Gabriel's eyes opened to an unfamiliar ceiling.

His head throbbed with each heartbeat, a steady pulse of pain radiating from his temple. The world tilted when he tried to focus, blurred at the edges like he was looking through water.

Voices filtered through the fog. Multiple people, close by.

He turned his head slowly, sending fresh waves of pain through his skull. Faces resolved from the blur: Tess stood near a wall with arms crossed. Adan by a window. Gilbert on a stool, watching him with something that looked like satisfaction. Ennu near the door. Mera beside him, her expression unreadable.

And Melissa.

She sat apart from the others, one hand pressed to her throat. Dark bruises marked her skin—fingerprints pressed into flesh.

His fingerprints.

Four years since the academy, when she'd been the young sister assigned to look after the Paladin students. Before the Order had taken him. Before the exile.

The memory came back in fragments. The scaffold. The woman swinging from the rope. Red smoke. Melissa's hand on his arm.

His fingers closing around her throat.

Gabriel's hands remained at his sides, unclenched. His expression didn't change.

"You're awake," Tess said. Her voice was carefully neutral in a way that meant she was holding anger back.

He didn't respond.

"Where am I?"

"Safe house," Adan replied. "For now."

Gabriel's eyes moved to Melissa. She met his gaze steadily, though her hand remained pressed to her neck.

He looked away first.

The silence stretched.

"You lost control," Tess said sharply. "At the execution. Tried to save her, nearly got yourself killed, and when Sister Melissa tried to stop you, you attacked her."

Gabriel's jaw tightened. The only visible reaction.

"Gilbert knocked you out," Mera added. "Before you could finish."

He nodded once. Understanding, not acknowledgment.

"Say something," Tess demanded, anger breaking through now. "Anything."

Gabriel's eyes moved to Melissa again. Four years ago, she'd patched up training injuries. Made sure the students ate. Cared when no one asked her to.

"I'm sorry."

The words came out quiet, empty of inflection.

Melissa's expression shifted. "I tried to stop you. You didn't recognize me. There was nothing in your eyes."

He didn't respond. What was there to say?

"The Order broke him," Mera said quietly. "Whatever they did, it left cracks. At the execution, those cracks split open."

"That's not an excuse," Tess said.

"No," Gabriel agreed.

The single word hung in the air.

"Why?" Tess asked. "Why charge into Cathedral Square during an execution?"

Gabriel's gaze moved to the far wall. "Should have killed her in the alley. Didn't. They took her. Tortured her."

He stopped. The arithmetic was simple enough.

"So you tried to save her," Ennu said softly.

He didn't confirm or deny, just continued staring at the wall.

Gilbert shifted on his stool. "Damn fool thing to do."

Gabriel's lips didn't move, but something in his eyes acknowledged the truth.

Mera stood abruptly, moving to her pack. She hesitated, then pulled out a leather-bound book. Her expression was uncertain as she looked at it, then at Gabriel.

"When you were unconscious, you kept saying something. 'Dracamere, take the book. Complete the trial.' Over and over." She held it up. "I grabbed this from your room in Eldenreach when we left. I don't even know why I took it. It just—" She stopped, struggling to explain. "It felt like I needed to bring it. Like something was telling me to."

Gabriel's eyes fixed on the book immediately.

His whole body went rigid.

And then he heard it.

A whisper. Not in the room. Not from any of the people standing around him. From somewhere deeper, in the cracks the Order had left behind.

Dracamere. Take the book. Complete the trial.

The voice was ancient and cold. The same presence that had spoken through him while he'd been unconscious, chanting those words until his throat was raw.

Gabriel's breathing became more deliberate. His eyes didn't leave the leather binding.

"Gabriel?" Mera's voice seemed distant. "Do you know what this is?"

He blinked, forcing his attention back to her face. To the confusion written there.

"No."

The word came out flat.

"But you were saying—"

"Don't remember." His voice was harder now, final.

Dracamere. Take the book. Complete the trial.

The whisper continued, insistent, crawling through his thoughts like smoke through stone.

Tess moved closer, her eyes narrowing. "You're lying."

Gabriel's expression didn't change. He met her gaze steadily. "Don't remember saying it."

It wasn't quite a lie. He didn't remember saying those words while unconscious. But he could hear them now, whispered in a voice that wasn't his own.

Mera turned the book over in her hands. "It's blank. Every page. I checked when I grabbed it." She looked at him. "Why would you—or whatever was speaking through you—want me to take a blank book? And what trial?"

Gabriel stared at it. He knew the pages weren't blank, not when blood touched them. Not when his blood touched them. But he couldn't explain that.

"Keep it."

Two words, final.

Mera's confusion deepened. "Keep it? Gabriel, I don't understand. Why did I take this? Why were you—"

"Keep it," he repeated, his tone leaving no room for argument.

Tess crossed her arms. "That's it? You were screaming about this thing while unconscious, and all you've got is 'keep it'?"

Gabriel's gaze moved from the book to Tess. His expression was empty. He had nothing else to give them. Nothing he could explain without revealing things he didn't understand himself.

He ignored the whisper, locking it down the same way he locked down everything else.

Mera watched him for a long moment. Then she slowly slipped the book back into her pack. "Fine. But when we're safe, you're going to explain this. Whatever's happening with you and this book—"

"Nothing to explain."

The words came out flat.

Mera's jaw tightened, but she didn't push further.

Gabriel's hands clenched once at his sides, then relaxed. The only outward sign of the voice still whispering in his ear.

Melissa stood carefully. "I need to leave. The arrangements are made. Carts at the southern docks after sundown." She paused. "You'll be listed as a corpse. Sedated deep enough that nothing will wake you during inspection."

"How long?"

"Six hours, maybe more," Mera said. She pulled out a vial of purple liquid. "Your breathing will slow. Heart rate will drop."

Gabriel looked at the vial, then at Melissa. At the bruises his hands had left on her throat.

"Thank you."

Two words, quiet. That was all.

Melissa's expression softened slightly. "The student I knew wouldn't have done this." She moved toward the door, then stopped. "Control it, Gabriel. Before it kills someone you care about."

The door closed.

Silence settled over the room again.

Gabriel remained on the table, hands at his sides. But the voice continued its whisper.

Dracamere. Take the book. Complete the trial.

Mera held out the vial. "Drink."

Gabriel took it and brought it to his lips without hesitation. The liquid was bitter, coating his throat.

"Minutes," Mera said. "Vision first. Then nothing."

He lay back on the table. His eyes were already starting to unfocus.

Tess moved closer. "When you wake up, we're talking."

"Understood."

His voice was already slurring slightly, the sedative taking hold.

Gilbert remained on his stool. "Glad you're alive, demon-eyes. Even if you are an idiot."

Gabriel's lips twitched. Not quite a smile, just acknowledgement.

His eyes were closing now. The blur spreading, consuming his vision. His limbs felt distant.

The whisper faded as the darkness pulled him under.

Dracamere. Take the book. Complete the trial.

The companions stood around his unconscious form, watching his chest rise and fall with shallow breaths.

In Mera's pack, the leather-bound book sat silent.

Waiting.

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