The winds had changed.
Not the usual gusts that tugged at sails or whispered secrets across the tide — but a shift in the very air of the crew, a tension woven between glances, silences, and unspoken questions. Ever since the Trial of the Abyss, something had been off. And now, aboard the Ashen Gale, it broke like a storm.
The Sable Compass was gone.
It had been one of the most important relics Raizen's crew had uncovered — a device of pre-Government origin capable of locating ethereal constructs tied to the Hollow Throne. The compass had led them to two of the Seven Keys already. Without it, the trail would vanish.
And worse — it hadn't been stolen by an enemy. It had been given away.
By Nalin Vey — Raizen's strategist. His friend. His brother-in-arms.
The truth unraveled with brutal clarity.
Encrypted logs. A broken seal. A transmission to a high-ranking agent known only as The Watcher. The final proof came from Zuri's blade, pressed to Nalin's throat in the captain's quarters.
"I wanted to believe you," she said, voice trembling.
Nalin didn't resist. "I wanted you to."
Raizen stood before him, expression unreadable.
"You knew what that compass meant," he said quietly. "You fought for it. Bled for it. Why?"
Nalin's eyes burned with conviction and guilt in equal measure.
"Because I believe in what we're doing, Raizen — but not in how we're doing it," he said. "Every step forward, we lose more of who we were. You think we're building freedom, but you're building a crown."
Raizen didn't flinch. "So you gave it to the enemy?"
"To balance the field," Nalin spat. "We've become too powerful. Too blind. Someone needed to stop us before we lost everything."
The crew was in chaos.
Kato wanted Nalin executed on the spot. Zuri didn't speak, her knuckles white on the hilt of her sword. Even Verrigan Vane — who had once smuggled explosives in baby crates — couldn't look Nalin in the eye.
Raizen didn't issue an order immediately. He walked the deck, looking out at the endless sea, the sky above gray with oncoming storm.
He thought of the path behind them — the lives lost, the truths unearthed, the throne still shrouded in myth. And he thought of the ones who had followed him, not because he was perfect, but because he kept moving forward.
He returned at dusk.
"You're not wrong, Nalin," Raizen said, voice hoarse. "But you're not right, either."
He handed him a skiff. Supplies. A compass of his own.
"You're exiled. You betrayed us — but I won't kill a man for believing in another way. Go."
Zuri turned her face away. Verrigan cursed under his breath. But no one stopped Raizen. And Nalin… he didn't beg. Didn't cry.
He just nodded.
As the skiff vanished into the horizon, Kato asked, "You really think he'll survive out there?"
Raizen didn't answer immediately.
"I think… he already knew what the sea would give him."
Behind them, the crew stood fractured. A bond broken. Trust wounded.
Ahead, the Hollow Throne waited. And somewhere in the shadows, the enemy now held the Sable Compass.
The wake of betrayal rippled long after the skiff disappeared.
END OF THE CHAPTER7