It was clear Ryn remembered nothing from the time he awoke to his collapse, so Lilia began slowly, her words careful.
She started with their escape from the city, the ash.
Then the tower they’d hidden in…
Then came his arm.
Her tone faltered there.
Ryn’s gaze lowered to the bandaged stump.
Lilia looked away, her fingers twisting together.
Ariel took over.
She told him about the aberrations, how they stalked them through the woods, how they’d run for days, dragging him along in that cart, how the air itself had felt wrong.
Her voice grew quieter as she described the fight — her fight.
The storm that followed.
And then she spoke of what came after.
The winged thing that descended from the storm.
The silence that followed.
The temple.
Their first night of real safety.
Finally, she mentioned her plan, the reason they were here, the Trial that lay before them.
At those words, Ryn finally spoke.
"No." Ryn's voice was flat, matter-of-fact. "We can't do a Trial."
Ryn could guess that there were a lot of things missing from Lilia and Ariel's story, like how Solvara had really turned to ash, or what Ariel was hiding beneath the cloth wrapped around her arm, or how she'd managed to fight that aberration and live.
He knew the answer to some of it. But he didn't speak.
What he did know was this—doing a Trial now was madness.
"That's insanity," he said quietly. Ariel flinched anyway.
Beside her, Lilia turned away, her jaw tightening.
The fractured moon hung high, its pale light spilling through the temple's broken opening, casting shadows that made the ruins feel even more hollow.
"We don't have a choice, Ryn." Ariel's voice was quiet, but there was steel beneath it. "We can't keep running forever."
Her fingers curled into fists at her sides. "If we don't do something, if we don't take the Trial—"
"You'll die." Ryn said it like he was stating a fact. "That's what will happen if you do”
"We're already dying here," Ariel shot back, her voice cracking. "Slowly. Day by day. Without food, without help—" She gestured to herself. "Look at us. How long do you think we'll last like this?"
Ryn stared at her for a long moment, then turned to Lilia. Her eyes wouldn't meet his.
He exhaled slowly. "And you think a Trial—now, in your condition, with whatever happened to you—is going to fix that?"
"It's our only chance."
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"It's suicide."
"Then what do you want us to do?" Ariel's voice rose, trembling with exhaustion and something darker. "Hide in these ruins until we starve? Until something worse than that aberration finds us? Tell me, Ryn—what's your plan?"
Silence.
Ryn said nothing at first. He just watched her.
"Do you hear yourself?" His voice was the same flat tone as before. "Do you know what you're planning to do?"
Ariel's reply came fast,voicehoarse, steady in a way that almost frightened him. "I know what I'm doing."
Ryn's gaze locked on her. He saw it then—the bandage on her arm, the exhaustion carved into her face.
"Do you?"
The silence that followed was heavy enough to press on their chests. The fire cracked between them, the sound brittle and distant.
Lilia’s hands twisted tighter.
Her voice was nervous but soft.
“Even if we don’t do the trial… where do we go from here?”
He turned toward her. She tried to meet his eyes but couldn’t — her gaze slipped instead to his arm, or what was left of it.
“...Ariel’s right,” she said, her voice unsteady. “At least about one thing.”
A small pause. She swallowed, fingers fidgeting in her lap.
“We… we can’t keep going like this. Not without strength.”
She looked back up, eyes tired but steady, though her voice wavered just a little.
“The aberrations will keep coming,” she said quietly. “And the nearest city from here… it’s months away.”
Her hands tightened around her knees.
“We barely survived a week, Ryn.”
His missing arm ached sharply. He clenched his teeth, fingers curling against the dirt.
He dropped his gaze to the floor. The firelight flickered against his face, shadows carving deep lines beneath his eyes. No one spoke. For a long time, no one dared to.
Ariel was the first to break the silence.
“If we can start the Trial,” she said quietly, staring into the fire. “If we can just survive the challenges…”
Her voice faltered, but she pressed on.
“We’ll have a real chance — a real chance at surviving.”
Ryn exhaled, slow and disbelieving.
“You say that like it’s easy,” he said, shaking his head.
“All trial challenges are unique; we face the same possibility—facing the very things you’re trying to avoid here.”
That made Ariel move. She stood abruptly, the scrape of her feet against the marble echoing through the hall. The firelight caught her face.
“You really think I want to do this?” Her voice cracked, sharp and trembling all at once. “You think I haven’t thought of every other option?”
Ryn looked up at her, eyes narrowing. “You’re talking about throwing us into something we don’t even understand. you don’t even know if you’ll come back from it.”
Her hands clenched at her sides, the bandages on her arm shifting slightly.
“You think I don’t know that?!” she snapped, louder this time.
The silence that followed was heavy, the fire’s light flickering weakly between them.
Ariel’s shoulders sank. When she spoke again, her voice trembled.
“If you have another way out — tell me. Please.”
Her gaze met his, eyes wet in the glow. “Because I don’t. I don’t have one, Ryn. This is all I have left.”
Ryn’s expression twisted, He turned away, jaw tight.
“W–Wait—enough, both of you.”
Lilias words stumbled at first, but she pushed through, glancing between them.
“Let’s… let’s just talk about this tomorrow….We all need rest.”
“Ryn especially… he just woke up.”
The silence that followed was taut, but it held.
Ariel stood there for a long moment, chest rising and falling, firelight reflecting off her bandages. Finally, she exhaled.
“…I’ll take first watch,”
No one argued.