The Shadow Hunter headquarters was in lockdown when they arrived.
Guards stopped them at the entrance, weapons drawn. "You're supposed to be dead or converted," one said. "Commander Helena put out alerts three days ago."
"We're neither," Kaelen said tiredly. "We were inside Marcus's operation, gathering intelligence. Now we need to report."
The guards exchanged glances, then allowed them through. They were escorted directly to Helena's office, where they found not just the Commander, but Ronan, Selene, and Princess Isabella herself.
"Kaelen. Lia." Helena's expression was unreadable. "When you disappeared five days ago, we assumed the worst."
"We were inside Marcus's cathedral compound," Kaelen said. "Learning his techniques, observing his operations. We have information."
"You were being recruited," Isabella corrected coldly. "Don't dress it up as intelligence gathering. You went dark for five days without contact, causing significant operational disruption. Three of our people are dead from the coordinated attacks that happened while you were gone."
That hit like a physical blow. Three more deaths. Because they'd been chasing knowledge instead of doing their jobs.
"I'm sorry," Kaelen said inadequately. "We thought—"
"You thought you could play both sides," Isabella interrupted. "Learn from Marcus while remaining loyal to us. Classic mistake. How much did he convert you?"
"He didn't convert us," Lia said. "We left as soon as we realized what his research actually involved."
"Which was?" Ronan asked quietly.
They explained. The test subjects, the forced channeling, the torture masked as research. How all of Marcus's reasonable-sounding techniques were built on suffering.
"We already knew that," Selene said bluntly. "Marcus's methods have always been unethical. Why do you think we've been fighting him?"
"But he made it sound reasonable," Kaelen protested. "Like pragmatic necessity instead of cruelty."
"That's called rhetoric," Helena said. "And if you fell for it that easily, you're more compromised than you realize. Ronan, what's your assessment?"
Ronan had been watching Kaelen silently. Now he stepped forward, his expression troubled.
"Kid's been indoctrinated," he said. "Not fully—he still rejected Marcus in the end. But his thinking's been altered. I can see it in how he's justifying his choices, how he's framing the experience. Give Marcus another week and he'd have converted completely."
"I'm right here," Kaelen said. "Stop talking about me like I'm a compromised asset."
"You *are* a compromised asset," Isabella said. "You spent five days learning from the enemy, absorbing his worldview, accepting his premises. You rejected his conclusions, but the foundational thinking is still there. That makes you unreliable."
"So what?" Kaelen challenged. "You're suspending us? Arresting us?"
"I'm quarantining you," Isabella replied. "Two weeks restricted duty. You report to psychological evaluation daily, you don't take combat missions, and you certainly don't engage with anything related to Marcus. We need to ensure you're actually deprogrammed before we trust you with critical operations."
It was logical. It was also humiliating.
"We brought back intelligence," Lia said. "Information about Marcus's compound, his research priorities, his force composition. That's valuable."
"It would be if we could trust it's accurate," Helena said. "But you were inside enemy operations for five days. How do we know what you're reporting is true versus what Marcus wanted you to believe? He could have staged everything you saw to feed us false information."
Kaelen hadn't considered that possibility. The doubt on Helena's face suggested she was right to consider it.
"However," Isabella continued, "you did return instead of joining him. That counts for something. So here's the deal: Full psychological evaluation. Complete debriefing of everything you learned, saw, and heard. We'll verify what we can through independent sources. If it checks out and you pass the evaluations, you're reinstated. If not, you're permanently suspended from Shadow Hunter operations."
"And if we refuse the evaluation?" Kaelen asked.
"Then you're assumed converted and arrested as enemy operatives," Isabella said flatly. "Those are your options. Choose."
"We'll take the evaluation," Lia said quickly, before Kaelen could argue.
"Good choice." Isabella stood. "Mage Karsten will handle the psychological assessment. Selene will conduct combat evaluations when we determine you're ready. Until then, consider yourselves on house arrest. Dismissed."
They were escorted to separate rooms—not cells, but not exactly comfortable either. Guards outside, wards on the windows.
Kaelen sat on the narrow bed and tried to process everything.
They'd escaped Marcus. They'd rejected his offer. They'd returned to the right side.
So why did it feel like they'd lost?
---
Mage Karsten arrived an hour later, looking even more disheveled than usual.
"Well," she said, settling into a chair and pulling out a notebook. "This is exciting. First time I've gotten to deprogram someone from Marcus's influence. Let's see how deep it goes."
"I'm not programmed," Kaelen protested.
"Everyone says that," Karsten replied. "Now tell me: during your time with Marcus, did you ever find yourself agreeing with his arguments?"
"Some of them," Kaelen admitted. "About institutional corruption, about shadow magic suppression. But those are objectively true issues."
"Yes, but did you agree with his proposed solutions?"
"No. Releasing the Shadow Lord is catastrophic."
"Are you certain?" Karsten asked. "Or is that what you're supposed to say?"
Kaelen opened his mouth to respond, then paused. Was he certain? Or had doubt been planted so deeply he couldn't recognize it anymore?
"I... think I'm certain," he said slowly.
"That hesitation is what worries me," Karsten said gently. "Marcus is excellent at creating doubt. Making people question their convictions, wonder if maybe the extreme solution is necessary. That's how indoctrination works—not by forcing new beliefs, but by eroding old ones."
She spent three hours asking questions, probing his thoughts, testing his reasoning. By the end, Kaelen felt mentally exhausted and increasingly uncertain about everything.
"Verdict?" he finally asked.
"You're compromised but recoverable," Karsten said. "Marcus planted seeds of doubt, but they haven't taken root fully. With proper cognitive reinforcement and distance from his influence, you should return to baseline thinking within two weeks. Maybe three."
"And Lia?"
"I'll evaluate her separately. But from preliminary observation, she's more compromised than you. She spent more time in their library, absorbed more of their theoretical frameworks. Her recovery might take longer."
That was worrying. But not surprising. Lia had always been more intellectual, more willing to engage with complex arguments. Those strengths made her more vulnerable to sophisticated manipulation.
"Can I see her?" Kaelen asked.
"Not yet. Isolation is part of the deprogramming process. You reinforce each other's doubts when together. Apart, we can address individual thinking more effectively."
Karsten left, and Kaelen was alone with his thoughts.
Alone with the corruption cycling technique he'd learned.
Alone with the knowledge that people had been tortured so he could learn it.
Alone with the question: if Marcus was willing to torture test subjects for research, what else was he willing to do?
And why had he really let Kaelen and Lia escape?
---
Three days of evaluation passed in isolation.
On the fourth day, Ronan visited.
"How you holding up, kid?" he asked, sitting across from Kaelen.
"I've been better," Kaelen admitted. "Karsten keeps asking the same questions fifty different ways. I'm starting to doubt things I was certain about."
"That's the point," Ronan said. "Break down Marcus's framework, rebuild your original thinking. It's uncomfortable but necessary."
"You worked with him," Kaelen said. "Fifteen years ago. Marcus mentioned it."
Ronan was quiet for a moment. "Yeah. Briefly. Before he went off the deep end with his Shadow Lord obsession. Back then, he was just a researcher, brilliant but arrogant. I thought his theories were interesting but impractical. Turned out they were dangerous instead."
"What happened? Why did you split?"
"He wanted to do human trials for his corruption research," Ronan said. "I said no. He did them anyway. I reported him to the Shadow Hunter authorities. He vanished before they could arrest him, took his research and followers underground. Been causing problems ever since."
"You saved people by stopping him back then," Kaelen realized.
"Delayed him, maybe. Didn't stop him." Ronan leaned forward. "Listen, kid. Marcus is good at making people doubt themselves. Good at asking uncomfortable questions about systems that don't work right. But his solutions are worse than the problems. Don't let him get in your head."
"Too late for that," Kaelen said. "He's already there."
"Then push him out," Ronan said simply. "Remember why you started fighting. Remember what you're protecting. The rest is just noise."
Why had Kaelen started fighting? Originally, just survival. Then protecting Lia. Then stopping Marcus because it was the right thing to do.
Had that changed? Was he still fighting for the right reasons?
"Yeah," Kaelen said slowly. "Yeah, I remember."
"Good," Ronan said. "Because in about a week, once Karsten clears you, we're going to need you operational. Marcus is accelerating his timeline. Whatever he's planning for the convergence, it's happening soon. We'll need everyone we can get."
"How soon?"
"Two months. Maybe three. He's gathering resources, repositioning forces, and doing something with corrupted artifacts we don't fully understand yet. But it's building to something big."
Two months. That wasn't much time to prepare.
"I'll be ready," Kaelen said.
"Make sure you are," Ronan replied. "Because next time you face Marcus, he won't offer recruitment. He'll offer death. And you'll need to be completely certain which side you're on."
Ronan left, and Kaelen returned to his thoughts.
Two months until Marcus's next move.
Two weeks of deprogramming and evaluation.
Six weeks to prepare for whatever came next.
He could do that.
He had to do that.
Because the alternative was losing himself completely—either to Marcus's manipulation or to Soulrender's corruption.
And Kaelen Voss, despite all his doubts and compromises and mistakes, was determined to remain himself until the very end.
Whatever that end looked like.