The afternoon dragged on in tense silence.

Gilbert watched the street through shuttered windows. Ennu inventoried their supplies twice, needing something to do with her hands. Adan stood by the other window tracking movement below.

Tess paced back and forth, her boots wearing a path in the dust. Every few minutes, her eyes would drift to Gabriel's unconscious form before she forced herself to look away.

Mera sat near the table, close enough to reach Gabriel if needed, far enough to maintain the illusion that she wasn't watching him constantly.

The door opened without warning.

Everyone's hands went to weapons before they registered Melissa's face. She slipped inside quickly, bolting the door behind her.

"It's arranged," she said, her voice still hoarse. "There will be carts ready at the southern docks after sundown. They're smuggling grain to Fulhir, or that's what the manifests will say."

"Fulhir?" Tess stopped pacing. "That's weeks south."

"Far enough that the Church won't follow immediately." Melissa moved closer to the table. "There's a problem, though. The Church has patrols checking every cart leaving the city. They're being thorough."

"So we fight our way through," Gilbert said.

"And bring every Paladin in Adaranthe down on us?" Tess shook her head. "We need to be smart about this."

"The smugglers move bodies sometimes," Melissa said. "People who need to leave very quietly."

Understanding dawned on Mera's face. "You want him to pretend to be dead."

"A corpse wrapped in cloth doesn't get questioned. Not when the smugglers have the right papers."

"He's unconscious," Ennu pointed out. "That should be enough."

"Not if he wakes up during inspection," Adan said quietly.

Gilbert's expression darkened. "I could knock him out again."

"No," Mera said sharply. "You've already given him a concussion. Another blow could kill him." She stood. "I can make a draught that will keep him under for hours. Deep enough that nothing will wake him."

"How long will it take?"

"An hour, maybe less." Mera pulled out small pouches and vials. "I have most of what I need."

"Do it," Tess said. "We leave as soon as the sun sets."

Mera worked with focused intensity, crushing herbs and adding drops of liquid from various vials. The mixture turned pale blue, then darker, almost purple. She held it up to the light, checking the consistency.

"Once he drinks this, he'll be out for at least six hours."

"And it's safe?" Tess asked.

Mera's jaw tightened. "His breathing will slow. His heart rate will drop. But he'll live. Assuming nothing goes wrong."

The sun crept lower outside as the room settled into tense waiting. Gabriel lay perfectly still, breathing shallow but steady, unaware of everything.

Then the change came.

A twitch in his fingers. A slight increase in his breathing. His eyelids flickered but didn't open. His whole body went rigid, not convulsing, just suddenly tense as if every muscle had locked at once. His hands curled into fists against the table.

"What's happening?" Ennu asked.

"I don't know," Mera said, moving to check his pulse. "His heart rate is elevated."

Gabriel's head turned slightly, as if trying to orient on a sound no one else could hear. His lips moved, forming a single word barely audible through clenched teeth.

"Dracamere."

Everyone froze.

Melissa's face went pale. "Dracamere," she repeated quietly, her hand moving to her throat where Gabriel's fingerprints still marked her skin.

"You know that word?" Tess asked sharply.

"I've seen it in old texts. Church records from before the Purge. Another word for demon, I think." Her eyes moved to Gabriel's face. "But the texts were vague. Deliberately so. Like they wanted to forget what it actually meant."

Gabriel's body tensed further with his back arching off the table. His breathing became faster, shorter.

The word came again, louder. "Dracamere."

Then again. And again.

His voice grew stronger with each repetition, but something was underneath it, an echo that didn't match, like someone else speaking through him.

"Dracamere. Dracamere. Dracamere."

Over and over, faster now, blending together into a chant that filled the room with wrongness. The air grew heavy, thick.

Mera's hands were on his shoulders. "Gabriel, stop. Whatever this is, you need to stop."

But he couldn't hear her.

His eyes snapped open, staring straight up at the ceiling with pupils blown wide, reflecting nothing. Red smoke began seeping from his skin, just wisps at first, then growing thicker. The crimson fog coiled around his arms, his chest, spreading across the table.

"Mera, do something!" Tess shouted.

"I'm trying!" Mera grabbed the vial with shaking hands. "Help me hold him!"

Gilbert and Adan rushed forward, pinning him to the table as the smoke swirled faster. His strength was returning with muscles straining against their grip.

"Dracamere! Dracamere! Dracamere!"

The word became a scream, torn from his throat with violence. His body convulsed, the red smoke exploding outward in a wave that made everyone stumble back.

Then he screamed.

Not words. Just raw, agonised sound.

His back arched completely off the table with only his head and heels touching wood as every muscle locked in pure pain. The smoke pulsed, thickened, took shapes that almost looked like hands reaching, grasping, pulling at something inside him.

The scream cut off abruptly.

Gabriel's body dropped back to the table, going completely limp. The red smoke dissipated instantly, pulled back into him as quickly as it had appeared.

Silence crashed down.

Mera moved first, checking for a pulse. "He's alive. Heart rate is... Creator's mercy, it's racing."

Gabriel's chest rose and fell rapidly. Sweat beaded on his forehead. But his eyes had closed again. His face had gone slack.

Whatever had happened, it was over. For now.

Then his lips moved.

Everyone leaned closer, straining to hear. The words came out barely above a whisper.

"Take the book."

His voice was different. Flat. Empty. Like he was reading words written somewhere they couldn't see.

"Take the book."

"What book?" Ennu whispered.

Mera's face went pale.

Her hand moved unconsciously to her pack, to the weight she'd been carrying since Eldenreach. The book she'd grabbed from Gabriel's room without thinking, without knowing why. She'd almost forgotten about it.

Gabriel didn't answer. His breathing was already evening out with his body going still as whatever force had seized him released its grip.

Mera stood frozen with the vial still in her hand, staring down at Gabriel with an expression that mixed fear and something darker.

She knew which book.

She just didn't know why it mattered.

Or why something inside Gabriel knew she had it.

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