Chapter 940: Back To Veyrhold
After escaping the clearing, Liam, Asher, and Celia did not stop again.
They made a fast break back toward Veyrhold, not with the reckless speed they had used during the task’s earlier stretches, but with the kind of pace that kept distance shrinking without dulling their senses. The forest remained dangerous, and after what had revealed itself in the clearing, none of them trusted quiet ground, open paths, or trees that stood too still. They avoided anything unnecessary. A low-moving threat near a streambed was left behind before it decided whether to follow.
A cluster of smaller Realm-Touched scavengers scattered when Asher flared blue fire along the path without slowing. Raven carried Celia above the worst of the terrain, then dropped lower whenever the canopy thickened, while Liam and Asher kept to routes that gave them enough room to react if the unknown pack chose to resume pursuit.
It did not.
That was not comforting.
A normal beast would chase, or retreat, or return to easier prey. The eyeless predators had done none of those things. They had stayed behind with the body Liam had killed, and the memory of that silence followed the group more heavily than the sound of pursuit would have.
By the time Veyrhold’s broken outer perimeter came into view, the sun had climbed higher over Eldervale, spilling light across the damaged wall line, the southern approach, and the watch points now held by second-year students. The sight of the settlement should have brought relief. Instead, Liam felt his attention sharpen. They were returning with information, not safety.
Chris met them before they reached the southern gate.
He stood with a squad near the perimeter route, armor adjusted, posture polished, expression already carrying that familiar mixture of pride and bitterness that made him look as if the world had insulted him by continuing to exist without his approval. Two of his students straightened when Liam’s group approached. A third looked at Raven and immediately decided to stand slightly farther back.
Chris’s gaze moved from Liam to Asher, then to Celia on Raven’s back. His mouth tightened.
"So," he said, voice carrying enough for his squad to hear, "the famous task group returns. Completed the academy’s errand, encountered the first true threat outside the walls, and ran back the moment things became difficult."
Celia’s eyes narrowed from Raven’s back. Asher’s blue eyes lit with immediate, delighted hostility.
Liam did not stop.
Chris stepped slightly into his path. "You expect the year to treat that as success?"
Liam’s gaze settled on him for less than a breath, cold and flat.
"Move," Liam said. "You are blocking people who finished their assignment."
Chris’s face hardened. "That is all you have to say?"
"No." Liam brushed past him without giving Chris the dignity of turning fully. "But wasting better words on you would be charitable."
The line landed exactly where it was meant to.
Chris’s fingers curled at his side, anger flashing across his face before he could polish it away. Liam treated him as neither rival nor obstacle worth measuring. Just something inconvenient on the road.
Asher passed next, grinning like someone handed a gift he had not expected. "After being humiliated this many times, you would think even a peacock could evolve enough common sense to stop volunteering for more embarrassment."
Chris’s head snapped toward him. "Hawthorne."
Asher did not slow. "Still ugly when angry. Tragic consistency."
Celia followed on Raven, wisely saying nothing, though the corner of her mouth twitched before she forced it flat. Raven’s head turned just enough to examine Chris with four silent layers of judgment, then dismissed him by looking forward again.
Chris stood there, furious and surrounded by his own squad, unable to strike, unable to argue without looking smaller, unable to do anything useful with the anger gathering under his skin.
"Back to your posts," he snapped at his squad. "Now."
They obeyed quickly.
The southern gate came into view a few moments later. On the wall above, Kara spotted them first from her patrol route. Her bow was in hand, her posture alert, and two other archers stood within calling distance along the damaged section of wall.
"Liam’s group is back!" Kara called. "Open the gate!"
Movement followed immediately. Students near the gate mechanism shifted into place, not perfectly smoothly, but with far more order than the previous day would have allowed. The reinforced section opened enough to admit the returning group, while archers maintained watch over the approach. Liam noted the improvement without comment. The perimeter was functioning. Not well enough yet, but functioning.
Inside Veyrhold, the Southern District was no longer a scattered survival point. It looked strained, dirty, and half-broken, but organized. Students moved between assigned areas with tools, water skins, salvaged materials, and marked bundles. A pair of healers crossed toward the protected rest area. Several Forgemastery students carried reinforced rods toward the central road. Patrol markers had been placed along cleared routes, and warning signs blocked off unsafe structures. The settlement had not waited for them to return.
The students noticed them anyway.
Heads turned as Liam, Asher, Celia, and Raven entered. Conversations thinned. Some faces showed curiosity. Others unease. A few stared at Liam as though trying to compare what they had heard through the insignias with the person walking past them now, dark hair tied back, field uniform marked with dust and ravine grime, expression unreadable. Asher looked irritated by the attention almost immediately. Celia stiffened under it, which only made Raven’s calm stride beneath her more noticeable.
"Is all that staring really necessary?" Asher muttered. "One ugly encounter and everyone forgets how eyes work."
Celia looked down at him. "Most of them heard the exchange. Sheila’s warning. Liam refusing to lead the pack back here. My report from above. Of course they are looking."
"They should look quieter."
"That is not how looking works."
"It should be."
Asher glanced at her, then paused. His irritation shifted into something more amused. "Are you planning to stay on top of the bird-cat all day?"
Celia blinked. "What?"
"You are still riding her."
Celia looked down.
Raven was not flying. She was walking through Veyrhold with smooth, predatory calm, carrying Celia as if the arrangement had somehow continued past all logical need. Several students were not staring at Liam or Asher at all. They were staring at the fact that Celia Roanne remained seated on a massive raven-jaguar shadow beast like it was the most normal thing in the world.
Raven turned one eye back toward her.
The look was pure judgment.
Celia’s face flushed. "I was conserving energy."
Asher laughed. "Terrible lie. Absolutely rotten."
"It is not a lie."
"You got comfortable."
"I did not."
"You did. On the disgusting curse Myst bird-cat."
Celia dismounted quickly, boots hitting the ground with perhaps too much force. "I was being practical."
Raven huffed.
It sounded suspiciously like agreement with Asher.
Celia turned on her. "Do not side with him."
Raven’s ear flicked, dignified and deeply unhelpful.
Asher looked delighted. "She likes me more."
"She does not like you," Liam said without turning around.
Asher pointed at his back. "Let me have this."
"No."
Celia adjusted the front of her field uniform and tried to recover what remained of her composure. "For the record, I still find the entire arrangement unpleasant."
Raven padded past her with no sign of belief.
The brief exchange drew a few confused looks from nearby students, who seemed unsure whether they had just witnessed a shadow beast insulting someone. Liam kept walking. He had no interest in explaining Raven, Celia, or whatever strange ceasefire had formed between them after the ravine.
His attention was on the central structure.
The road toward it was busier than when he had left. Students carried equipment under instruction. A small group waited near the entrance with written notes. Another pair hurried away from the lower doors, one of them muttering about conduit labels and the other carrying a sealed container with too much care to be casual. The restoration work was alive, which meant Sheila had kept the day moving even while the task pulled several pieces off the board.
Liam spotted her near the lower entrance, speaking with Edith while Felix stood close by with the Command Log open against a portable board. Sheila’s hair was tied back more practically now, and her sleeves were marked with dust from the structure. Edith held a short list in one hand and was directing two students with the other, her calm precision making them straighten before they hurried away. Felix looked as if he had aged several years through note-taking alone.
Sheila saw Liam’s group approaching and stopped mid-sentence.
Edith noticed a heartbeat later.
Both came toward them quickly.
"Are you injured?" Sheila asked before anything else.
"Nothing serious," Liam said.
She looked him over anyway, then turned to Asher. "You?"
Asher rolled one shoulder. "Annoyed. Mildly bruised. Handsome as ever."
Edith’s expression did not change. "So no new condition."
Asher glared. "You wound me."
"You appear intact."
Sheila’s attention moved to Celia. "Celia?"
Celia straightened. "Mostly fine. No venom contact. No serious wounds."
"Mostly?"
"A few bruises. Nothing requiring immediate treatment."
Sheila accepted that only after looking her over. Her gaze then shifted to Raven.
For a moment, she paused.
This was her first proper view of this particular shadow creature. Raven stood beside Liam with her head held high, sleek and predatory, shadow-feathered ridges shifting faintly along her neck. She was smaller than Smoke but no less unsettling, especially with the intelligence in her eyes and the way she seemed to understand everyone’s discomfort and approve of it.
Sheila clearly registered the new information.
Then she set it aside.
"What happened with the Apex pack?" she asked. "The last time I checked the map, the blue reading had stopped east of here. It has not dispersed. It is lingering around the region where you encountered it."
Liam’s eyes sharpened. "Still there?"
"Yes. The map shows threat pressure, not exact bodies. I cannot identify species, count individuals precisely, or see them as separate clean points. But the heat-wave reading remains blue and concentrated. It stopped advancing toward Veyrhold after your group escaped the area."
Asher’s expression lost some of its humor. Celia went quiet.
Liam glanced around. Too many students were nearby, even if most pretended not to listen.
"We need to talk privately."
Sheila studied his face.
Whatever she saw there made her answer immediate. "Agreed."
Before she turned, her nose wrinkled slightly beneath her composure. Edith’s expression sharpened in the smallest possible way, which somehow felt worse.
Sheila looked at the three of them again. "But rinse off first."
Asher blinked. "What?"
"You smell awful."
"That was the ravine," Asher said at once. "That place smelled like death, acid, and a corpse trying to become a swamp."
"Which is why you are rinsing off before we stand in a closed room together," Sheila replied.
Celia’s embarrassment returned in a different form. "That noticeable?"
"Yes," Edith said.
Asher looked betrayed. "You could have lied."
"I could not," Edith said.
Sheila pointed toward the restored well courtyard. "Ariana managed to cleanse the well water enough for controlled use. It is still being monitored, but you can rinse off there. Do not waste it. Do not crowd the area. After that, come to the small records room near the central structure. Edith and I will meet you there."
Liam absorbed the new information quickly. The well water was usable now. That was progress. Important progress. Ariana had not wasted the morning.
He nodded and turned toward the well courtyard.
As he walked, he loosened the straps across his field-uniform shirt, then unclasped the upper fastenings enough to make rinsing off easier without stripping in the middle of the district like an idiot. His half-mask hung at his side now, stained with the ravine’s sour residue. He removed his gloves and flexed his fingers once, checking for any lingering damage from the fight that his body had buried under urgency.
Raven padded beside him, drawing nervous looks from students who gave her a wide path without being told.
"Do not eat anyone," Liam said.
Raven’s head turned slowly toward him.
The look she gave him was profoundly insulted.
Asher snorted. "She is considering it harder now that you said something."
"Then she can consider quietly."
Celia followed a few steps behind, still irritated from the Raven exchange and now irritated that her uniform apparently carried the ravine’s stench strongly enough for Edith to weaponize honesty. She kept her chin lifted anyway. Raven’s tail brushed past her once, entirely unnecessary and possibly deliberate.
Celia glared at the shadow beast. "I saw that."
Raven did not look back.