Chapter 264 – Warm but Chilling

Chapter 264

Warm but Chilling

Date : Day 20 of Firstthaw 1024 Aethellgard Concord Year.

Hyoren was trapped in a nightmare.

Even inside it, a part of his mind understood. This was the price of Berserker, the usual price. He had paid it twice before, and he had known exactly what was coming the moment he released the skill in Ina's arms.

But knowing didn't mean he didn't feel it.

Sherine had healed every wound on his body. The broken ribs, the torn liver, the bleeding in his skull, all of it was gone. But Berserker didn't care. For three hours, it had swallowed every strain, every blow and every tearing fiber, and now it came to collect the debt.

With interest.

His muscles tore.

Fiber by fiber, from his shoulders down to his calves, they ripped apart. Then they knit themselves back together. Then they tore again.

His bones were crushed.

His ribs first, folding inward with a sickening pressure, then his arms, his legs, his spine, every joint grinding to powder. Then they reformed, whole and unbroken, just long enough for him to feel them whole.

Then they were crushed again.

Torn. Reformed. Crushed. Reformed.

Again. And again. And again.

There was no pause between them. No moment where his body was allowed to simply stay broken and rest. The instant an injury reached its limit, it was repaired, only so it could be inflicted all over again.

And while his body was being torn apart, he saw things.

The first time, he was standing on the city wall.

The second wall had collapsed. The defenders were gone, swallowed whole. And the green tide was pouring through Gate of Guts.

He watched them flood the streets. Goblins swarmed over the market stalls, through the open doors, up the stairs of houses where families huddled in the dark. He saw smoke rising from the Adventurer's District. He heard the screaming, thousands of voices at once, rising and rising until it was all one sound.

He tried to move. To run down the stairs, to raise his shield, to do anything.

His body wouldn't answer.

His muscles were tearing. His bones were breaking. He could only stand there and watch Akela burn.

Then the scene shifted.

He was back on the battlefield, and this time it was his party.

Elise was on her watchtower. Goblins had climbed it while she was drawing her bow, and he watched them reach her. A spear punched through her side. Then another through her back. Then a rusted sword. Then more, too many to count, until she was pinned against the parapet like a broken doll. Her emerald eyes met his across the battlefield, wide and pleading. Then they went dull.

Elise…!

Arianna was on the city wall. She had cast everything, and there was nothing left. He watched the goblins reach her. Her purple robe tore. Her crimson hair was matted with blood. Wound after wound opened across her body, and she crumpled against the battlements with her staff still clutched in her hand.

Jackey was on the plain. He had charged too far. Of course he had. He was surrounded, and he kept swinging long after he should have fallen. When the goblins finally stepped back from where he had been, what lay in the mud was barely recognizable. Only the tabby tail and the two axes told Hyoren who it had been.

He screamed.

No sound came out.

His bones shattered. They reformed. They shattered again.

Then he was home.

Wyvern Street Manor. Its front door had been torn off its hinges. Furniture lay smashed across the hallway. The small library, the dining table where they ate together every evening, the stairs he climbed every night. All of it had been ransacked, gouged and filthy with green handprints.

In the kitchen, he found Lena and Vina.

He didn't let himself look for long.

And at the top of the stairs, in the doorway of his room, lay Ina. Her brown hair was spread across the floor. Her amber eyes were open. She was staring at the door, as if she had been waiting for him to come home.

He had promised he would come home.

His muscles tore apart. They reformed. They tore again.

Then the faces came.

One by one, each in front of him, each one close enough to touch.

Baron Guts, collapsing on the wall with his staff in his hand. Fiona, falling at the breached gate with her greatsword buried in a goblin's chest. Oria, so small, overwhelmed before she could raise her Azure Wand. Jigor, his shield finally broken. Fits, his golden blade going dark. Sherine, her white robes stained red. Martha, in the doorway of Wanderer's Rest. Borin, in his forge, his hammer still raised.

Each of them died in front of him.

And he could do nothing. Nothing at all.

Then came Ronald.

The battlefield again. Reon running ahead, chasing a goblin. Three Goblin Warriors closing in from her blind spot. Ronald throwing his shield aside and throwing himself in front of her.

Three blades punched into his back.

Ronald fell.

Then it happened again. The same moment, from the start. Reon running. The Warriors. The shield thrown aside. Three blades. Ronald falling.

And again.

And again.

And every time, Reon's shriek tore through the air.

"PAPA! PAPA! NOOOOO!"

Over and over, until the sound of it was carved into him as deeply as the pain.

Then the battlefield faded, and he saw tarps.

They were laid out in rows across the square behind Gate of Guts. Not a handful of them. Rows and rows and rows, stretching farther than he could see. Hundreds of bodies, each one covered with a cloak or a blanket, each one with a face he might have known.

A small, distant part of his mind tried to hold on to the truth.

This isn't real…

The ones who had died were Ronald, and the fledglings. Not Elise. Not Ina. Not Jackey or Arianna. Not Baron Guts or Fiona. The city had stood. His family had come home.

It isn't real… it isn't real…

But the truth was so small, and so far away.

He was watching the people he loved die again and again, so close he could hear their last breaths. And at the same time, every bone in his body was being crushed into powder and rebuilt, and every muscle torn into threads and woven back together.

His mind began to crack.

He couldn't hold on to his thoughts anymore. They scattered and slipped away before he could finish them. His own voice echoed somewhere far away, screaming wordlessly. He couldn't even tell anymore whether he was really screaming, or only screaming inside the nightmare.

This was worse than Riverville. Far worse.

The only time it had ever been like this was after Hifoppe. That was when he had watched Elise cut in two again and again, while his body burned.

He didn't know how long he endured it.

Hours. Days. Time had no meaning anymore. There was only the pain, and the dying, and the endless loop of both.

Then something changed.

Light.

It came from above, shining down from somewhere high in the darkness. It wasn't the gold of Sol or the pale silver of Luna. It was something else. Something that felt pure. Gentle. Divine.

And warm.

It touched him, and the agony eased.

But only a little.

His muscles were still tearing. His bones were still being crushed and reformed. It still hurt. Every cycle still dragged a soundless scream out of him. But the pain was no longer bottomless. It had dulled, the way a blade dulls. Still cutting, but no longer cleaving him in two. Something had put itself between him and the very worst of it.

For the first time since the nightmare began, he could breathe between the waves.

The visions changed too.

They were still there. Ronald falling. The tarps. Reon's scream. But they had lost their depth, their nearness. The colors bled and washed out. Lines of gray noise crawled across them, crackling and hissing. Ronald stuttered mid-fall, froze, and jumped back a frame. Reon's shriek broke apart into fragments, buried under the hiss. It was like watching something through a cracked, broken screen in some faraway room, half-swallowed by static.

He could still see them. But they no longer felt like they were happening in front of him.

For a while, Hyoren drifted there, confused.

This is… different…

None of the other backlashes had ever been like this. Nothing had ever come into the nightmare to soften it. He had always simply endured, alone, until it ran its course.

The pain went on. Tearing, reforming. Crushing, reforming. Duller now, but never gone.

Slowly, the static thickened.

Ronald dissolved into gray noise. The tarps flickered and broke apart. Reon's voice grew fainter and fainter beneath the hiss, until even that was gone. The broken screen filled with nothing but static, crackling softly in the dark. Then it, too, dimmed.

And for a long time, there was only darkness. Darkness, and the dull, throbbing ache of his body, still slowly paying off the last of its debt.

Then a light appeared.

Small at first, barely a pinprick. Then it grew.

And Hyoren opened his eyes.

***

Hyoren blinked.

The ceiling above him swam slowly into focus. Familiar wooden beams. Pale light filtering through the curtains. His own room in Wyvern Street Manor.

He tried to move.

Pain answered at once. Every muscle in his body was sore, a deep, heavy ache that seemed to reach all the way into his bones. Just curling his fingers sent a dull throb up his arm. He tried to push himself upright and couldn't. His body simply refused to obey.

So the debt's been paid…

Then a voice reached him.

"Hyoren! You're awake!"

He turned his head slowly toward the sound.

Elise was sitting in a chair at his left side. She had been leaning forward with her elbows on her knees, but now she was half out of her seat, her emerald eyes wide. She reached for his hand and took it in both of hers. Her fingers were warm and trembling slightly.

On his other side, the mattress dipped. Ina scrambled across the bed toward him on her knees, her messy brown hair flying, and threw her arms around his neck.

"Thank goodness… You're finally awake…"

Her voice cracked. She pressed her face against his shoulder, and her cat tail curled tightly around his arm.

"I know this is already the third time I've seen you go through the backlash, but…"

Her arms tightened.

"It still breaks my heart, Hyoren. Watching you thrash around and scream like that…"

Hyoren felt her tears soaking into his shirt. He wanted to hug her back, but his arms wouldn't lift. So he simply leaned his head against hers.

"Sorry for worrying you, Ina…"

At the foot of the bed, a chair scraped loudly against the floor.

Jackey had been slumped on a stool there, half dozing with his chin propped on his fist. Now he shot to his feet so fast the stool toppled over behind him. His tabby cat ears stood straight up, and his tail spiraled wildly.

"Big Bro! You're awake! HAHA! I knew it! I knew Big Bro would wake up!"

On the sofa by the window, Arianna set aside the journal she had been reading and rose to her feet. She looked pale, and a little thinner than before, but she was standing on her own. She pressed one hand to her chest, and her light-blue eyes shimmered.

"Leader… Thank goodness. We were all so worried."

Oria was sitting at Hyoren's desk by the wall. She lifted her head from her folded arms. Dark circles hung beneath her eyes, and her silver hair was even messier than usual. She let out a long sigh.

"Hoo… Good grief. Finally. I was starting to wonder if your brain had actually melted this time.”

Hyoren forced a smile. Even that small movement made his face ache.

"I'm back, everyone…"

His gaze moved to Jackey and Arianna, standing side by side at the foot of the bed.

"And I'm glad you two have already recovered too."

Jackey grinned and flexed both arms, his muscles bulging beneath his shirt.

"I'm back to one hundred percent, Big Bro! I could whack another skulker Chieftain right now!"

Arianna covered her mouth with the back of her hand and giggled softly.

"Please, Jackey… No more goblins for a while. I beg of you. Ohoho…"

The room filled with laughter. Even Oria's lips twitched upward before she quickly hid it behind a scowl.

Then Hyoren's smile faded slightly.

Something had caught in his mind.

"Wait… What day is it today?"

Elise squeezed his hand gently.

"It's the morning of Day 20 of Firstthaw, Hyoren."

Ina lifted her head from his shoulder and wiped her eyes.

"You were unconscious for almost two days…"

Hyoren furrowed his eyebrows.

Two days…?

He thought back. Berserker had been active from just before the charge in phase four until he released it in this very room. Well over two and a half hours. Close to three.

One hour of Berserker means one day unconscious… I should still be out… I should have one more day of this ahead of me…

He remembered the darkness. The nightmare. And the light.

The shortened backlash… and that light that eased the pain…

None of it made sense. Every time before, the rule had held without fail. This time, something had changed it.

He turned his head toward Elise and Ina.

"Was I really unconscious for only two days? It should have been three…"

Elise and Ina glanced at each other.

Something passed between them, a hesitation, as if neither of them quite knew how to begin. Ina opened her mouth. Elise drew a breath.

But before either of them could speak, another voice drifted through the room.

"Ahnn… I already told you all… didn't I…?"

It was slow. Unhurried. Each word was drawn out lazily, as if the speaker had all the time in the world and enjoyed savoring every syllable. The voice was low and husky, and it trailed off at the end of every phrase into something that sounded almost like a soft, breathy moan.

"Mmhn… I could ease… his suffering… Hihi…"

Hyoren's body reacted before his mind did.

An unfamiliar voice. In his room. While he lay helpless. Every instinct he had screamed danger. He tried to bolt upright and reach for a weapon that wasn't there.

His body betrayed him.

Pain lanced through every muscle at once. His arms buckled beneath him. He lurched sideways, completely off balance, and started to topple off the edge of the bed.

Elise caught his arm before he could fall.

"Careful!"

On the other side, Ina grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back.

"You're still recovering, Hyoren! Don't move so suddenly!"

Between the two of them, they eased him back and helped him sit up against the headboard. Elise slipped a pillow behind his back.

Hyoren let out a ragged breath. His heart was still pounding.

"Thank you… both of you."

Then he raised his eyes and scanned the room.

And in the far corner, he found them.

Three figures were seated in chairs that hadn't been there when he released Berserker.

The first, he recognized at once. Archbishop Sherine Conti. Her golden hair, her white robes with their gold embroidery, her serene, motherly face. She smiled at him warmly.

But there was something hiding behind that smile.

It was faint, and he might have missed it if he hadn't known her. A slight tightness at the corners of her mouth. The way her sapphire eyes kept drifting away from him toward the floor. As though she were ashamed of something.

Beside her sat a middle-aged man.

His hair was gray and cropped close, his face lined and weathered. He wore the vestments of Luminara's Church, white and gold, cut similarly to Sherine's but far plainer, with less embroidery and fewer ornaments. Whoever he was, he clearly held a lower rank than the Archbishop. He sat ramrod straight, his hands resting on his knees, his face carved from stone. Hyoren couldn't read a single thing in it.

And the third—was a young woman.

Silky, wavy golden hair fell loose down her back, all the way to her waist, shining like spun gold in the pale light from the window. Her eyes were a clear, vivid blue, like a summer sky. They slightly upturned at the corners, framed by long lashes. Her face was strikingly beautiful.

Hyoren was used to beautiful women. Elise. Ina. Arianna. Even Sherine was beautiful in her own timeless way.

But this woman was different.

The women he knew had never cared much about how they looked. They washed their faces, tied back their hair, and went out to fight. This woman clearly cared, a great deal. Her face was carefully, heavily painted. Dark lashes thick with mascara. A soft rose blush across her cheeks. Lips glossy with deep red lipstick that curved into a small, lazy smile as she watched him.

But it wasn't her hair or her face that made Hyoren stare.

It was her clothes.

At first glance, they bore a resemblance to Sherine's robes. They were mostly white, with intricate golden embroidery along every edge. The symbol of Luminara was sewn proudly at the center: two suns balanced on the scales of justice.

But that was where the resemblance ended.

It wasn't a church robe. Not really. If it had ever been one, it had been altered far beyond recognition. It looked far more like a dress than vestments.

And it was revealing.

Far, far too revealing for someone wearing the sacred symbol of the Goddess of Light.

It was a halter neck, tied behind her neck and leaving her shoulders bare. The neckline plunged deep, far deeper than any respectable dress, down past her chest almost to her stomach. As she shifted in her chair, he caught a glimpse of her back. It was completely bare, all the way down to the base of her spine. And the skirt had a slit so high that, as she lazily crossed one leg over the other, it fell open to reveal her leg all the way up to her hip.

If Hyoren had to describe the outfit in a single word, it would be "scandalous."

Even the women at Succubus's Lust, the most famous brothel in Akela, dress more conservatively than that…

He tore his gaze away from her outfit.

What on earth kind of clothing is that…?

Then something else caught his eye.

At her hip, hanging from a white leather belt, was a small white mace.

Pure white. Runes flowing across its shaft like lines of scripture. A small crown-shaped crest at its head, and a compact counterweight at the other end.

Hyoren knew it.

That's… the Luminescent Cudgel…

The pure mithril mace from the golden chest of the Monster Room, back on the First Floor of Akela Dungeon. He had given it to Sherine because she said the Church had been searching for a weapon like it.

A weapon meant for Luminara's Saint.

It all happened in the space of a heartbeat. The pieces clicked together in Hyoren's mind one after another.

The golden hair. The Church symbol. The Luminescent Cudgel. The divine light that had reached into his nightmare and eased his pain. The backlash cut short by an entire day.

Sherine's ashamed little smile.

So this is… the Light Saint…

His eyes narrowed slightly.

Sophia Harvengald… Younger sister of Count Harvengald… The one who gives the Church endless trouble, and yet Luminara herself declared, "She is My Saint."

He remembered Arianna's words from what felt like a lifetime ago. Her voice lowered as she spoke the nickname—the Whore Saint.

***

Sophia rose from her chair slowly.

She didn't hurry at all. She unfolded herself one limb at a time, like a cat that had just woken from a nap in the sun, and the smile stayed on her painted lips the whole time.

The Light Saint crossed the room. Her heels clicked softly on the wooden floor and the slit of her skirt swayed with each lazy step.

Elise's back straightened. Her hand rested on the edge of the bed, close enough to Hyoren's arm that he felt her fingers brush his sleeve, and her green eyes followed every step Sophia took. On his other side, Ina's cat ears drew back slightly. Her tail, which had been curled loosely on the blanket, went stiff.

Arianna went completely still. The academy journal she had been holding stayed open on the same page, and her light blue eyes didn't leave the Light Saint.

Oria made a show of looking out the window. Very interested in the sky, apparently.

Jackey looked from one face to the next. Elise. Ina. Arianna. Oria's back. Then Elise again. His brows knitted together as if the air in the room had suddenly turned thick and nobody had told him why.

"Huh? …Huh?"

Nobody answered him.

Sophia stopped beside the bed. Ina shifted a little to the side on her chair, reluctantly, her ears still flattened, and made just enough room for the Light Saint to look down at Hyoren.

Sophia's smile widened.

Her sky blue eyes travelled over him slowly—from his face, down to the arm lying limp on the blanket, to his fingers, which twitched once and stilled—then came back up to his face.

"Ara… You still couldn't… move properly… could you…?"

She tilted her head. A lock of golden hair slid off her bare shoulder and swung beside her cheek.

"Mmhn… To think three casts… of Healing Magic… could only do this much…"

Her gaze drifted upward, past the ceiling, as if she was looking at something far beyond it. Her voice went soft, almost reverent, though it still dragged lazily.

"Haa…n… As expected… from a Unique Skill… granted by Her directly…"

Hyoren furrowed his eyebrows.

Three casts. From the Light Saint herself—the one person in the kingdom the Church would say stood closest to Luminara—and the backlash had only been eased this much. He had felt that warm light in the darkness. He knew how strong it had been. And yet he still couldn't properly close his own hand.

Berserker's backlash really was something else.

Sophia brought her hands together in front of her chest. The motion pressed the plunging neckline of her robe in a way that made Arianna's eyebrow twitch.

"I could cast it… one more time… Let's hope… you could at least move… after this…"

Elise didn't hesitate. She bowed her head slightly, her loose hair falling forward.

"Please do, Lady Sophia."

Hyoren nodded too, as much as his stiff neck allowed.

"I'd appreciate it. Please."

Sophia waved a hand lazily, her fingers fluttering in the air.

"No need… to be so formal… with me… Mmmhn…"

She reached for her hip and drew the Luminescent Cudgel.

The pure white mace looked different in her hand than it had on Borin's counter. Back then it had just been a beautiful piece of loot. Now the runes along its head seemed to breathe, a faint glow pulsing through the scripture-like lines as if the weapon recognized its owner.

She raised it.

Light Aethell began to gather. Tiny motes of pale gold drifted out of the air itself, slowly at first, then faster, spiraling toward the crown-shaped crest at the top of the cudgel. The room grew brighter. The shadows in the corners thinned and shrank away.

A bright yellow runic array bloomed in front of Sophia.

Then her free hand began to move.

Hyoren's eyes widened. 

Branch Magic…. Healing Magic, huh… The branch of Light Magic, drawn rune by rune the same way Arianna cast her Earth Fissure or Earth Hammer…

The lazy woman who dragged out every word was gone. Her fingers sliced through the air quickly and precisely, and each stroke left a glowing line that hung in place and settled into a rune. One. Five. Ten. Her lips moved silently with each one, and her half-lidded eyes never wavered from the array.

Fifteen runes.

The last one locked into place—and Sophia's voice rang out, clear and unhurried for the first time.

"Luminara's Absolution!"

An identical array appeared above Hyoren's bed.

It hovered over him, turning slowly. Then the light poured down.

It enveloped his whole body. It wasn't hot. It was warm, the same warmth he had felt in the darkness of the nightmare, the warmth that had pulled him out of that endless loop of breaking and healing. It seeped into his skin, then deeper, into muscles that still ached with every heartbeat and into bones that still felt as if they had been shattered and set a hundred times.

It went on. And on.

Hyoren let out a long breath he hadn't known he was holding.

Then the light faded.

Sophia swayed.

Her heel slid half a step to the side and her body tilted. Before anyone in Freedom Party could react, a hand caught her elbow.

The grey-haired man who had stood silently by the door—Hyoren hadn't even noticed when he had moved—now stood at Sophia's side and supported her weight. His back was as straight as ever, and his face was stern.

Sophia waved him off with a lazy flick of her hand. Her breathing had gone slightly ragged, and her chest rose and fell faster than before, but the smile never left her face.

"Bishop Robert… I'm… fine…"

The bishop didn't let go right away. He only did after a long moment, and even then he stayed close behind her.

Hyoren looked down at his hand.

He tried to clench it.

His fingers curled slowly—too slowly, like moving them through thick mud—but they curled. They closed into a loose fist. It was much better than before.

He stared at his fist and slowly opened it again.

I don't know which surprises me more… That the Light Saint could ease Berserker's backlash when no potion or healing magic could... 

Or that even the Light Saint could only ease it this much… after four casts that nearly emptied her Aethell reserve…

He lifted his gaze back to Sophia and bowed his head as far as his body would let him.

"Thank you, Lady Sophia. Really. I can feel the difference."

Ina pressed both hands together on her lap. Her ears had risen a little, though they still weren't fully upright.

"Thank you so much, Lady Sophia. For helping Hyoren."

Elise bowed her head again, her voice quiet and sincere.

"You have our gratitude. Truly."

Sophia giggled softly and tucked the cudgel back on her hip.

"Hihi… There's no need… to thank me… Mmhn…"

Behind her, Archbishop Sherine finally stepped forward. She had kept to the back of the room the whole time, her shoulders slightly hunched as if she was trying to make herself smaller. She gave Hyoren a small, tired smile.

"I'm glad to see you awake, Hyoren. You had all of us worried."

Then she turned to Sophia and clasped her hands in front of her robe. Her voice became firmer.

"Lady Sophia, we shouldn't prolong our visit. You need rest. And Hyoren has only just recovered."

Sophia's painted lips pushed out into a pout.

"Ehh… But… Archbishop… I still wanted… to be here…"

Her sky blue eyes slid back to Hyoren.

Something glinted in them. Slowly, deliberately, the tip of her tongue traced her glossy red lips.

"To be with him… with My Hero… Hihi…"

A chill crawled down Hyoren's spine.

Those eyes. He knew that look. He had seen it before—eyes of a predator that had already decided what its prey would be.

He cleared his throat, and his voice came out a little rougher than he meant it to.

"Lady Sophia, it's true I received the title Hero of Akela City. But being called 'My Hero' by the esteemed Light Saint is a bit much, isn't it?"

Sophia tilted her head the other way and blinked slowly, innocently. Far too innocently.

"Mmhn… It's not too much at all… My Hero…"

She leaned forward over the bed. Her golden hair spilled down and nearly brushed his chest, and the scent of something sweet, like flowers and honey, drifted over him. Ina made a small, strangled noise on his right.

"Because I'm here… because I received… a Divine Message… from Goddess Luminara…"

She smiled, slowly and sweetly, like every word was laced with honey.

"To help… My Hero…"

Then she swayed again, just slightly, and caught herself with a hand on the bedpost.

Hyoren barely noticed. His mind had snagged on her words and wouldn't let go.

"Luminara's Divine Message? …What?"

The room went silent.

Elise's lips parted, but nothing came out. Arianna's journal finally slid shut in her lap with a soft thump. Oria turned away from the window at last, her sapphire eyes wide. Ina looked at Hyoren, then at Sophia, then back at Hyoren. Even Jackey, who hadn't understood a single thing for the past several minutes, sensed that something big had just been said and kept his mouth shut.

Sophia only smiled.

"It's the truth… My Hero… whether you believe it… or not… Hihi…"

She wobbled again. This time her knees dipped, and Bishop Robert's hand shot out to steady her shoulder.

Sherine pressed her lips together. Whatever patience she had left was clearly gone. She stepped forward and laid a gentle but firm hand on Sophia's arm.

"Lady Sophia. That's enough. We've already intruded for too long, and you can barely stand. We are leaving."

Sophia let out a long, dramatic sigh that dragged on for a good few seconds.

"Haa…n… Fine… fine…"

She allowed Bishop Robert to lead her toward the door. At the threshold, she glanced back over her shoulder. Her sky blue eyes found Hyoren one last time, and she wiggled her fingers at him in a lazy little wave.

Then she was gone. Her soft giggle echoed down the hallway of the manor.

Sherine lingered.

She stood at the door with one hand on the frame and didn't follow right away. Her shoulders drooped, and she turned back to the room and bowed deeply.

"I'm sorry, Hyoren. For… all of that. Lady Sophia is… well. I apologize."

She straightened. The embarrassment slowly drained from her face and something heavier took its place.

"Also… The funeral for the defenders who fell in battle will be held this afternoon. At Luminara's church."

Hyoren's fingers tightened on the blanket.

"…I see. Thank you for telling me, Sherine."

She gave him one last small nod and closed the door quietly behind her.

The room went quiet.

The warmth of Luminara's Absolution still lingered in Hyoren's body, but it couldn't reach the cold that had settled in his chest. Sophia, the Divine Message, that predatory look: all of it had been pushed somewhere far back in his mind.

The defenders who fell in battle.

Ronald. The fledglings.

Hyoren slowly closed his hand again and looked at it for a long time.