The smoke outside the tents hadn’t lifted.

  It never really did.

  Captain Keller stood just inside the perimeter with the two runners. Their report came in fragments. Half-formed sentences. Disjointed impression. Burned-out wreckage. Bodies placed with disturbing precision.

  Kesi leaned against a supply crate nearby, arms folded, listening but silent. He’d returned from the northern grid barely an hour earlier. Ash still clung to his new cloak.

  “So,’ Keller said at last, “it wasn’t just a swarm.”

  One of the runners shook his head.

  “There were Fiends,” he said. “But it was planned. Like a trap.” He swallowed. “They never stood a chance.”

  The outer gate groaned open.

  Dorian stepped through.

  His clothes were scorched. Both saber-tooth blades were still in his hands. Dried blood streaked his side, some of it cracked from movement, but his strike was steady. Controlled.

  He maintained pace as they turned toward him. He stopped a few paces out and slid both blades back into their sheaths with practiced motions. His jaw was tight. High eyes sharp, but distant.

  Keller stepped forward.

  “Was it the same one you warned us about?”

  “Yeah,” Dorian said. “The Gauntleted Fiend.”

  He paused.

  “But it’s not the same anymore.”

  Kesi pushed off the crate. “Not the same how?”

  “It used Will.”

  The words landed hard.

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  Dorian went on. “Not a flare. Not instinct. Controlled. Deliberate. Like it knew exactly what it was doing.”

  Keller folded his arms. “Better than you?”

  Dorian exhaled slowly, not ready to admit weakness. “Close. Damn close.”

  He gestured loosely between himself and Kesi. “It fought like it’d studied us. Like it watched, adapted, and improved.”

  Dorian’s hand hovered near his ribs unconsciously. He didn’t wince, but the motion lingered.

  “I couldn’t break its defenses,” he said. “Not just stronger. Will, armor, timing. Everything layered. Woven.”

  Kesi frowned. “And it let you go again?”

  Dorian nodded.

  “It could’ve killed me. It didn’t even try to chase. It just…watched.”

  Silence settled over them, thick as ash.

  When Dorian spoke again, his voice was quieter. Slower. Like the thought had been gnawing at him since he started running.

  “I don’t think it’s sparing us because it’s afraid.”

  He looked up at them.

  “I think it’s grooming us.”

  No one replied.

  “Like we’re an experiment,” Dorian continued. “How strong can humans get before it eats them. Maybe it grows more the stronger the Illuminated it consumes. Same way we’d grow more from a Fiend Remnant than a normal one.”

  Keller’s expression didn’t change, but his posture did. His spine straightened. Locked in.

  Kesi spoke carefully. “You’re saying it’s farming us.”

  “I’m saying it’s patient,” Dorian said. “And hungry.”

  The camp behind them was quiet. The kind of quiet that came when even the background noise knew something had shifted.

  Kesi broke it. “If it’s learning,” he said slowly, “Then we need to start naming what it’s becoming.”

  Keller glanced at him. “You think this is a new rank?”

  “Not a new species,” Kesi said. “An evolved state. Same creature. Different phase.”

  Dorian nodded faintly. “That’s how it felt.”

  “Then we can’t treat these things like static threats anymore,” Kesi continued. “We’ve been ranking them by strength. Starspawn. Fiends. But we never accounted for growth.”

  He met Keller’s eyes.

  “Dormant,” he said. “What they start as. Before they awaken Will. Then…this.” He hesitated making emphasis with his hands. “Something sparked.”

  “Kindled,” Dorian said.

  Kesi gave a small nod. “Yeah. That fits.”

  “Dormant and Kindled,” Keller repeated, weighing the words. “So the Gauntleted one is a Kindled Fiend.”

  “And it won’t be the last,” Kesi said. “If one figured it out, others might too. Or worse, it teaches them.”

  Dorian scoffed softly. “That’d be generous. I don’t think it teaches. That thing’s greedy.”

  Keller looked toward the wall. Toward the smoke beyond it. Toward the cul-de-sac none of them wanted to see again.

  “Alright,” he said. “We update the system. Dormant. Kindled. Every squad, every post gets the memo. If something shows real Will, they call it in immediately. No assumptions. No second chances.”

  He turned to Dorian.

  “And the next time you see that thing, you don’t fight it alone.”

  Dorian didn’t answer. His jaw tightened just enough.

  Kesi shifted his stance. “You know what this means.”

  Dorian nodded once.

  “We have to get stronger.”