Sebastian spoke quietly.

Not because he was tired, though he was more exhausted than a dead corpse, but because the forest seemed to listen when voices grew too loud.

The fire in the center of their camp crackled low, its flames deliberately starved of oxygen, barely more than glowing embers. It gave off just enough light to outline faces without advertising their presence to whatever horrors prowled beyond the ring of trees.

Liam sat across from him, legs drawn in, hands resting loosely on his knees. The flickering glow painted his expression in soft oranges and deep shadows, making him look more composed than Sebastian felt anyone had the right to be after everything that had happened.

The others were scattered around them.

Nora leaned against a tree, arms crossed, eyes half-lidded but alert. Kent lay flat on his back, staring up at the alien sky, breathing slow and even. Xavier cleaned his weapon in silence. Lillith and Annalise sat closer together than either would ever admit was intentional, the faint scars on their bodies highlighted by the flickering embers.

Sebastian exhaled.

"And that's… basically everything," he said.

His voice carried the weight of days compressed into minutes.

After they had stopped running that first time, after the black, broken moon had risen and they had collapsed into near-unconsciousness, they had tried to camp.

Tried.

They hadn't even finished setting up some sort of barrier before Nora froze, her head snapping toward the horizon, pupils narrowing. The temperature had dropped a fraction of a degree, not enough to notice unless you were trained, unless you were royal, unless you had survived something like a newborn Jötunn.

Something massive had moved.

Not close.

But close enough.

A presence had brushed against the edges of her perception, colossal and ancient, its attention sweeping lazily across miles of forest.

Not hunting.

Not searching.

Passing by.

Just a few dozen miles away.

That was all it took.

They had packed up and run again, this time not from the thing that stalked them patiently, not from the entity with violet strings and endless regeneration, but from an apex predator that hadn't even realized they existed.

Yet.

Sebastian still remembered the feeling.

That helpless awareness of being an insect beneath the shadow of something vast.

They hadn't stopped until dawn, if that word even meant anything under a sky ruled by a severed moon and unfamiliar stars.

When they finally slowed, it had been because exhaustion forced the decision, not safety.

That was when they found Lillith and Annalise.

Or rather, when Lillith and Annalise found them.

The ambush had been sloppy.

Desperate.

A burst of mana from the underbrush. A blade flashing toward Xavier's throat. A spell half-formed and wobbling with instability. Sebastian had reacted on instinct, death mana flaring before he recognized the signatures.

They had nearly killed each other.

It had taken all of three seconds for recognition to slam into place.

Then shouting.

Accusations.

Relief poorly disguised as anger.

Lillith had looked like she'd been dragged through hell and back, burns along her arms, one eye swollen shut, armor cracked and dented. Annalise had been worse. Deep lacerations across her ribs, blood scorched raw from whatever abomination they had fought, her breathing shallow and uneven.

Sebastian had sworn under his breath.

And then he had healed them.

Again.

White light had spilled from his hands until his vision blurred and his knees buckled. He hadn't stopped until their breathing evened out, until bone and muscle reknit, until mana stabilized.

It had cost him.

A lot.

By the time he finished, his reserves were dangerously thin, his mind aching like it had been hollowed with a blade. But he hadn't hesitated.

They were alive.

That was enough.

The group of six hadn't even had time to rest before the next thing found them.

A monster.

Another one that used dualflow.

Shadows this time.

It had emerged from beneath the ground like a living absence, darkness peeling away from itself as it took form. Its power was unmistakable, dualflow always was, but compared to the Jötunn…

It was weak.

Still deadly.

Still capable of killing them if they made mistakes.

The fight had lasted ten minutes.

Ten brutal, frantic minutes of coordinated strikes and shouted warnings. Nora had shattered its defenses with moonlight-infused blows. Kent had carved through spatial anchors. Lillith had burned shadows away with cunning illusions and just a little reality-bending. Annalise had locked it down with precision spellwork. Xavier had struck from blind angles.

Sebastian had finished it.

Death mana severing what passed for its core.

It had collapsed into nothing.

They had still been injured.

Burns.

Cracked bones.

Mana backlash.

Exhaustion layered on exhaustion.

Sebastian had healed them again.

He was quieter after that.

Now, sitting by the fire, recounting all of this, he felt the weight of those decisions pressing down on him. Every time he healed, every time he chose not to summon Sacha, he felt the ticking of an invisible clock.

He still hadn't summoned his sword.

He still hadn't called his companion.

That was deliberate.

That was survival.

He finally lifted his gaze and looked directly at Liam.

"That's why," Sebastian said, voice steady despite the edge beneath it, "I still haven't used my sword."

Liam met his eyes calmly.

Sebastian hated that calm.

Not because Liam had done anything wrong, not really, not yet, but because every time Sebastian looked at him, something twisted in his chest. A flicker of irritation. Of resentment. Of memories that weren't supposed to exist.

The novel.

The future.

The things Liam would become.

Sebastian pushed the thought away.

That wasn't relevant now.

Not here.

Not on a goddess's dead planet crawling with abominations and apex predators.

"Sacha isn't just a weapon," Sebastian continued. "She is my only way to form any kind of communication with our world. If I burn that option now, and something goes wrong—"

He didn't finish the sentence.

He didn't need to.

Silence settled over the camp.

The fire crackled softly.

Above them, alien stars burned cold and distant.

Whatever this place was, whatever nightmare they had been dragged into, it wasn't done with them yet.

And Sebastian knew, deep down, that the real danger wasn't the monsters they could see.

It was the ones that were still waiting.

Still watching.

Still planning.

And that knowledge sat heavy in his chest as the night pressed in around them.

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