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The beastkin's ears flattened, pressing back against his skull. Slowly, he lowered himself into a crouch, one paw scraping the snow, the other bracing against his pack. His muscles coiled, tension rippling through his frame, eyes fixed on Tirran.

Again, Tirran's gaze whirled in all directions, but his body now moved with purpose. He walked to the edge of the platform, right towards the beastkin, claws scraping against the stone, snow cracking underfoot. With every step, something within him seemed to shift, like a creature shedding its skin — no, it was not just something within him that changed. It was him. Tirran unravelled. And underneath, something older and darker stirred, something infinitely more dangerous.

Tirran stopped at the platform's edge. "Your words smell of anger and they smell of fear, krynn, wanderer of the forest," said the something that wormed its way into his skin and pretended to be a guard. "I believe they also smell of truth."

The beastkin lunged, surging past the ker —

A blur of movement. A flicker, then stillness. The ker was a phantom, a shadow sliding into the beastkin's path, arm outstretched, palm raised. He did not touch the beastkin, did not shout or threaten. Just one hand, upright and unwavering. The gesture was calm, but the effect was immediate. The beastkin froze mid-lunge, muscles locking as if the ker's raised hand had carved a line into the world that he dared not cross. His snarl died on his lips, eyes still wide, breath stuck in his throat. It was not the gesture itself, but the force of hierarchy behind it.

Yu sucked in a shuddering breath he had not known he was holding. He found himself at the other end of the platform, farthest from Tirran, his back pressed into the ice-crusted stone of the guild wall.

Tirran had remained at the edge. He remained for a moment longer, as if weighting the ker's gesture. Then he stepped off the platform and onto the first stair. Then onto the next. And the next. With each step that he moved farther from the orb light and descended deeper into the storm's darkness, it was like the dark peeled something off him. He dissolved into it, and the guard, the semblance of reason and restraint, was stripped like discarded skin. The creature beneath straightened, and Tirran's shape changed as it rose. His shoulders rolled back and his head dropped forward, as though his very bones shifted beneath his skin. Tirran did not become frightening; he simply allowed the horror that already dwelled within to surface and suddenly, he was the most terrifying thing on the mountain, right in their midst.

"This is their guild," the ker said. "We respect the rules. We shall argue no more."

The beastkin's ears flicked up, then down, and his eyes shifted from Tirran to the ground. He exhaled a shivering breath, and the fight leaked out of him like steam. He retreated backwards with his shoulders slumped and his tail tucked low between his legs.

The ker did not take his eyes off Tirran, nor did he lower his hand, though it was no longer the krynn who needed stopping. "The mountain is watching," the ker murmured.

The thing that came out of Tirran halted before him. A crooked tilt to its head. A low whisper from its throat. "Is it?"

"May we pass through for the Barnstream Path?"

"You may not."

Though Yu could only see Tirran's back, he felt the words — a vibration under his skin, the pulsing terror that thrummed through prey just before the killing blow.

"Very well," the ker never turned away from Tirran, not even when speaking to the others. "We leave. Let's go."

The beastkin hurried to gather his pack and retreated. The witch backed away. Then the ker, still facing Tirran, took a slow step backward.

"No," it was the borman who refused.

The ker halted, turned, and stared at him, but the borman did not return his gaze. He stood like a slab of stone, eyes fixed straight ahead, at Tirran, at the guards, at the guild, and for a moment, at Yu.

"Kel-Khadar," the ker insisted.

"No." The borman did not budge. "I carry the injured."

Estingar stepped forward from the platform, a silent shadow to Tirran until he unfolded his massive wings. Not fully, but enough to make his silhouette surge threefold, his presence engulfing the space around him. The shadow-draped membrane seemed impervious to the wind. Snowflakes curved away from his wings like they dared not touch him. Imbiad followed them down with his hands still raised. He did not have Tirran's sheer menace or Estingar's wraithlike appearance, but his presence was saturated with threat, power brimming at his fingertips.

And that left Yu, suddenly the only one on the platform. Alone.

No way. He could not move. He would not. He would most definitely remain exactly where he was. He understood that this was a show of a united front, one of these one for all and all for one moments, but HECK NO. Absolutely not. Even as the guy just trailing along, he had no place amongst these three. Not because he did not want to stand up for the guild, or for what was right, in general. Not even because he would be utterly useless in any sort of confrontation, but because standing with them meant literally standing next to Tirran and the other two. And they scared the living shit out of him, never mind they were on his side.

"Kel-Khadar," the ker repeated, and this time, the ice that had covered his stern voice cracked under the pressure, leaking urgency. Yu for the first time realised just how much smaller than the borman he was. Smaller than Tirran, also. He acted like the leader, but he could not be an adult.

"No." The borman's breathing was loud, each breath rumbling in his chest. He did not say anything else, nor did he move. He stood and stared down Tirran, Estingar and Imbiad, who blocked the path.

A clear voice broke through. "This is not right," the witch spoke. "Let them stay, and I will —"

Imbiad's presence exploded.

The force hit like a shockwave. Yu's body slammed back, but his spine was already pressed to the guild wall, leaving nowhere to go. The impact stole his breath.

Ice erupted from the ground in a sudden, violent burst, right within the circle of travellers. Jagged spears lanced upward, aiming to impale the witch from behind and below. The moment they touched her —

There was another pulse, a burst if discord, and the ice shattered.

Not with a simple break, not like ice cracking under pressure. No, the spears exploded into a storm of crystalline fragments, like thousands of mirrors bursting into millions of shards. They scattered in shimmering arcs, engulfing the air with prisms of moonlight. The sound was deafening, a high-pitched, splintering wail, as if the sky itself had fractured.

Imbiad staggered backward, hands clawing at the air as if trying to summon the ice back, but it was beyond him. Just a moments before, the wizard's control had been overwhelming, the next, it was ripped away from him.

Yu stared at the tempest of shards. He could not process it. He stood rooted to the spot, battered and frozen, inside and out. He had seen, heard, and felt it all, but only in the barest physical sense of being there. His senses could not grasp more than a fraction of what was thrown at him, and his mind could handle even less. Everything blurred into a chaotic mass of sound and motion — distorted sensations and fractured impressions reduced to mere flickers of realisation:

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----------------Estingar drove his staff into the ground, --------------------shouting Imbiad's name and more.

The white bird on the witch's arm screamed,---- a layered, discordant cry,-------------- as though a whole flock shrieked from a single beak.----

Tirran and the beastkin clashed, and the ker intervened.

The beastkin was on the stone,----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- sprawled several steps down.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The ker was in front of the witch,

Stolen story; please report. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------amidst the splintering ice fragments, -------------------------------------------------------------------------------v----------------------------------shielding her from the guards.

The witch's cage-lantern,------ its metal door hung open.-------- Something was inside--------- – not light, not fire –----------------------- something alive, shifting,-------- like liquid shadow,-- spilling through the gap.---------------

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---Then

---- STILLNESS

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The chaos stopped as suddenly as it had begun. Whatever force had been unleashed, it collapsed into silence within a single heartbeat. One moment, the world was suffocated with magic and panic; the next, nothing remained but the echo of the witch's bird and the faint crackle of ice settling.

And then —

A new presence claimed the space.

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