Ash gaze dropped to the floor.
"After my mom died... everything just stopped. I never went back to the academy. I stopped talking. I didn't even feel like breathing half the time. I just... trained. Every day. Alone. Just me and my sword. Over and over. Like if I kept swinging it, the world wouldn't break me."
His hand moved to his side to grab the hilt of his blade—then froze. Empty.
'Right... I left it back in the room.'
Fingers curled into a fist.
"I shut everyone out. For nearly a year, I lived in my own little world—silent, angry, empty."
His eyes looked through the wall, not at it.
"my dad tried. He really did. Lectures. Promises. Even yelled once or twice. But I didn't move."
He pulled in a breath, slow and rough, like it scraped on the way out.
"When his team got assigned to a critical mission—one that would take days, maybe more—he made a decision. Kael and Max had already joined Team Vortex by then, and while he was away, he didn't want me left behind."
