The expedition left at midnight.
There were five of them Lee, Kira, Taro, Ren, and Inyocha. The council had argued against it, had pleaded with Lee to take more soldiers, more weapons, more everything. But Lee refused.
"The Mausoleum doesn't respond to armies," he said. "It responds to individuals. To souls. If we show up with a hundred soldiers, the ghosts will see it as an invasion. They'll attack. Everyone will die."
"And if you go alone?" Lady Ashara asked.
"Then maybe maybe they'll listen."
The council had finally relented, but their faces were grim. They knew what Lee was risking. They knew the odds.
Kira didn't care about odds. She packed her bags with quiet determination, her fire simmering just beneath her skin.
"You're not leaving me behind," she said when Lee tried to argue. "I don't care if the ghosts only want individuals. I'm an individual. A very loud, very angry individual who will burn this entire fortress to the ground if you try to stop me."
Lee had laughed. "I wouldn't dream of it."
Taro packed light a change of clothes, some dried meat, and a small wooden carving of a bird that he kept for luck. "I'm scared," he admitted. "But I'm more scared of what happens if we don't go."
Ren packed nothing. He simply stood at the edge of the camp, watching the stars, his calm eyes seeing things the others couldn't.
"You know something," Inyocha said, approaching him. "About the Mausoleum. About what we'll find there."
Ren didn't look away from the stars. "I know many things, Inyocha. I've lived long enough to forget most of them."
"Then tell me one thing. Just one."
Ren was silent for a moment. Then he turned to face Inyocha.
"The Dawnblade is not a weapon," Ren said. "Not really. It's a test. It will judge whoever tries to claim it. And if it finds them unworthy..." He shrugged. "They become part of the Mausoleum. Another ghost. Another guardian."
Inyocha's blood ran cold. "What makes someone worthy?"
"That's the test," Ren said. "You have to figure it out yourself."
He walked away, leaving Inyocha alone with the stars and the darkness and the fear.