Kaedan Beservera sat with his teammates at the make-shift base just north of Bhalgolar for the Liberation Front, working tirelessly to break the intercepted codes. Him, Xavier Mihata, Aurora Stelenko, and Rinya Veanont exchanged notes on the codes, and pieced together what they could. Any bits of information they could glean could help turn the tide of the war. It was just as important as the soldiers fighting on the frontlines.

“New message incoming!” a voice shouted—Captain Jelenya Hevarta, an elf from Rhanalan. 

Rinya began repeating the coded phrases out from her earpiece and Kaedan began writing what he heard down. When the message was over, Kaedan immediately went to work with Xavier’s help. The pair of them worked hard, using the cheat sheet they created; within a half hour, they worked out the message and it horrified the pair. 

Target: Bhalgolarian Liberation Front Base. Airship fireball strike 18:00. Commander Morozov move in and strike Bhalgolar itself.

Kaedan’s heart dropped into the pit of his stomach and his ears flattened. Morozov.

Iris.

She was on the other side. She wasn’t out there helping innocent Rhanalanians; she was out there trying to get them killed. But how did the base location get leaked? How could she have known? They had put up an illusionary field all over the facility. Kaedan’s mind raged with questions, but he had to push them aside: they needed to leave, now. 18:00 was nine minutes away. 

“Get out,” Kaedan said, standing up, looking around at his comrades. “Every single one of you needs to get out of this building, now. Captain, you need to radio our teams in the main city that they’re about to be under siege.”

“Lieutenant Commander Besevera?” Captain Hevarta asked.

“Do it,” Xavier agreed, rising to his feet as well. “The Patriot Defense Force found us and they’re about to strike, both us and the city itself. Kaedan and I will evacuate the rest of the building.”

“How?” Rinya demanded.

“I don’t know but we’ve been found,” Kaedan said, lashing his tail. “We have to go.”

Captain Hevarta regarded her men with a dubious gaze. Everyone in the room exchanged uncomfortable expressions, hoping the captain would listen to Kaedan and Xavier. Kaedan knew Captain Hevarta well enough to know that she would, but this was war. Anything could change within a given moment. Captains had to make split second decisions regularly. 

“Okay,” she finally agreed. “Get everyone out.”

“We will, Captain,” Kaedan agreed.

“Do you need help?” Rinya asked.

“No.” Kaedan shook his head, while signing for his comrade, Aurora. “Xavi and I got it. You two just go with everyone else. If you see anyone, though, do spread the word. Get as far away as you can.”

Rinya and Aurora nodded. “Okay.”

The two of them dashed off with the Captain and a few other teammates following suit. Kaedan and Xavier rushed out of the room, split up, and began opening every door they could and calling out to the people inside to evacuate the premises. It was the best they could do, given the intercom system was not exactly the greatest. Not that anyone expected something of this degree to happen. 

“This is not a drill. Evacuate the premises and get as far away as you can. Again, this is not a drill!”

Kaedan couldn’t wrap his mind around it. How did they get found? The Patriot Defense Forces didn’t have any mirâgidha––none of them would be able to see past the illusion. Unless…

No. The accidental interaction with Iris the other day. That wench—she followed him! How…why…? 

Commander Iris Morozov followed Lt. Commander Kaedan Beservera. And he had no idea she worked for the enemy until now.

Rontonleka. This was his fault.

Kaedan looked around the empty halls. Just over two minutes til the airstrike. He breathed, his ears catching the sound of the airships drawing near. His ears flattened against the sound, the roaring grating him. Wait. That’s not right. He thought there was more time! He checked the nearest clock: 17:58:34. They were early.

He needed to get out.

The airships were almost overhead. They were two minutes early, and Kaedan might be looking at death.

“No!” Kaedan shouted, tears streaming down his face. I have to get out of here. I have to be able to return home to Inarora. I need to come home to Inarora. 

Before he got to the nearest exit, he heard an explosion. Something heavy knocked him into the ground. Pain seared into him. 

Then, darkness. 

When Kaedan came to his senses, something was amiss. First, he noticed he was propped up rather than lying flat on his back. Then, he noticed his body felt… different. There was no other way he could put it. Slowly, he opened his eyes. At first, his sight was blurry. He could make out vague shapes of things. Sounds were not much clearer. 

First, however, sounds began to clarify but it took a bit to recognize them. 

“...walk… tail paralyzed… lucky to be alive…”

Was he being talked about? Who was even talking?

His vision cleared up after a few moments and the faces came into focus. 

The first face he saw was that of a light purple-skinned kharg wearing a white lab coat. Their hair was in dreads, and tied back out of their face. There was a clipboard in their hands. Must have been a doctor. 

Next to them was an eathys with short, pale silver hair. They wore a patched up denim jacket over top of a green sweater. In their arms was a little one wearing a purple hoodie and jeans.

Wait a minute.

That was his father and his almost three-year-old child, asleep in his arms, one thumb in her mouth and her elven baby doll tucked in her arms. How was that possible? Wasn’t he still in Rhanalan?

Kaedan tried to say ‘Dad’, but it came out as a pained moan instead. Both his father and the doctor looked at Kaedan with surprise. Inarora remained asleep in Byron’s arms.

“Lieutenant Commander Beservera,” the doctor greeted, their voice gentle. They drew closer to the bed and began checking over his vitals. “How are you doing?”

Kaedan took a strained breath and tried to feel everything. Yet, as he tried, he couldn’t. He could move his hands, move his neck, upper torso…but his legs and tail. Neither would move. Panic welled up inside. What happened? Had he been amputated? He began taking ragged breaths.

“I can’t…” His voice was strained, tears pooling in his eyes. “My legs…my tail…”

Byron stepped next to the doctor and looked at them. “Is it okay if I…?”

The doctor nodded. “If you think he needs comfort while I break the news, go ahead.”

“News?” Kaedan asked with a broken voice.

Byron shifted Inarora into a one-armed hold and brushed Kaedan’s cheek gently with the back of his hands. Then, Byron knelt beside Kaedan and gave him a kiss on the cheek. Something Byron reserved for comfort purposes.

That didn’t bode particularly well.

“Lieutenant Commander…you were found under the rubble in the attack on the Bhalgolar Headquarters. A beam fell on your back, and the area surrounding your L-3/L-4 disc was crushed. The Liberation Front’s army medics did everything they could to heal you, but you won’t be able to walk for a long time.”

Kaedan’s ears flattened against his head. “Wait, I’ll never walk again?”

“No, no, you should be able to walk again, but you may prefer a wheelchair most of the time.”

At first, Kaedan worried about the loss of the use of his legs for the time being. Yet, relief washed away all of his worries. At least he wasn’t dead. He was still there to be with Inarora, and that was what mattered the most to him. He had a baby to raise, and doing it from a wheelchair was better than not being able to raise her at all.

“Okay,” he exhaled softly. “That’s fine. Fine. I’m not dead at least.” He glanced up at his father, still holding Inarora in one arm. “But Dad…what are you doing here? You and Ina can’t be in Rhanalan.”

Byron gave a sad smile. “Kaedan, you were brought back to End’oria via airship since you can’t be in the war anymore. You’re at Blè Haet Hospital.”

Inarora stirred in Byron’s arm and gave a soft groan. Byron drew her back into both arms and he placed a gentle hand on the back of her head. A soft smile crossed Kaedan’s lips, seeing his baby waking up. 

Gods, he was so happy he was alive.

Byron pulled his head away and Inarora pulled her head away from him, blinking in confusion. He brushed a lock of her hair out of her face and kissed her.

“Hello, sleepy head. Daddy’s awake.”

Inarora twitched her ears and turned to look at Kaedan. He met her ice-blue gaze, wide with excitement. Gods. She had gotten so big in the past seven months. His heart broke realizing how much time he missed with his baby. All of that time was spent with her grandfather, since her grandmother had gone off into the war as a medic for the frontlines.

Yet Kaedan and his mother were doing what they could to make the world a better place for Inarora. Hopefully she’d understand when she got older. 

“Daddy!”

“Little Moon…” His voice cracked and he glanced at the doctor. “Is it okay if she curls up with me? I haven’t seen her in months.”

The doctor nodded. “Sure. Go ahead. I’ll leave you three alone. Did you want something to eat, Kaedan?”

He swallowed hard. When was the last time he actually ate? “Sure…I’ll take something to eat.”

As the doctor left, Byron set Inarora on the bed next to Kaedan and she curled right up against him, resting her head against his chest. A content purr rumbled in her throat as she stuck her thumb back in her mouth. Kaedan put a gentle hand on her back, then moved his head as far down as he could to touch his face to her head. His baby. His joy.

And yet…the woman who birthed her nearly got him killed. The thoughts came back to him. How she infiltrated and was able to uncover the location of their headquarters. His heart dropped and he gave Inarora a weak squeeze. 

Realization hit him: his mother was in Bhalgolar. She would’ve been there during the siege.

He lifted his gaze and looked at his father.

“Dad…have you heard anything about Mom?”

Byron’s light blue eyes grew glossy, and then he lowered his gaze.

“She died in the siege,” he said with a cracked voice. “She was protecting children from the Patriot Defense Force.”

His heart broke and he weakly squeezed Inarora again. Tears formed in his eyes and he sniffled. Not his mom. He loved his mother. At the same time, it was so fitting that she would sacrifice herself to protect children. 

Those children got to see another day and grow up. The tears finally spilled over and down his cheeks. Inarora looked up at him, her eyes a sea of wonder.

“Daddy, cry?” 

She was asking if he was crying. During their secured video calls, he was able to learn the pattern of her speech. Not much had changed from last month, so he noticed.

“Yes…” he agreed, his voice wracked with grief. “Daddy is sad. Grandma…” He hesitated. “Grandma is back in the Sea of Souls.”

“Gramma…no home?”

He kissed her head and she rested it on his chest again. “You’ll see Grandma again, someday.” Then, he looked back at his father again. “Dad….it was Iris. Iris did this.”

Byron sat in the chair beside him. “Iris?”

Kaedan detailed what he could remember. How they ran into each other just days prior, with her claiming to work for the Liberation Front, only to stalk him to find their headquarters and leak it to the enemy. How it resulted in the headquarters being ambushed. It was a bloody good thing they had intercepted the message when they did––who knew how many lives would have been lost?

Byron dropped his gaze. “Who knew she could stoop so low?”

Kaedan gritted his teeth. “I thought I knew her. Even with her being so abusive…I never thought she could support colonialism and murder, bordering on genocide.”

“And yet…here we are,” Byron said, flattening his ears. “I’m so sorry, Kaedan.”

Kaedan shrugged with defeat. “All I can say is that I am just glad I’m alive and can watch Inarora grow up.”

Inarora perked her head up at the sound of her name. She looked at him and purred. He beamed at her and brushed her bangs out of her face. Then, he began scratching behind her ears, and she purred louder.

“I was just telling Grandpa that I’m very glad I can watch you grow up.”

Inarora was a child of very few words, so all she did was smile and nod, resting her head against his chest again. He planted a kiss on her head and sighed. He knew he had a long road to recovery ahead of him, but he wouldn’t change it for the world.