Gabriel didn't move, his gaze fixed on Mera's lifeless body.

The pressure in his chest began to ease.

The humming thinned, stretching distant. Out of rhythm, until it slipped away completely.

The crimson haze emerged from the shadows, circling him once before sinking back into his skin.

Gabriel blinked.

A sharp pain flared behind his eyes, sudden enough to make him grit his teeth. He lifted his hand instinctively.

It was empty. No blood. No blade.

He glanced down toward the floor.

The body at his feet was gone.

The wood beneath him rippled.

The apothecary faded. Not vanishing, but draining of weight and depth, colours dulling as if the world itself were stepping backwards.

He blinked again

Cold air brushed his face.

Gabriel was standing in the fog.

The ground beneath his boots was uneven grass. Frost crunched softly when he shifted his weight.

He straightened slowly.

The mist thinned ahead, pulling back just enough to reveal a familiar shape standing where the field met the treeline. She hadn't appeared. She'd simply been there, waiting in the same place she always was.

Gabriel didn't reach for his weapons. His hands hung loose at his sides, fingers flexing once before going still.

The pressure in his chest hadn't returned, but something heavier had taken its place.

The woman stared at him in silence, pale eyes reflecting the fog as though it belonged to her. There was no malice in her expression.

Only assessment.

"Without hesitation," her smile widening. "Good."

A statement of fact.

The fog stirred at her feet, swallowing the grass.

Gabriel realised his breathing had settled without him noticing.

Whatever she had shown him was over.

She didn't move closer.

Gabriel held her gaze, searching for something, intent, threat, satisfaction.

He found nothing. Only patience.

"You felt it," she said at last. Not a question.

Gabriel didn't answer.

His jaw tightened slightly, the only sign that the words had landed.

The woman inclined her head a fraction, acknowledging the silence as answer enough.

"Most hesitate," she continued. "They look for permission. Or to offer mercy."

Her eyes flicked, briefly, to his hands.

"You didn't."

The fog stirred again, rising higher around her legs before sinking back into the ground. The motion felt deliberate.

A show of her control.

She took a step back, and the distance between them stretched unnaturally, the mist swallowing her whole body.

"You're almost ready, little lamb." The last words she left behind.

The fog loosened, drifting apart, sinking into the ground and bleeding away between the trees until the sunlight spread across the field.

Silence returned.

Gabriel stood alone in the field, his horse shifting unsteadily behind him.

Whatever had just passed over him was gone.

Gabriel didn't move.

The thickness in the air was beginning to lift.

His horse shifted again behind him, snorting softly, hooves scraping the frost-bitten ground.

His pulse was still steady. That bothered him more than if it had been racing.

He replayed it. Not her words, her power. The way space itself had stretched when she stepped back. The ease with which she'd folded the world around her and let it go again with no effort.

Just control.

Gabriel clenched his hands slowly, then forced them open. He checked his breathing without meaning to. Counted it. Anchored himself the way he always did after a fight.

He had faced Monsters. Creatures, even people who wanted him dead. These could be measured.

But this was different. She hadn't threatened him. She didn't need to.

The realisation settled heavily in his stomach. If she'd wanted him dead, he would already be gone.

He tried to place her.

She's too precise. Too controlled. There'd been no strain to what she done, no hint of effort.

The thought lodged in his mind.

She wasn't here to hurt him. Not yet. That much was clear.

Whatever she wanted, killing him now would have been the simplest answer, and she'd ignored it entirely.

She's not done with me. The thought ripped through his skull like an axe.

His hands began trembling. Fear was leaking through.

He clenched them hard until the shaking stopped, knuckles whitening as he forced it out. Panic was useless. Panic got you killed. He dragged in a slow breath through his nose, held it, let it out just as carefully.

The ground was solid. The air was cold. The birds were chirping in the sky.

He anchored himself using his senses.

The fear hadn't vanished. It had just been contained.

Then the thought surfaced.

Mera.

The image came rushing back to him. her hands at the alchemy table, the way she'd turned, the way she'd tried to act. The way his blade felt penetrated her chest.

He closed his eyes whilst trying to shake the vision from his mind.

The woman hadn't chosen a stranger. She'd chosen someone close. Someone he trusted.

Gabriel turned to his horse, mounting in one jump.

He yanked on the reins hard, moving the reins in the direction of Eldenreach.

It's not a coincidence she used Mera.

He drove his heels into the horse, forcing the animal to hit top speed.

The horse lurched forward, hooves tearing at the frozen ground as it surged into a full sprint.

Wind burned against Gabriel's face, breath coming hard now, each exhale fogging and tearing away behind him. Eldenreach lay ahead.

Mera.

The name cut through the noise. Repeating itself in his mind.

Gabriel leaned low over the horse's neck, fingers tight on the reins as the road blurred beneath them. If Mera was still alive, she was vulnerable.

He shoved the thought aside.

There would be time for answers later. Time to understand what the woman wanted. What she was trying to accomplish.

Gabriel drove the horse harder, feeling the strain ripple through its frame as the road narrowed and the fields. The rhythm of hooves steadied him, each impact grounding, real.

Ahead, Eldenreach's wooden walls rose out from behind the hill he was climbing.

Too close now to slow down.

He lowered his head and pushed the horse on.

The gates were in sight.

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