They found Bren in the Bone Market.
Not buying, not selling — just standing there, arms crossed, like a stone someone had forgotten to move.
The Bone Market wasn't really about bones anymore, though there were still vendors hawking beast skulls and Veil-scorched relics. These days it was mostly stolen tech, fractured maps, whisper-potions, and things too sharp or too cursed for the main street.
Kaelen spotted him first.
Bren hadn't changed much. Still broad-shouldered, still wearing that look like everyone around him was seconds from disappointing him. But there was something colder in his eyes now. A weight he hadn't carried before.
Kaelen kept his distance, let Yreya approach first.
She didn't speak. Just walked up and stood beside him.
Bren didn't look at her, but his jaw clenched.
Then, low:
"Tavrin's dead."
The silence between them tightened like a noose.
Kaelen stepped forward. "What happened?"
Bren finally turned to face him. "You happened."
Kaelen blinked. "What—?"
"He followed your trail. Said he saw a shard-flare west of Mire's Edge. Thought it was you. Thought maybe we could finally put it back together — the group, the—"
He shook his head, furious and grief-strangled at the same time.
"They found his body in a ruin. Looked like he cracked open a sealed vault. They said he was smiling when he died. That's not funny, Kael. That's not what Tavrin deserved."
Kaelen didn't answer.
Because what could he say?
They sat together on a rusted stairwell behind the market, the way they used to sit on the chapel roof, years ago, legs dangling, sharing stolen fruit and impossible ideas about the world.
Now there was just dust in the air. Smoke on the wind. And a second shard in Kaelen's coat pocket that hadn't stopped humming since the night he touched it.
Yreya broke the quiet. "It's starting again."
Bren didn't react.
Kaelen nodded. "We saw something. A being. Not human. It gave me a second shard."
Bren's eyes flicked to him, sharp. "And you took it?"
"I didn't have a choice."
"There's always a choice."
"No," Yreya said quietly. "Not when the Veil's involved. Not for us."
That night, they rented a room above the Hook.
Kaelen couldn't sleep. The second shard sat on the table, wrapped in cloth, but still glowing faintly through the fabric.
He stared at it like it might blink first.
Yreya snored softly from the other side of the room. Bren hadn't said a word since dinner.
Kaelen whispered, "What do you want from me?"
No answer.
But inside his chest, the original shard pulsed — once — like a heartbeat syncing with something deeper.
And Kaelen knew.
They weren't carrying the shards.
The shards were carrying them.