4338.207 · July 26, 2018 AD
Grateful for the Light
Whiskey makes survival feel almost bearable — until voices rise from the tent where the resurrected sleep and Luke emerges running. Portal colours paint the darkness, and Paul's brother vanishes again without explanation. The night grows heavier with questions no one can answer: if Luke didn't bring Joel here, who did? Around the dying fire, Glenda proposes something unexpected. Gratitude. Finding one thing — just one thing — worth being thankful for in this nightmare.
The whiskey passes hand to hand, loosening the knot of constant fear into something almost resembling peace. Laughter echoes across the camp — real laughter, the first Paul has heard since stepping through the Portal. For a moment, survival becomes bearable. For a moment, they are just people sharing a fire.
Then raised voices shatter the illusion. Luke bursts from the tent and runs — not walking, not pausing to explain, but fleeing into darkness that swallows him whole. Portal colours bloom and vanish, and Paul's brother is gone again. The questions multiply: what happened in that tent? And if Luke didn't bring Joel here, who did? Are they still out there, watching from beyond the firelight?
Glenda proposes a ritual her father taught her. Gratitude. One thing each, kneeling in the dust around dying embers. She's grateful for life. Paul chooses the river. Kain blurts gratitude for Uncle Jamie, and Paul's involuntary scoff sends the young man storming into darkness. When Glenda whispers that she's grateful for Clivilius itself, tears streaming down her face, Paul understands that everyone here carries wounds they haven't shared.
Kain returns. Forgiveness comes without words. The fire burns on.
