CHAPTER 67: ESCORT AND DISAPPEARANCE

The forest was quiet except for the crunch of boots on dead leaves and the occasional rustle of branches overhead.

The heavy air of exhaustion hung over the four of them, no one eager to speak after the chaos inside the monolith.

Every step seemed to remind them of how close they’d come to not making it out at all. Just like Cal and Bronn.

Everyone was wondering how Cal and Bronn’s absence would be taking, but they’d already come to an unspoken agreement not to ever speak of it. Ever again.

It was Leo who finally broke the silence.

"We should hand the resources we harvested to me." He said, his voice still hoarse from blood loss. "I’ll sell them, and we’ll split the profits evenly. Four ways. We all went through hell together, after all."

Galahad’s eyes narrowed immediately. "Evenly? Or evenly after you pay off your gambling debt and forget to give us our cut?"

Leo scowled but didn’t slow his pace. "You think I’d risk screwing you over with him around?" He jerked his chin toward Noah.

"Besides, none of you have the right connections to flip the goods. If students get caught selling resources from a monolith, the questions won’t stop coming. I can move it through the black market without drawing suspicion. You can’t."

"That doesn’t mean you won’t skim off the top." Galahad shot back, his voice filled with skepticism.

"I just told you, Noah here’s enough of a deterrent."

That was when Noah spoke up for the first time since they’d left the monolith. His tone was calm, but the seriousness behind his words made them all glance at him.

"Funny," he said, "because I’m pretty sure I did most of the work. If it wasn’t for me, we wouldn’t even have half these resources. Hell, maybe we’d all still be in there, spider food. So why shouldn’t I get everything?"

Silence followed. The sound of boots against dirt was suddenly loud again.

No one wanted to outright disagree with him, not after what they’d seen him do inside.

Noah let the silence settle for a moment before continuing. "Here’s my offer. Instead of splitting it evenly with twenty-five percent each as Leo suggested, I want forty percent."

"The remaining sixty, you three can figure out among yourselves. That way, I still get the bulk share for doing the heavy lifting, and you still get something decent."

Galahad crossed his arms, clearly still unhappy. "That doesn’t solve the problem of Leo running off with it all."

"Then go with him." Noah said simply.

Leo groaned but didn’t argue. "Fine. He can tag along. You’ll just slow me down." he muttered to Galahad.

With the arrangement settled, they stopped briefly to pass over the heavy bags of harvested goods. Leo took two, Galahad the third, both of them grimacing under the weight. Noah kept nothing but his coin pouch.

"Alright," Leo said, "we’ll take this to my contacts in the capital. And you," he glanced at Noah and the limp figure of Arlo slung over his shoulder, "do whatever you need to get Arlo back to the academy."

Noah adjusted Arlo’s weight with a grunt. "Yeah. I’ll manage."

They stood there for a moment at the fork in the trail, the forest canopy breaking just enough to let sunlight spill over them.

Then, without further words, they split, Leo and Galahad heading toward the distant sprawl of the capital, Noah turning toward the academy with the unconscious Arlo in tow.

[][][][][]

The crowd spilled out of the colosseum gates in a noisy wave, voices buzzing with excitement as people replayed their favorite moments of the match.

Juniper walked among them with her friends, her face bright as she animatedly argued about which fighter had shown the most skill.

"I’m telling you, that last move was pure genius!" One of her friends laughed.

"Genius?!" Juniper raised both brows incredulously. "Only a blind person would call that genius. We all know that was a lucky move. If he hadn’t done that, he wouldn’t even have won at all."

"Lucky?" Her friend laughed. "I think you’re the blind one, June. That was a calculated move in that exact moment. Luck had nothing to do with it."

Juniper was about to respond when something, or rather, someone, caught her eye in the shifting crowd ahead.

A familiar gait. Broad shoulders. The tilt of the head.

Her heart skipped. ’Noah? Didn’t he say he had something to do with Arlo?’

Without a second thought, she touched her friend’s arm. "I’ll catch up, I think I just saw my boyfriend."

Before they could reply, she slipped away, weaving through the stream of people.

The man ahead moved quickly, cutting through the throng with purpose, never looking back. Juniper quickened her pace, keeping him in sight as the flow of the crowd thinned.

He turned into a side alley.

She followed without hesitation. The moment she stepped inside, the noise of the capital faded away, replaced by a heavy, echoing quiet.

The alley was dim, flanked by tall, shadowed walls. At a glance, it was empty.

Juniper frowned. "Hello?"

There was no answer.

She moved further in, scanning every corner, every shadow. There were no barrels, crates, or alcoves where someone could hide. Just damp cobblestones and the faint drip of water from somewhere above.

Something about the silence unnerved her, urging her to turn back. She frowned, before deciding to listen to her instincts.

Just as she turned around, a dark shape dropped silently into her path from directly overhead.

She had no time to react. A sharp blow to the side of her head sent the world tilting and spinning. Her knees buckled.

The cloaked figure caught her before she hit the ground. With casual ease, he hoisted her over one shoulder, the folds of his black cloak swallowing her in darkness.

The figure raised a gloved hand, forming a spell formation. Space shimmered before him as he activated the spell, warping into a swirling oval of darkness.

Without a word, he stepped through the portal, and both he and Juniper vanished from the alley.