Gabriel closed the book and set it beside him on the floor. The weight of what he'd seen pressed down like stone. A wyvern. An impossible hunt. A trial that would either complete what the Order started or kill him trying.

He stood slowly. His legs were steadier now, though exhaustion still pulled at him. He moved to his pack and began checking supplies. Food, water, rope, his weapons.

"What are you doing?" Mera asked from behind him.

"Packing."

"For what?"

Gabriel didn't look up. "The trial. I leave today."

Silence fell over the room. Then footsteps, quick and urgent. Mera appeared beside him, her hand moving to grab his arm.

"You can't be serious."

He pulled away from her grip and continued sorting through his supplies. "The book showed me where to go. I'm going."

"Alone?" Her voice rose. "You're going to hunt a wyvern alone?"

"Yes."

"That's suicide."

Gabriel's jaw tightened. "Probably."

More footsteps. The others had entered the common room, drawn by Mera's raised voice. Tess stood in the doorway with her arms crossed. Gilbert leaned against the wall. Adan remained by the entrance, and Ennu moved to stand beside Mera.

"What's happening?" Tess asked, her tone sharp.

"He's leaving," Mera said. "Going after the wyvern alone."

Tess's expression didn't change. "When?"

"Today," Gabriel said. He pulled his sword from where it leaned against the wall and checked the blade. Still sharp. "The trial needs to be completed. The voice won't stop until I do it."

"So you're just going to walk away?" Gilbert pushed off the wall. "After everything?"

Gabriel met his eyes. "This is my burden. Not yours."

"Convenient." Gilbert's voice was hard. "You almost strangle a nun, nearly get us all killed, and now you're running off on some suicide mission."

"I'm not running." Gabriel's tone remained flat. "I'm finishing what the Order started. What the cult tried to do. The awakening is incomplete, and it's tearing me apart."

He strapped his sword to his belt and moved to gather the rest of his gear.

"I'm coming with you." Mera stepped forward, her expression set. "You'll need a healer. And someone who understands what the cult did to you."

"No."

The word came out sharp. Final.

Mera's eyes widened. "Gabriel—"

"I said no." He turned to face her fully. "This trial requires me. Just me. That's what the book showed. That's what the voice demands."

"You can't know that."

"I do."

His tone left no room for argument, but Mera pressed forward anyway.

"Then let me help prepare you. Let me come part of the way. Something."

Gabriel's expression remained cold. "You worked for the Order. You knew what they did to people like me, and you helped them anyway."

The words hit like a physical blow. Mera stepped back, her face going pale.

"I told you," she said quietly. "I was a healer. I didn't—"

"You knew." Gabriel's voice was harder now. "You knew what they were doing, and you stayed. Mixed your compounds and calculated your dosages while they broke prisoners in the cells below."

"That's not fair."

"Fair?" Gabriel's laugh was hollow. "Nothing about this is fair. But I'm not taking someone I can't trust into a hunt that will probably kill me."

Mera opened her mouth, then closed it. She looked away, and something passed across her face. Pain, maybe. Or recognition that he was right.

Tess moved forward. "I'm coming."

Gabriel looked at her. "Why?"

"Because you're an idiot." She crossed her arms. "And because someone needs to keep you from getting killed before you even reach the mountain."

"This isn't your fight."

"It became my fight when we pulled you out of Cathedral Square." Her voice was firm. "I'm coming. Don't argue."

Gabriel stared at her for a long moment. Then he nodded once. "Fine."

Ennu stepped forward. "We should split up then. Tess and Gabriel go after the wyvern. The rest of us continue south."

"Where?" Adan asked.

"The Isle of Giants." Ennu's voice was quiet but certain. "If we're looking for information about Dracamerians and ancient rituals, that's where we'll find it. The giants keep records going back thousands of years."

Gilbert straightened. "The Isle? That's weeks by ship."

"Six weeks from Kelmar," Adan confirmed. "Maybe more depending on weather."

"Then we split," Tess said. "Gabriel and I go after the wyvern. The rest of you head for the Isle. We meet in Kelmar afterward."

"If you survive," Mera said quietly.

"If we survive," Tess agreed.

Gabriel pulled his pack onto his shoulders. The weight settled familiar across his back. He checked his weapons one more time. Sword, knife, rope. Everything he'd need.

Mera stood apart from the others. Her hands were clenched at her sides, and her jaw was tight. "At least take supplies. Medical supplies."

"We'll manage."

"Gabriel—"

"I appreciate what you've done." He cut her off. "Getting us out of Adaranthe. Treating my wounds. But I can't trust you with this."

The words hung in the air. Mera's expression shifted, something breaking behind her eyes. She nodded slowly.

"Understood."

She moved to her pack and began pulling out supplies anyway. Bandages, salves, a few vials of medicine. She laid them on the table without looking at him.

"Take them anyway," she said. "You'll need them whether you trust me or not."

Gabriel hesitated, then moved to gather the supplies. He didn't thank her. He couldn't.

Adan approached. "The mountain. Do you know where it is?"

"East." Gabriel pulled the book from his pack and opened it to the page with the drawing. "The peaks in the vision were high. Snow-covered even in what looked like summer. And it wasn't Frostmir. That means the eastern ranges."

"The Spine," Adan said. "Has to be. Those are the only mountains that high."

"How far?"

"Four weeks on foot." Adan studied the drawing. "Maybe less if you push hard."

Gabriel nodded. Four weeks. A month to reach the mountain, then the hunt itself. He'd be lucky to survive the climb, let alone face a wyvern.

Tess moved beside him. "We leave now?"

"Yes."

Gilbert shifted. "You're really doing this? Going after a wyvern with just the two of you?"

"Yes."

"You're insane."

Gabriel's lips twitched. Not quite a smile. "Probably."

He closed the book and slipped it back into his pack. The pull was still there, constant and cold. But manageable now that he'd made his decision.

Ennu approached quietly. "Be careful. Both of you."

Tess nodded. "Same to you. The Isle isn't safe either."

"We'll manage." Ennu looked at Gabriel. "Find your answers. Whatever they are."

Gabriel met her eyes. "I will."

Adan offered his hand. Gabriel took it. The grip was firm, brief.

"Good hunting," Adan said.

Gilbert remained against the wall. He didn't offer pleasantries or wishes of luck. Just watched Gabriel with that same guarded expression.

"Try not to die, demon-eyes."

Gabriel's jaw tightened. Then he nodded. "Same to you."

Mera hadn't moved from where she stood. Her arms were wrapped around herself, and her eyes remained fixed on the floor. She didn't look up when Gabriel moved toward the door.

He paused at the threshold. "The Isle will have answers. Real ones. More than I can give you."

"I know." Her voice was quiet.

He wanted to say something else. Thank you, maybe. Or sorry. But the words wouldn't come. So he just left.

Tess followed him out into the morning light.

The sun had fully risen now. Clear sky stretched above them, blue and endless. The abandoned farmhouse sat quiet behind them, already fading into memory.

Gabriel adjusted his pack and checked his bearings. East. That's where they needed to go. Toward the mountains that rose like teeth against the horizon.

Tess fell into step beside him. "You're sure about this?"

"No."

"Good." She glanced back at the farmhouse. "Because if you were sure, I'd think you'd lost your mind completely."

Gabriel said nothing. They walked in silence for a time, leaving the farmhouse behind. The others would be packing now. Preparing for their own journey south. Six weeks by ship to the Isle of Giants. Six weeks to find answers about what the Dracamerians were, what the awakening meant.

Assuming Gabriel survived long enough for those answers to matter.

"The wyvern," Tess said after a while. "You really think you can kill it?"

Gabriel's hand moved to his sword hilt. "I don't know."

"That's honest at least."

They continued walking. The road stretched ahead, winding through fields that grew wilder the further they went from civilization. Behind them, the farmhouse was a small shape now. Barely visible.

Gabriel didn't look back.

The trial waited. The mountain waited. The wyvern waited.

And somewhere deep inside, where the Order's torture had left cracks, something else waited too.

Four weeks to the Spine. Four weeks to prepare for an impossible hunt.

It wasn't enough time.

It would have to be.

The farmhouse door closed behind them.

Mera stood in the empty common room, staring at nothing. The medical supplies she'd laid out remained on the table. Unused. Rejected.

"He'll die up there," she said quietly.

Gilbert moved to the window. "Probably."

"We should go after them."

"He doesn't want you there." Gilbert's voice was matter-of-fact. "Made that clear enough."

Mera's hands clenched. "He doesn't understand. The awakening process, if it goes wrong—"

"Then he dies." Gilbert turned to face her. "But it's his choice. His burden, like he said."

Ennu entered from the back room, her own pack ready. "We have our own path. The Isle holds answers we need."

"What if we're wrong?" Mera asked. "What if the answers aren't there?"

"Then we find them somewhere else." Adan appeared in the doorway. "But staying here won't help Gabriel. And it won't help us understand what the cult did to him."

Mera looked at each of them in turn. Gilbert by the window. Ennu near the door. Adan in the threshold. All ready to leave. All moving forward.

She nodded slowly. "The Isle then."

"The Isle," Adan confirmed.

They gathered their supplies in silence. The farmhouse that had sheltered them for one night would be abandoned now. Left to rot like everything else the war had touched.

Outside, the sun climbed higher. Two paths diverged from this place. One east toward snow-covered peaks and an impossible hunt. One south toward ancient knowledge and forbidden truths.

Mera shouldered her pack and followed the others out into the light.

Behind them, the farmhouse stood empty.

Ahead, six weeks by ship. Six weeks to the Isle of Giants.

Six weeks to find answers before Gabriel completed his trial.

Or died trying.

The door swung closed in the wind. The common room fell dark.

And on the table, forgotten in the rush to leave, a single vial of medicine sat beside the bandages Mera had laid out.

Waiting for no one.

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