4338.209 · July 28, 2018 AD
Clean Edges
Beatrix finds Jamie at the river's edge, holding what's left of the night's carnage. For a moment, mourning is enough—two people broken open, leaning into the silence together. But grief doesn't get to stay simple. Not here. A stranger emerges with answers no one asked for, and suddenly the wound tells a different story. One with a blade in it.
The shadow panther is dead. Beatrix survived the night. But morning brings no mercy—only the sight of Jamie hunched by the river, Duke's still body pressed to his chest, and grief so raw it bleeds into the current.
What begins as shared sorrow splinters into something darker when Charity arrives. A hunter from this world, wrapped in armour and certainty, she examines the wound with clinical precision—and delivers a verdict that changes everything. This wasn't a beast. The edges are too clean. Too deliberate. An Okaledian dagger, she says. A Portal Pirate.
The words land like stones in still water. Someone is in the camp who shouldn't be. Someone with a blade and no mercy.
And then the question no one wanted to ask: Where is Joel?
As Jamie wades into the river to wash away blood that clings deeper than skin, Beatrix stands vigil on the shore. She whispers a final goodbye to Duke—the creature who greeted her without judgement in a world that offers none.
Some farewells dissolve into dust. Others, into water. Neither leaves you whole.
