The abandoned farmhouse sat three days south of Adaranthe, half-hidden by overgrown fields and skeletal trees. Its roof sagged in places, and the windows were dark gaps that stared out at nothing.
Gilbert kicked in the door and wood splintered.
"Ho," he said flatly.
They carried Gabriel inside. His limbs still wouldn’t cooperate. The sedative clung to his system like fog. He could move his fingers and turn his head, but standing remained beyond him. His legs felt disconnected.
Tess and Adan lowered him onto old straw in what had once been a common room, and dust swirled in the afternoon light.
ra checked his pupils. "Still dilated. He’ll need hours yet."
"How many?" Tess asked, her voice hard.
"Six, maybe eight." ra pulled back, her expression clinical. "The sedative was ant to keep him under for the entire journey. His body needs ti."
Gabriel tried to speak, but his tongue felt too thick. The sound that erged was more grunt than word.
"Don’t," ra said. "You’ll only frustrate yourself."
He closed his eyes and focused on breathing. On waiting.
Around him, the others secured the farmhouse. Ennu checked the periter while Adan tested floorboards. Gilbert started a small fire, coaxing flas from wood that had probably sat for years. Tess stood by the window with her arms crossed and her jaw tight. The silence pressed down on them all.
Two hours passed before Gabriel’s vision cleared. Objects resolved into focus, and his fingers began responding when he commanded them. His toes, then his feet followed. He tried sitting up and failed. When he tried again, he managed to prop himself against the wall, though his head swam.
ra appeared with a waterskin. "Slow sips."
He drank, and the water helped clear so fog from his mind.
"Better?" she asked.
Gabriel nodded slightly.
She settled back and watched him with an expression he couldn’t quite read. "The Order used sedatives for soldiers who couldn’t sleep and for prisoners who needed transport." She paused. "I administered them. Mixed the compounds and calculated dosages."
Gabriel’s eyes moved to her face.
"That’s all I did," she continued, her voice even. "I healed the injured and kept the soldiers functional. I wasn’t part of the interrogations or the breaking." She looked away. "But I knew it happened. I knew what the Order did to people like you."
"Why tell this?"
"Because I know more than you think about what they did and their thods." She t his eyes. "And whatever is happening to you, the voice and the book, it’s connected to what they broke open."
Gabriel said nothing. She was right.
ra stood. "When you can walk, they’ll want answers. Be ready."
Four more hours passed. The sun set and darkness filled the farmhouse, broken only by Gilbert’s small fire. They ate in silence, chewing dried at and hard bread.
Gabriel managed to stand on the fifth attempt. His legs shook but held long enough for three steps before he needed the wall.
Progress.
Tess watched from across the room, her expression unchanged. Still that hard, closed look.
By full dark, Gabriel could walk unaided. He moved slower than normal and his balance was uncertain, but he was functional.
Ennu returned from checking the periter. "No signs of pursuit. No tracks, no riders. We’re clear for now."
"Good," Adan said, sharpening his blade by the fire. "Then we can talk."
Everyone turned to look at Gabriel.
He remained standing with his back to the wall.
"You attacked lissa," Tess said. Not a question. "You tried to strangle her, and Gilbert had to knock you unconscious."
Gabriel’s jaw tightened. "I know."
"Do you?" Tess moved closer. "Do you rember it? Your hands around her throat?"
"No." His voice ca out flat. "I rember the scaffold and the woman hanging. Red smoke. Then nothing until the safe house."
"Convenient."
"It’s the truth."
"Is it?" Tess was close now. "Because you moved like you were trained, like you were in control."
"I wasn’t."
"Then what were you?" Adan asked quietly. "What took over?"
Gabriel’s hands remained at his sides. "I don’t know."
"Liar." Tess’s voice cracked like a whip.
The room went silent.
Gabriel t her glare steadily. "I’m not lying."
"Then explain the book. Explain why you were screaming about it and what ’Dracare’ ans. Explain what trial you’re supposed to complete."
He said nothing because he couldn’t.
"I can’t," he finally said.
"Can’t or won’t?"
"Both."
Tess’s expression twisted. "That’s not good enough."
"It’s all I have."
She stared at him, then turned away with her hand moving to her sword poml. "This is madness. We barely escaped and lissa risked everything. We don’t even know what we’re running from."
"The Order broke sothing in him," ra said quietly. "Whatever they did left cracks, and sothing is using those cracks."
"The voice?" Adan asked. "The thing that made him scream about the book?"
"Yes."
"What is it?"
ra shook her head. "The Order didn’t share that with healers. I knew they broke prisoners, but not what happened after."
Gilbert stood and dusted ash from his hands. "So we’ve got demon-eyes carrying sothing in his head that makes him attack friends." He looked at Gabriel. "And you can’t explain any of it."
"No."
"Brilliant."
Ennu stepped forward. "The book. Should we examine it?"
All eyes turned to ra’s pack.
"I looked through it before," ra said. "Every page was blank."
"Then why take it?" Tess demanded.
"Because sothing told to, not a voice but a feeling. A compulsion." She looked at Gabriel. "The sa way you were compelled to tell to take it."
"Show us," Adan said.
ra hesitated, then pulled out the leather-bound book.
Gabriel’s eyes fixed on it imdiately, and his whole body went rigid.
"Gabriel?" ra’s voice seed distant. "You’re staring."
He blinked and forced his attention away. "I’m fine."
"You’re not fine," Tess said sharply. "Look at yourself. You went rigid the second she pulled that out."
Gabriel’s jaw clenched. She wasn’t wrong. The pull was almost physical.
ra opened the book and flipped through pages. "See? Blank. Every..."
She stopped. Her expression changed to confusion, then sothing close to fear.
"What?" Adan moved closer.
ra turned the book to show them. The pages were blank, just clean parchnt.
"It’s blank," Gabriel said quietly.
Everyone looked at him.
"What?" Tess demanded.
"The pages. They’re blank for all of us."
ra’s hands trembled slightly. "But you were screaming about it. The voice told you to take it."
"I don’t know why." Gabriel looked away from the book. "I’ve only seen writing in it once, when my blood touched the pages."
Silence fell.
"Your blood?" Adan asked carefully.
"An accident months ago in Eldenreach." Gabriel’s voice remained flat. "I cut my hand and a drop fell on the page. Words appeared in red ink that looked like blood."
"What did they say?" ra asked.
"I couldn’t read them fully, but there was a na. Dracare." He paused. "And sothing about vengeance."
Gilbert shifted. "Have you tried it again? Putting blood on the pages?"
"Yes."
"And?"
"Nothing. The book didn’t respond."
Tess’s eyes narrowed. "So it worked once and never again?"
"Yes."
"That’s convenient," she said.
"It’s the truth."
ra closed the book slowly and studied Gabriel. "The Order. Did they know about this book?"
"No. I found it after the exile in a temple outside Eldenreach."
"And you just took it?"
Gabriel’s jaw tightened. "It called to the sa way the voice does now."
ra slipped the book back into her pack. The mont it disappeared, Gabriel felt the pull lessen slightly.
"The Order did sothing to you," ra said. "But I don’t think they created this connection to the book." She paused. "I think they awakened sothing that was already there."
"What do you an?" Adan asked.
"The sigils they carved into him and the ritual modifications were trying to awaken demon blood, Dracarian blood." She looked at Gabriel. "What if they succeeded partially, at least enough to create this connection?"
"So the book responds to his blood," Tess said slowly. "To whatever the cult awakened in him."
"Maybe," ra said. "Or maybe it’s the other way around. Maybe whatever’s in his blood recognises the book."
Gabriel’s hands clenched at his sides. "I don’t know what I am. The cult said I had demon blood, and the Order tried to study it. Neither finished what they started."
"And the voice," Gilbert said. "It wants you to complete it, to take the book and finish whatever trial they began."
"Yes."
Tess turned away with frustration written across her face. "This is insane."
"South," Ennu said softly. "Away from Adaranthe. That’s enough for now."
"Is it?" Tess rounded on them. "Eventually we’ll have to stop, and we’ll still have all these questions."
No one had an answer.
"We should sleep," Adan finally said. "Take watches."
"First watch," Tess said, moving back to the window. The conversation was over.
The others settled in. Gabriel slid down the wall until he was sitting, and exhaustion caught up to him. The weariness went bone-deep.
ra approached with a blanket. "You should rest."
He took it. "Thank you."
She paused. "The blood connection is important." She glanced at her pack where the book rested. "Whatever you are, whatever the cult tried to awaken, that book knows. It recognised you once and might again."
Gabriel said nothing.
"Maybe that’s what the trial is," ra continued quietly. "Finding out what you are and what Dracare ans."
She left him with that thought.
Gabriel pulled the blanket around his shoulders and closed his eyes. But sleep wouldn’t co.
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