen from the corner.

"Still reading me like a book, Keiryuu?"

Isen's jaw tightened almost imperceptibly.

"Yuna wouldn't want this."

Lucere's expression shuttered.

His smile fell away.

A shadow crossed his face not anger, not madness.

Pain.

Old, unhealed, raw pain.

"That's where you're wrong," Lucere whispered.

"Yuna wanted freedom. Yuna wanted life. Yuna deserved to come back."

Isen's eyes softened.

"You're still lying to yourself."

For a moment… everything stilled.

Lucere inhaled slowly, something fragile cracking behind his eyes.

"Isen," he said quietly, "you of all people should understand."

Isen looked at the moon.

"I do. More than anyone."

Lucere's gaze sharpened.

"Then why aren't you helping me? Yuna was your master too. You loved her too."

Isen closed his eyes briefly, a ghost of a smile forming.

"…Yes."

His voice softened almost tender.

"I loved her."

Lucere's fingers twitched.

"And still," Isen continued, "I honor her wish."

Lucere scoffed. "Her wish? She's dead, Isen."

"She chose to die."

Isen's voice was calm… but it cut like winter steel.

"She asked us not to bring her back."

Lucere flinched a small, sharp movement he tried to mask.

But Isen saw.

Lucere's jaw clenched. His voice dropped to a whisper, thin and trembling at the edges.

"She never said that to me."

"She didn't want to hurt you."

"That's nonsense," Lucere snapped.

His hands curled into fists.

"Yuna wanted to live. She smiled. She laughed. She fought. She."

Lucere's throat tightened.

"She saved us."

Isen stepped closer, but not aggressively gently.

As if approaching a wounded animal.

"Lucere… Yuna saved us by choosing an end to her suffering."

Lucere shook his head violently.

"No. No. Yuna never gave up. She wasn't someone who accepted fate. She wasn't someone who let go. She wasn't someone who"

"would want to return as a puppet of shards."

Lucere froze.

The rooftop air thickened.

Lucere's eyes darkened, swirling faster, shadows gathering at his heel.

"I would never make her a puppet," he hissed.

"I would restore her. Perfectly."

"At the cost of this world?" Isen asked gently.

Lucere's voice broke.

"At the cost of everything."

Isen exhaled slowly.

There it was.

The truth.

Lucere wasn't destroying the world because he hated it.

He was destroying it because he couldn't handle living in it without her.

Isen stepped beside him, shoulder to shoulder, both gazing at the moon they used to stare at together… when Yuna stood between them.

"Lucere," Isen murmured, "we missed her together. We grieved together."

Lucere's smile twisted bitterly.

"Yes. Until you moved on."

Isen's eyes flickered.

"…I didn't move on."

Lucere's head snapped toward him.

Isen's voice was barely a breath.

"I just learned to live with the pain."

Lucere's eyes trembled.

"Teach me how."

Isen closed his eyes.

"…You don't want to learn that lesson."

Lucere's face hardened, walls sliding back into place.

"Then I'll continue my path."

"I know," Isen whispered.

"And you will try to stop me."

"I must."

Lucere chuckled sad, soft, broken.

"Is that why you appeared tonight?"

Isen nodded.

"I felt Khael awaken."

Lucere grinned widely, teeth sharp.

"So you felt the dragon… your old rival."

Isen didn't deny it.

Lucere leaned closer, whispering near Isen's ear, voice dripping amusement.

"You feel threatened?"

"I feel protective," Isen corrected calmly.

"Protective of who?"

"Khael," Isen said.

"Of everyone."

A pause.

"And even you."

Lucere froze.

For the first time, his expression completely blanked.

"…You don't get to protect me."

Isen looked at him, sadness soft in his eyes.

"I always did."

Lucere's lips parted, something unsteady flickering inside him.

But he masked it quickly.

"You won't kill me." Lucere said quietly.

"No."

"You won't let me win either."

"No."

Lucere's grin returned hollow, sharp.

"Then we're enemies again."

Isen nodded.

"Yes."

"Good," Lucere whispered.

"Because the next time we meet, Keiryuu…"

His mismatched eyes gleamed.

"…I'm taking the next shard. And the boy."

"Over my dead body." Isen said softly.

Lucere smiled sweetly.

"That can be arranged."

A gust of wind brushed past

And Lucere vanished, leaving the scent of cold and roses lingering behind.

Isen remained still, staring at the moon.

The moon Yuna once loved.

The moon both men had once promised her they would protect.

He whispered into the quiet night:

"Lucere… why must the ones who love the hardest break the most?"

And the wind carried no answer.

The world was simpler back then.

Before betrayal.

Before enemies.

Before death.

Before the Hollow Nine… before the Veinwalker Corps.

There were only three people on a lonely mountain plateau, training under the bright morning sun.

The wind howled across the cliffs of Asterion Peak, but a young boy's laughter cut through the cold. Lucere tiny, barefoot, and wild-haired ran across the rocky ground, a wooden dagger clutched in one hand. Every time he swung it, he made dramatic "HAA!" noises, even though he hit absolutely nothing.

"You missed again." a soft voice teased.

Lucere stopped, puffed his cheeks, and glared up at the woman who towered above him.

Yuna, only twenty years old yet already a legend, stood with arms crossed and a smile that warmed the mountain air. Her silver hair flowed behind her like a trail of moonlight, and her eyes were gentle, impossibly gentle.

"You keep saying that!" Lucere yelled.

"That's because you keep missing." Yuna replied, tapping his forehead.

Lucere rubbed his head and pouted.

From several steps away, another figure observed the two with a mixture of amusement and irritation.

A teenage boy 13, already dignified, already disciplined.

Isen.

Shoulders straight, hair already golden, eyes sharp like a young general waiting to happen. Even then, he carried gravity like a mantle.

He sighed, lifting his own wooden spear.

"You're swinging with your emotions again, Lucere," young Isen said. "Master Yuna told you."

"I KNOW WHAT MASTER SAID!" Lucere barked back.

Isen frowned but didn't respond. Yuna laughed softly.

"You two look like brothers." she said warmly.

Lucere froze.

Isen stiffened.

"We're NOT brothers!" they both shouted at the same time.

Yuna laughed harder, wiping a small tear from her eye.

To Lucere, she looked like the sun.

To Isen, she looked like the sky.

"Come here, Lucere." Yuna said, sitting on a flat stone and patting her lap.

Lucere immediately threw away his tiny dagger and ran to her, dropping his weight onto her legs like an affectionate cat.

Isen rolled his eyes at the sight.

"You pamper him too much." Isen muttered.

"You say that," Yuna said, "but when you were ten, you cried when I didn't let you hold my hand on the way up the mountain."

Isen's face flushed bright red.

"That, That was training! It was dark! I was….!"

Lucere burst out laughing so hard he snorted.

Yuna stroked the boy's hair gently.

"Lucere, what is it you want to become?"

The boy tipped his chin up, thinking hard.

He clenched a fist over his heart.

"I want to be strong like you."

Yuna's smile softened. "…And why?"

"So I can protect people. So I can protect you."

Isen's eyes flickered.

Yuna's hand froze for a moment… then moved again, slower, a bit sadder.

"Lucere… strength is not something you gain for someone else."

"Then I'll be strong for myself," Lucere replied proudly.

"But I'll still protect you."

Yuna's breath hitched.

Isen turned his head away, unable to look at her expression.

Later that day, the three sat around a fire Yuna built with a simple flick of her finger.

Lucere roasted berries on a stick burning all of them while Isen tried to cook properly but kept glancing at Yuna like he wanted to ask something.

Yuna finally caught his gaze.

"What is it, Isen?"

The young boy hesitated.

His fingers curled around his spear.

"Why… why do you fight?"

Lucere paused too.

They rarely heard Yuna speak about herself.

Yuna's eyes reflected the firelight.

"I fight because someone has to," she said.

"To stop pain. To stop cruelty. To show the world that people can rise above what they were born into."

Lucere whispered, "You sound like a hero."

Yuna chuckled softly.

"I'm not a hero. I'm just someone who lost too much, too early."

Isen's jaw tightened not in anger, but a quiet, unfamiliar ache.

He wanted to reach out.

He wanted to protect her sadness.

He wanted her to never look that lonely again.

"Master," he said firmly, "I will become someone who stands beside you."

Lucere raised his hand enthusiastically.

"Me too! Me too!! I'll stand beside you on your left side! So Isen can take the right!"

Isen glared at him.

Yuna laughed again, the kind of laugh that made the mountains echo.

"If that is the future," she said gently, "then I will be very happy."

Night fell. The stars shone brightly.

Lucere crawled into Yuna's cloak, curling like a pup, head resting on her lap.

Isen stayed a respectful distance away but kept sneaking glances, wanting the same comfort but too proud to ask.

Yuna stroked both their heads Lucere openly, Isen secretly when he pretended to sleep.

"Sleep, kids," she whispered.

Lucere mumbled, "Okay…"

Isen muttered, "I'm not… a kid…"

Yuna smiled knowingly.

"You are both precious to me."

Lucere gripped her cloak.

Isen's breathing paused for a second.

Neither forgot those words.

Not even when the world burned later.

Not even after Yuna died.

Not even when the two of them brothers-not-brothers stood on opposite sides of fate.

To be continue