For four days, I had lived with the belief that Rua and Flin were dead.
I had replayed their faces a thousand times.
Imagined their final moments.
I heard explosions in my dreams.
Woke up gasping.
I truly believed they were gone because of me.
So when I stepped into the Red Lantern's back room and saw two figures—
—small, dirty, trembling, but alive—
My breath stopped.
"Rain…?"
That voice.
Soft. Shaky. Familiar enough to break me in half.
Rua.
And next to her—Flin.
Alive.
Alive.
My vision blurred instantly.
My legs nearly buckled.
I didn't move.
I couldn't.
Rua's eyes widened as tears spilled down her cheeks.
Flin let out a weak, choked laugh that cracked halfway through.
Then both of them crashed into me, arms wrapping around my chest like they were afraid I would vanish.
I didn't hug them back at first.
I was too shocked.
Too scared they'd disappear if I blinked.
But when Rua sobbed into my shirt—
When Flin's trembling hands gripped my back—
I broke.
I wrapped my arms around them so tightly it must have hurt.
I buried my face into their hair.
"I… I thought you died," I whispered, voice cracking.
"I thought I killed you. I thought I dragged you into this and… and I didn't—"
"Rain!
Stop," Rua choked out. "We're here. We're okay."
Flin nodded, pressing his forehead against my shoulder.
"We had errands. Miss Lysa asked us to run to the outer stalls for medicine. It took longer than we thought because the shop was closed and—then the explosion happened."
He swallowed, voice breaking.
"If we'd been even a minute earlier, we'd be dead."
Rua hugged me tighter.
"But we weren't. We survived. Rain, we survived."
Tears streamed down my face. I didn't try to hide them.
"I'm sorry," I whispered.
"I'm sorry I brought danger to the orphanage. I'm sorry you lost your home. I'm sorry for everything—"
"Rain," Rua said, pulling back just enough to look me in the eyes.
"You saved us more times than we can count. Don't you dare blame yourself for this."
Flin nodded fiercely.
"You're the reason we're still alive. Not the reason anyone died."
I shook, unable to stop crying, and pulled them both in again.
I held onto them like they were the last pieces of me left unbroken.
For the first time since the orphanage burned, I felt something warm stirring in my chest.
Hope.
That warmth didn't last long.
It never does in the slums.
Later that evening, while I was out buying bread for Rua and Flin, five men blocked the alley.
Red Tide colors flashing.
No drunken swagger.
No sloppy posture.
These were elites.
Assassins.
The kind they only sent when they truly wanted someone dead.
"Are you the one they call the Storm Rat?" one asked.
I didn't answer.
I just drew my sword.
They rushed me like wolves.
I moved on instinct.
Parried.
Sidestepped.
Slashed.
I killed the first one quickly—blade across the throat.
The second fell after a brutal struggle, my sword sliding between his ribs.
But the other three?
I couldn't overpower them.
One sliced my shoulder open.
Another stabbed through my side.
The third slammed me against the wall hard enough to make the world spin.
Blood filled my mouth.
Pain blurred everything.
I barely escaped—
stumbling through tight alleys—
jumping fences—
hearing their shouts in the distance—
until I collapsed through the Red Lantern's back door.
Rua screamed when she saw me.
Flin rushed to catch me as I fell.
Miss Heinal ripped cloth, pressed it to my wounds, cursed loudly enough to shake the walls.
But none of that mattered.
Because when Rua begged,
"Rain, don't leave us again—please,"
I knew I had to say it.
"I… I can't stay here."
That silence—
that instant stillness—
hurt more than my wounds.
Flin's lip quivered.
Rua's eyes filled with fear.
"Why?" Rua whispered.
"We just got you back."
I forced myself to sit up despite the pain.
"Because I'll get you killed," I said.
"Because staying here means the Red Tide will keep coming.
Because I'm too weak."
I gritted my teeth.
"And because… I need to get stronger."
They didn't understand—not at first.
So I told them everything.
"A little while ago… I met a Lionhearth Knight.
Sir Zenite."
Both Rua and Flin's eyes widened.
"He told me about the Knight Apprentice Exam in Lionhearth Kingdom. If I pass… if I survive… I'll become an apprentice knight."
I took a shaky breath.
"And with that strength… I can protect you. I can protect this place. I can fight the Red Tide the right way."
I looked at them, trembling.
"Come with me. Please."
It felt selfish to ask.
It felt wrong.
Rua wiped her eyes, then shook her head.
"No. We can't."
Flin stepped forward.
"We have to protect Miss Heinal.
We have to protect the Red Lantern.
If we leave, there won't be anyone left to help."
Rua took my hand gently.
"But if you become a knight… if you get stronger… you can protect all of us."
Flin placed a hand on my shoulder.
"So go.
Become the knight you want to be.
Come back stronger."
Rua smiled through tears.
"We'll be waiting."
When dawn approached, I couldn't fall asleep.
My injuries burned, my body ached, but something else weighed heavier.
Leaving them.
Leaving behind the only family I had left.
I sat at a small wooden table, lit by a single lantern, and wrote three letters.
One for Rua.
One for Flin.
One for Miss Heinal.
My handwriting was sloppy.
The ink smudged from the tears I tried to blink away.
When I finished, I placed the letters carefully on the table where they'd find them.
Then I stood.
Took my sword.
Took a deep breath.
Stepped into the cold morning air.
The sky was still dark—
that empty hour before sunrise—
the time people call the crack of dawn.
At the time only desperate people walked alone.
I tightened my cloak.
"I'll come back," I whispered to the quiet streets.
"Stronger as a knight."
And with the slums of Ignis behind me,
and Lionhearth Kingdom somewhere far ahead…
I took my first step toward the future.
Toward strength.
Toward the path of a knight.