4338.209 · July 28, 2018 AD
Capsized
Dawn reveals what darkness concealed — not just the dead, but the scope of what Paul doesn't understand about this world. A woman born in Clivilius speaks of founding mothers and centuries-old wars whilst Paul waits for his brother to return, dreading the conversation he knows is coming. Some truths can't be softened. Some news can only be delivered like a blade. And some mornings break more than they illuminate.
The night is over. The sun is rising. And Paul hasn't slept, hasn't stopped shaking, hasn't figured out how to tell his brother that Duke died whilst they were running from monsters in the dark.
Charity fills the hours before Luke's return with history that reshapes everything Paul thought he understood about this place — Scottish sisters who founded a civilisation in 1762, a military hub called Chewbathia, millennia of war against threats he's only beginning to comprehend. She speaks of it casually, a Hunter reciting facts as old as her bloodline, whilst Paul stands shirtless and exhausted beside the corpse of a shadow panther.
Then Luke arrives. Trembling hands. Cracking voice. Eyes that already know something terrible has happened. Paul takes those hands in his own and delivers the words that will shatter his brother: Duke's dead. He watches Luke storm toward the body, toward Jamie's silent vigil, toward a grief too large to hold.
The morning unravels from there. Beatrix appears dragging a kayak. Paul escapes into ridiculous fantasy. Jamie clutches Duke's body and refuses cremation. Joel vanishes. And when Jamie collapses, Glenda's voice cuts through the chaos: gather everyone to the campfire.
