Kai left Nepthuren at dawn, alone.
He spent the whole day in Vorath's salt-white districts and stinking slums, turning sand into light for a king who had never earned it.
The toad king wanted glass—real glass, clear as ice, strong as steel. So Kai built furnaces in the palace courtyard, poured sea-sand and soda ash until the heat turned the air molten, and shaped sheets that caught the sun and threw it back like mockery. He worked with his sleeves rolled high, tattoos quiet—he didn't need them for this. The nobles watched anyway, whispering behind silk fans, afraid and hungry in the same breath.
Between pours, he taught the bakers yeast.
He gathered them in the scullery, flour-dusted and wide-eyed.
"You don't buy yeast," he said, crushing dried grapes into a bowl of warm water. "You catch it. These skins have tiny beasts living on them. Leave this mash in the air a few days, feed it flour, and the beasts wake up. They eat sugar, breathe out gas. Gas makes bread rise."
A baker scratched his beard. "So… we talk to invisible beasts?"
"Pretty much." Kai stirred the mash. "Day three, it'll bubble. That's them saying hello."
By dusk, the first pane stood finished—tall as a man, flawless. The king croaked approval from his balcony, throat sac pulsing like a bellows.
Kai wiped soot from his hands and walked to the throne room.
The toad king lounged on his vine-and-obsidian throne, crown tilted, eyes yellow and wet.
Beside him stood Neo.
Kai stopped breathing.
Neo looked older—scar stark, shoulders thin—but his eyes lit the second they found Kai's. For one heartbeat the palace didn't exist.
The king spoke first, voice wet and heavy.
"So. The glass-maker returns. My halls shine because of you." His sac swelled. "Yet you built an entire nation without my leave. And now you stand here… why? To take my new advisor?"
Kai bowed, shallow but respectful. "I came to ask, not take. Neo chooses where he stands."
The king leaned forward, tongue flicking. "He chooses Vorath. He chooses me."
Neo stepped down from the dais, slow. "No," he said quietly. "I choose Nepthuren."
The court gasped. The king's eyes bulged.
Kai kept his voice level. "Let him go. You've had your glass. You've had your show. One man for a palace of light—that's fair exchange."
The king stared, throat working. Then he laughed—a rolling, wet sound that shook his jowls.
"Fair?" he croaked. "Nothing is fair. But very well. Take him. Take your shadow and go." His grin widened, all teeth and malice. "Every gift has a price, fanged one. One day I will collect."
Kai didn't answer. He just turned and walked out, Neo falling in beside him like he'd never left.
They didn't speak until the palace gates clanged shut behind them.
Then Neo punched him in the arm—hard.
"You idiot," he hissed, voice cracking. "A whole nation? Alone?"
Kai rubbed his arm, grinning despite himself. "You missed the fun parts."
They walked in silence for a while, the weight of three years settling between them like dust.
Finally Neo said, softer, "I thought you were dead."
"I know."
"I looked. Every rift. Every report. Nothing."
"I know."
Neo stopped, turned, and hugged him so hard Kai's ribs creaked.
"I knew you'd come," he whispered against Kai's shoulder. "I just didn't know how long I'd have to wait."
Kai's arms came up slow, like he'd forgotten how. "Too long."
When they pulled apart, Neo wiped his eyes with the heel of his hand, pretending it was dust.
"So," he said, voice steadier. "Who else have we got? Matt? Forn? Daniel? Meredith?"
"Daniel's with us," Kai said. "You're the only other one we've found so far."
Neo exhaled. "I did the paperwork for Nepthuren, you know. Registration, borders, the works. Never thought it was yours." He laughed, short and disbelieving. "What about the mission? The Sovereign box?"
Kai's smile turned sharp. "Lost it. On purpose."
Neo stared.
"Good," he said finally. "Some boxes aren't worth carrying."
---
The flight home was quiet.
Nimbus carried them above the clouds painted silver by moonlight. Neo sat close, knees drawn up, staring down at the world they'd left behind.
When Nepthuren's walls rose into view—higher now, stronger, glowing faintly with Flow's light—Kai leaned forward.
"Look at it," he said, voice soft. "It's real."
Neo smiled, small and tired and proud. "You built a country, Kai."
"Not done yet." Kai's eye traced the walls, the fields, the tiny lights of homes. "Walls are good. But they're just the beginning."
He guided Nimbus lower, the cloud settling gently outside the main gate.
The city was waiting.
Goblins waved from the battlements. Kippers darted along the walls, squeaking greetings. Humans and beastkin lined the streets, torches raised.
Kai stepped down, boots touching soil that was his.
Neo followed, staring like he couldn't believe it.
"Welcome home," Kai said.
And this time, the words didn't taste like a lie.
The Stray had come back.
And this time, he'd brought the future with him.