The knocking came again.
Mera’s lips thinned.
"I’ve already told her you needed rest." She turned away, ignoring the door entirely, returning to her alchemy station as if the sound wasn’t shaking the hinges.
Another strike rattled the wood.
Gabriel’s head lifted toward the door, stomach tightening. The scent of roasted rabbit vanished beneath the rising tension in the air.
Mera folded her arms, glancing over her shoulder. "She’s going to wake the dead if she keeps banging."
"Gabriel!"
Tess’s voice tore through the wood, muffled but unmistakably furious.
Mera exhaled sharply through her nose.
The knocking snapped again, unrelenting, impatient.
Gabriel stepped toward the door, boots dragging across the floorboards. His legs still felt stiff, but Tess wasn’t going to stop.
Mera’s glare followed him the entire way.
Each knock synced with the thump of his heartbeat.
As he reached for the latch, a blade of cold Northern air slipped through the frame.
He opened the door.
Tess stood there, soaked from the storm, hair plastered to her cheeks, irritation carved across her face. Her eyes swept over him once, jaw clenching.
"Two days," she snapped. "You disappear for two days. You said we could talk."
Gabriel turned slightly towards Mera, who was already wearing a smug curl on her lips.
You didn’t tell her I was resting.
Her eyes narrowed into the back of his head. "Where have you been?"
He looked back at Tess. "I’ve been recovering."
She pushed inside without waiting for permission, brushing past him. As she passed, her glare sharpened into fury.
"You said he was out training."
Gabriel closed the door behind her, the wood thudding softly as if attempting to stifle the tension now suffocating the room.
"Oh, I thought he was," Mera’s voice thick with sarcasm
Tess turned towards Gabriel sharply, "How can you stand this witc- "
She straightened up.
"What happened to your hair?"
Gabriel’s eyes furrowed. The book flashed through his mind, the visions, the heat, the marks. But he didn’t want to tell no one until he figured it out.
"I don’t know, maybe I used too much mana in a short period of time."
The two women snapped at the same time. "You’re a mage?"
Both women exchanged a look, they’d seen the red smoke inside him before and had simply assumed it was some rare inborn skill.
Real mages were almost never free. Any hint of magical affinity, and the Templars seized you before you were grown.
His brows creased. Mana. He almost winced. He hadn’t been able to access mana since the day Ariya carved it out of him, yet lying about it now only made the truth more dangerous. The book was changing him... and he had no excuse ready.
"Yes, every Paladin is a mage"
Tess nodded as if she knew.
Mera’s confusion grew, "You were a Paladin?"
"A trainee Paladin, he never ascended." Tess now had the same smug look the apothecary wore earlier.
Gabriel nodded.
The Apothecary stood there, mouth open, thinking of words to say.
Tess didn’t allow her to question further.
Her shoulders squared, the smugness on her face evaporating as fast as it appeared. She stepped closer, lowering her voice. The anger she’d walked in with returned beneath every word.
Gabriel’s eyes narrowed.
Tess drew in a slow breath.
"I’ve come to tell you."
Mera froze mid-movement, her hand hovering over a glass vial.
The room stilled.
"There’s a man in Eldenreach looking for you," Tess said, eyes locked on him. "He showed up at the guild this morning. Asked for you by name, but using a different description."
Gabriel’s jaw tightened. "What did he look like?"
Tess’s throat bobbed once.
"Beard. Scar from his brow to his lip. Filthy clothes. And he kept... smiling with his teeth."
Mera’s fingers slipped from the vial, it tapped the table, but she didn’t notice.
Gabriel didn’t blink.
The air thinned around him.
The vision of the man plunging the knife deep into his face and laughing.
Mera’s fingers slipped from the vial, it tapped the table, but she didn’t notice.
"Who is he?" she asked, her voice gentle.
The words didn’t reach him.
Another memory flashed, being punched. The sound of bone snapping echoing through his skull.
He clenched his hands.
"Where is he?" Gabriel asked, his voice calm. Too calm, contradicting the violent glow burning deep in his soul.
"He’s drinking at the guild, with Gilbert," Tess replied.
She hesitated. "Who is he...? Hanitz told me to come get you."
Gabriel turned and began walking toward the stairs.
"Tell Hanitz to clear the guild."
Tess and Mera didn’t speak.
They just stared at Gabriel’s back as he moved towards the stairs with a steady, deliberate pace.
Tess took a deep breath, her fingers curling around the hilt at her side, not to draw it, but to keep her hands from shaking.
His entire persona changed, he was to calm.
It sent shivers down her spine.
Gabriel climbed the stairs without a sound.
The door to his room closed behind him.
Inside, the world stood still.
He set one of the swords on the bed, removed from its sheath and sat at the desk with the other.
His hands moved with precision as he drew the whetstone across the blade.
Shhhk.
Shhhk.
Shhhk.
A Paladin’s blade must never dull. Looping in his mind.
Each stroke steadier than the last.
The steel grew brighter as his breath slowed.
He picked up the other blade.
The tension in the house gathered like the storm outside.
Downstairs, Tess whispered, "He’s sharpening his blades... What’s he going to do?"
Mera turned away, sadness in her eyes. "What he has to."
Her words didn’t comfort Tess. They only sharpened her questions.
Gabriel tightened the straps on his breastplate and placed the sheath on his back. He reached over, picking his robe off the floor, pulling it over his shoulders and fastening it.
He checked over all his equipment twice.
No hesitation.
No thought.
No change in expression.
He stood in the centre of the room, his eyes began to glow.
His hand reached towards the medallion around his neck.
"Righteousness begets cruelty"