The trial.

The Targari camp was unlike anything the Delian prisoners had ever seen. Tucked within the safety of towering sandstone formations, the settlement was a blend of nomadic practicality and ancestral grandeur. Massive tent structures woven from enchanted silk rippled in the desert breeze, and warriors adorned in bone-carved ornaments and dark leather moved through the camp with an effortless, predatory grace.

But for the captured Delians, there was no awe—only uncertainty.

The Targari scouts had freed them from the Kinks, but freedom had not yet come with trust.

---

A circle of warriors and elders gathered near the central fire. The freed Delians stood apart, their hands unchained but their fate undecided. Leo, mute and watching, lingered at the back.

"We should kill them," growled Rashid, a broad-shouldered Targari warrior, arms crossed over his chest. "What if the Kinks marked them? What if they are spies?"

"Do you hear yourself?" snapped Jalil, a younger scout with a scar running down his cheek. "These men were in chains! Beaten! Starved! And you think they'd fight for the Kinks?"

Rashid scoffed. "Desperation turns even the noblest into traitors."

Nayomi sat quietly, arms resting on her knees as she watched the exchange. Her eyes flickered toward the prisoners, assessing.

"Not all of them are innocent," she murmured. "Not all of them are guilty either."

One of the elders, an older woman with silver-streaked hair named Maiza, tapped her staff against the ground. "Then we test them," she said simply. "If they survive the sands, they are worthy. If they are spies, the desert will claim them before we have to."

The warriors exchanged glances. It was a Targari tradition—outsiders were never welcomed outright. They had to prove their worth through survival.

---

A Flirt Amidst Uncertainty

Among the prisoners, one stood out—not for his strength, but for his silver tongue.

His name was Cassian, and despite the dirt on his skin and the bruises on his jaw, he grinned like a man at a noble feast. He had been caught flirting with a Targari noblewoman and somehow, even now, he hadn't learned his lesson.

"This is unfair," Cassian sighed, brushing sand off his tattered shirt. "We should be celebrating! You've saved us. And yet here we are, talking of tests and death. It's enough to make a man lose hope."

Across from him, Safiya, a Targari noblewoman, glared at him. She was the very one he had tried to seduce.

"You were foolish enough to be caught once," she said coldly. "I doubt you've grown wiser since."

Cassian smirked. "Oh, but my lady, was it foolishness… or fate? That I would see your eyes again, even in such dire straits?"

A few of the other prisoners groaned, while one of the Targari warriors made a mock gagging sound.

"Do you ever stop?" a fellow Delian prisoner muttered.

"Not when I'm this close to death, no."

Safiya's lips twitched as if suppressing a smile, but she quickly regained her composure. "We'll see how charming you are after you pass the trials—if you pass them."

Cassian's grin faltered, just for a second.

---

Leo: A Voice Lost, A Mind Unbroken

Leo had said nothing since they arrived.

It wasn't by choice—his voice had abandoned him the moment his mother's lifeless body fell before his eyes. But his silence didn't make him invisible.

The Targari warriors whispered about him.

"Why doesn't he speak?"

"Maybe he's cursed."

"Maybe the Kinks cut out his tongue."

Some of the younger warriors tested him, throwing quick insults his way, hoping for a reaction.

"Does the mute understand us?"

Leo didn't respond. He simply stared, his dark eyes reflecting firelight and unreadable rage.

But in his mind, the words were loud.

You mock me now, he thought, watching the warriors with an unmoving expression. But I will learn your ways. And when the time comes, I will be stronger than all of you.

It wasn't anger he felt—it was clarity. He was in a place that could shape him. If he was to become the deadliest rebel alive, he needed to learn from warriors who had never been conquered.

He needed the Targari.

And they just didn't know it yet.

---

The debate dragged on, but eventually, Nayomi stood. "Enough."

She turned to the prisoners.

"You live," she announced. "But you are not one of us."

She gestured toward the desert. "You will be given three days of food and water. No weapons. No horses. If you survive the journey through the sands and reach the city of the Targari, you may plead your case to stay. If you fail—" she glanced toward the dunes, where the earthworms lurked beneath the sand. "Then the desert has judged you unworthy."

The prisoners stiffened.

Cassian groaned. "Three days without a horse? At least tell me Safiya will be my guide—"

Safiya punched him in the gut, sending him doubling over. "Survive first, then talk."

Leo remained still, his thoughts burning like embers in his mind.

He didn't fear the desert. He didn't fear the trials.

Because deep inside, a fire was building.

He would not only survive.

He would become something greater.

And when he did, Kinkland would burn.