Seraphina shifted her leg carefully. "I'm at eighty percent mobility. Another eighteen days before full recovery according to the healers. Can walk, can't run yet. Definitely can't fight at full capacity."

"Your recovery timeline puts you at full strength after the training ends," I noted. "You'll be ready when the Council moves."

"Assuming you come back from the mountains alive." Her voice was matter-of-fact. "If you and Adrian both die during training, I'll need to coordinate defense with Lucille and Elena. We've been discussing contingencies."

"Cheerful."

"Realistic. Someone needs to plan for worst-case scenarios since you're too busy volunteering for them."

Ravenna entered from the kitchen area carrying a tray with multiple vials of different colored liquids. "Final batch of supplemental potions. Minor healing, mana restoration, stamina enhancement, and one experimental mixture that should temporarily boost your pain tolerance." She set the tray down carefully. "The pain tolerance potion is untested. Victoria said you'd need it for the Contact stage of training, so I worked through the night synthesizing something that might help."

I picked up one of the vials. The liquid inside was deep purple and seemed to absorb light rather than reflect it. "What are the side effects?"

"Probably none. Maybe mild hallucinations, possibly temporary nerve damage if I miscalculated the dosage." She saw my expression and added quickly, "But that's unlikely. Seventy percent certain it's safe."

"Seventy percent."

"Seventy-five if we're being optimistic."

"I'll take some and test it before we leave," I decided. "If I start hallucinating or lose feeling in my extremities, we'll know not to bring it."

"That's the spirit. Volunteering for human trials." Ravenna smiled slightly. "Though if you die from my potion before even reaching the mountains, I'll feel terrible."

"Queue up behind Lucille. She already called dibs on being angry if I die."

Damian appeared in the doorway with his characteristic silent approach. "Young Master, the supplies for the journey have been packed. Provisions for four days of travel, camping equipment rated for mountain conditions, and defensive talismans for the route. I've also coordinated with your uncle on the family evacuations. Non-essential members have been dispersed to seven different safe locations. The estate is down to combat-capable personnel only."

"Good. What about communication protocols while we're gone?"

"Daily check-ins from the team to resistance leadership. If we go forty-eight hours without contact, emergency protocols activate and Kael assumes operational command." Damian's expression was carefully neutral. "I've also prepared sealed letters to be delivered if you don't return. Your last instructions for faction leadership and personal messages to key individuals."

The letters were a grim necessity. If I died in the mountains, the resistance needed clear succession plans. I'd spent two hours writing them yesterday, trying to compress everything important into documents that would only be read if I was already dead.

Cheerful thoughts for a morning that was supposed to be about final preparations and optimism.

"Has anyone heard from Adrian?" I asked, changing the subject.

"He sent a message an hour ago," Lucille said. "His team is ready. Elena insisted on giving him a full medical examination even though he was cleared by healers two days ago. He's meeting us at the northern gate in three hours for departure."

Three hours. Then we'd begin the two-day journey to the mountain facility where Victoria was already waiting. Two days of travel, two weeks of training, then back to face the Council with either new power or nothing at all.

I spent the remaining time going through my own equipment. The Ravana family blade, reforged and enhanced after the League attack. Light armor designed for mobility rather than protection, since Victoria had warned that heavy armor would interfere with perceiving fate threads. Emergency supplies compressed into a dimensional storage crystal Marcus had prepared. And the two teleportation crystals, kept in separate pockets in case one was damaged.

Lucille found me in my room an hour before departure, sitting on the bed and staring at the packed equipment.

"Second thoughts?" she asked.

"Seventeenth or eighteenth thoughts, actually. I've been cycling through the decision all morning." I looked at her. "This is really happening. In three hours, we leave. In two weeks, either we've learned something that might save us or we're dead."

"You could still back out. Wait for Seraphina to heal. Have her learn the technique first as a test case."

"And if she dies, I've lost a friend and ally for nothing. Besides, the Council gave us thirty days. We don't have time for sequential testing." I stood, shouldering the travel pack. "No. Adrian and I go together. We learn together. We either both succeed or the resistance deals with both of us failing simultaneously."

"That's the opposite of good planning."

"I know. But it's the right choice anyway."

She helped me secure the pack straps, her movements efficient and practiced. We'd done this dozens of times before various missions and training exercises. This felt simultaneously identical and completely different.

"When you come back," Lucille said, not meeting my eyes, "we're going to have a conversation about your tendency to volunteer for suicide missions."

"Looking forward to it."

"I mean it, Hadeon. This pattern where you throw yourself at impossible odds and somehow survive through preparation and spite isn't sustainable long-term."

"Noted. I'll try to develop healthier coping mechanisms after we defeat the reality-controlling cosmic entities."

She finally looked at me, expression serious. "Promise me something."

"What?"

"That you'll actually try, not just go through the motions and hope for the best. Actually fight to survive this with everything you have."

The request was more vulnerable than anything she'd said in the past week. I took her hand, squeezing once.

"I promise. I'm going into this planning to succeed, not planning to martyr myself dramatically. Victoria says the technique requires absolute belief in your own existence. Doubt kills you. So I'll believe. I'll fight. And I'll come back."

"Good. Because if you die, I'm going to have to run this faction, and I'm terrible at inspirational speeches."

"You'd be fine. Seraphina would handle the speeches. You'd handle everything else."

"Still prefer you do it."

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