Against All Odds
Let mine join them if it meant I never became like them.
Donna waited at the base, her gaze shadowed but unshaken. She did not speak as I passed, only bowed, not in submission, but in solidarity. Beta Kael gripped the hilt of his sword as if resisting the urge to follow me in, as if he could carve out the path with blood and will. I felt their loyalty like armor I could not wear, but would carry into that circle all the same.
The stone ring loomed ahead, its edges lined with sigils scorched into the earth, thrumming with ancient magic, binding, blood-bound, brutal. The center was bare except for a single silver blade driven into the stone. Not a weapon. A relic. A reminder.
Bab Populer