13. Fight or Flight?

Val faces off against four Death Knights, while her allies race to her aid.

Val is in the clearing, surrounded by four Deathknights:

Infinite Dirge for Shattered Oaths From Silent Struggle, a Moonshadow;

Sanguine Grasp of Gentle Repose, a Dusk;

Mercy of Scream’s End, a Midnight;

Questions Revealed In Depths, a Daybreak;

She tries to de-escalate a situation that has already gone too far. The head Deathknight (Infinite Dirge) proposes a one-on-one duel with the following terms: if she wins, they will pursue their quarry, Three-Fates Shadow, without involving the Solars; but if he wins, she dies. Jorek and Starlight Dove arrive on the scene in the treeline, but hesitate to intervene.

Meanwhile, back at the manse, Three-Fates Shadow informs Rey that she is being “summoned” by the other Abyssals, and Rey convinces her to leave to go help their friends.

Val continuously asks for a reason to trust the Deathknights, and they indeed reveal themselves to be untrustworthy as Infinite Dirge attacks. As Val runs for the trees, Starlight Dove emerges and uses her Sidereal powers to persuade the Abyssals to follow her so that she can lead them to Three-Fates. In her wake, the Solars’ memories of her presence vanish. Three-Fates hesitates about turning herself over to them: they will continue to pursue her, putting others in danger. Val convinces her not to, that the Solars will help her break her bonds one day.

They head back to the manse, meeting up with Summer Blaze & Ember, who helped scatter the Abyssals by lighting a controlled, but very real, fire in the woods. Jorek takes a moment with Summer Blaze to explain his difficulty in trusting others and telling them his true feelings, but that he cares about her and doesn’t want to her to get hurt; “You shouldn’t be worried about my safety,” she retorts with a cutesy shove.

That night, Rey observes her father taking a note on a scrap of paper hidden under his mattress. Before the others wake up she heads outside to find Ember keeping watch: she asks his thoughts on her new headband and, to relieve tension, makes him laugh by pulling some silly faces. His guard down, Ember reveals that he and Tepet Exquisite Tide have been married for three years, but have never lived together and corresponded only through letters. Taking advantage of some alone time, they kiss, passionately. Ember takes Rey to a family of foxes in a cave, saved from last night’s fire, and they realize that even in destruction, “some things work out”.

As dawn approaches, Jorek wakes Summer Blaze from a nightmare: in that dream, he had been facing off against Valeria, and had killed himself. She has been shaken by her dream, and he comforts her in his embrace. Valeria awakens from her own dream, in which she had shared food with the Unconquered Sun. He directs her to take a “lifetime of action” after this “month of learning”, and makes a point of telling Val he is proud of her. Upon waking, she catches Jorek and Summer Blaze in an embrace, and they slowly roll out of bed (like wet pool noodles).

In light of this dream, the Solars vow to take action: Rey will approach Kanna and will fight in the pits to become a champion; Jorek will use his influence with the Guild to turn the resources of the city towards the Solars; and Val will continue spreading the word of the Unconquered Sun in different neighbourhoods of Nexus, and possibly even to Priests of the Immaculate Order.

In Nexus, a shopkeeper in the Ziggurat clutches at his throat, collapsing from an infection….