The ruin smelled of smoke, dust, and iron. The cloaked man lay sprawled on the dirt floor, wrists bound with rope stripped from the ruined rafters. His shallow breathing rasped in the silence.Desmond stood over him, the stolen staff clutched tight in his hand. The faint green glow had died, but a residue of wrongness still clung to the wood. The system whispered faintly in his skull:[Optional Quest Available: Interrogate the Captive.][Failure: Loss of Potential Intel.]Mira’s voice broke the quiet. “W-we can’t keep him here. What if he wakes?”Lysandra crossed her arms, eyes hard. “Then we make sure he doesn’t.”Selene’s lip curled. “Always the soldier’s answer. Kill first, ask never.”Lysandra shot her a glare. “Better than dragging trouble back to the King’s men and branding ourselves traitors.”Selene stepped closer, her voice sharp with disdain. “Or perhaps you’re too dim to realize: if he was sent by someone powerful, killing him only covers the trail. Reporting him to the Kin

The torch had burned low, leaving the ruin steeped in long shadows. The assassin lay bound in the corner, chest rising in shallow, uneven rhythm.But the room’s real weight wasn’t the prisoner, it was the silence between Desmond and the women.Mira broke it first. Her voice was soft, fragile. “Desmond… what was that? The green light, the voice…”Desmond rubbed his temples. His skull still throbbed from the battle in his mind. “The Serpent. Or something tied to it. Whatever it was, it wanted inside.”Mira shuddered, arms wrapping around herself. “I felt it too. Like… like a snake in my veins.”Selene scoffed, though it lacked her usual bite. “Convenient. Very convenient. The assassin whispers nonsense, you groan dramatically, and suddenly you’re the hero who saved us all?”Lysandra bristled. “You saw the glow in his eyes. You heard the voice. Don’t you dare call that nonsense.”Selene’s gaze sharpened. “And you don’t dare ignore that power is dangerous. He’s carrying something none of

The ruin still trembled with the echo of armored boots. Their sound seemed to linger, ghostlike, in the morning air. Even with the guards gone, the walls pressed close, suffocating.Desmond hadn’t moved. His chest rose and fell as though each breath weighed a stone. He could still feel the captain’s eyes on him, sharp as a blade pressed against his throat.And then Mira’s voice broke the silence. “You lied,” she whispered. “You lied to them. We should have given him over.”Her hand trembled where it clutched her cloak. “The Serpent hunts us, Desmond. The King watches us. You’re balancing fire on both hands, and”“and you’d have us hand over our only chance at answers?” Lysandra cut in, voice hard. She stood near the bound figure in the corner, one hand gripping her sword’s pommel, her eyes lit with fury. “Better to risk our necks than let the Serpent vanish into the King’s dungeons, untouchable. At least this way, we keep control.”Selene leaned against the wall, arms folded, her smil