Part 1 — Huddled
Derpy was on his side in the leaf litter.
Not fallen.
Curled.
Hood half-slipped, shoulders drawn in tight like he could fold himself small enough to disappear.
Tears tracked down his face in slow lines that didn’t match his breathing.
Lenora dropped to her knees beside him.
She didn’t ask permission.
She wrapped him up and pulled him in against her chest like she was anchoring a boat in a storm.
Lewd crouched on the other side, grimoire held close, eyes hard and focused.
Vemi hovered a step back, ears pinned, hands flexing like she didn’t know what to do with them.
Vambasta stood over all of them, tail moving in a steady side-to-side that didn’t match the sharpness in her stare.
The contained wall still hummed around the clearing.
Outside it, the forest kept breathing.
Inside it, the air felt too thin.
Lenora rested her head against Derpy’s.
Her voice came out low.
“Tell us,” she said. “All of it.”
Lewd’s tone left no room for dodging.
“Everything you saw.”
Derpy’s throat worked.
He didn’t lift his head.
But he nodded.
Once.
“I will,” he said.
Part 2 — Comfort Offered, Refused
Vemi stepped closer, careful.
“Derpy,” she said. “Are you okay?”
Vambasta’s voice followed, rougher.
“Do you want comfort?”
Derpy’s hands tightened in the leaves.
“No,” he said.
The word came out with a scrape to it.
He forced himself upright enough to look at them.
His eyes were raw.
“I let my anger get the best of me,” he said. “I let something out that was never supposed to get out.”
He swallowed.
“I’m sorry.”
He said it again.
“I’m sorry.”
And again, like repetition could stitch the moment back together.
Lenora didn’t let go.
She pressed her forehead to the side of his head.
“I still care,” she said.
Her fingers curled into the fabric of his hoodie.
“And nobody was hurt seriously.”
Lewd’s gaze flicked over the ice residue, the bruises, the tremor in Derpy’s hands.
Her voice stayed steady.
“We’re still here.”
Part 3 — The Alpha’s Claim
Vambasta’s patience snapped.
She grabbed Derpy by the front of his hoodie and hauled him up like he weighed nothing.
Her voice hit the clearing like a thrown stone.
“You don’t do that again,” she barked. “You don’t vanish into your own head and leave your pack to guess whether you’re coming back.”
Derpy’s boots dangled for a beat.
Lenora rose with him, hands still on his arm.
Vambasta’s stare stayed sharp.
But her tail kept moving.
A steady, betraying rhythm.
Then she leaned in close enough that Derpy could feel the heat of her breath.
“You’re going to be mine one day,” she said.
Not a joke.
Not a threat.
A claim said like a prophecy.
Lenora’s ears went hot.
Her posture stiffened.
“No,” she said, voice clipped. “He’s not.”
Lewd stepped in, shoulder brushing Lenora’s.
“Not if I get him first,” she said.
The clearing shifted.
Not with laughter.
With that sharp, stupid relief people get when the blade edge moves away for half a second.
Vemi’s ears flicked.
Her gaze hardened.
The play stopped.
Part 4 — Vemi’s Request
“Derpy,” Vemi said.
One word.
Serious.
“I want to add myself to your book.”
Derpy went still.
Lenora’s grip tightened.
Lewd’s fingers flexed against her grimoire.
Vambasta’s tail slowed.
Derpy’s voice came out hoarse.
“Why?”
Vemi didn’t look away.
“Because I don’t want you to use that ability,” she said.
Derpy’s jaw clenched.
“I don’t want to use it either.”
“That’s why,” Vemi said. “If it’s going to exist, I’d rather you have me as an ally in there than you reaching for it wrong when you’re scared.”
Derpy’s throat worked.
His eyes dropped to the Graveglass.
To the place where Celica’s page had appeared before.
Lenora’s voice stayed close to his ear.
“We talk about it,” she said. “Together. No secrets.”
Lewd nodded once.
“Start with what you saw,” she said.
And somewhere beyond the contained wall—deeper in the Fenward forest—something cracked like distant thunder.
Vespera’s fight, already in motion.
Part 5 — What the Graveglass Showed
Derpy didn’t answer right away.
He stared at the Graveglass as if it might bite him back.
Then he took a breath that didn’t reach the bottom of his lungs.
“When I held it,” he said, “it wasn’t just a memory.”
His fingers trembled once, then steadied against Lenora’s sleeve.
“It was… a record. Like the world kept receipts.”
Lewd’s eyes narrowed.
“Receipts of what?”
Derpy swallowed.
“Riven.”
The name landed heavy.
He kept going before anyone could interrupt.
“I saw her from the inside out. Not her thoughts—” he corrected, quick, “not like mind-reading. Like… the shape she was made into. The parts that were stamped.”
Lenora’s hand tightened on his arm.
Derpy’s voice dropped.
“There was a stamp.”
He shut his eyes.
Words came out like he was dragging them through thorns.
“ELVEN WAR OFFICE — ARCANE MUNITIONS COMMAND. DOLL-SOLDIER PROGRAM: STITCHBORNE DIVISION. SPECIMEN: RVN / SERIES: VII / SERIAL: 3-19-0E44.”
A cold silence spread through the clearing.
Derpy opened his eyes again.
“Like inventory,” he said.
His gaze flicked to the trees beyond the wall.
“To them, she wasn’t a person. She was a weapon that could be filed.”
Part 6 — What Answered Back
Derpy’s hands curled into fists.
His voice changed—not louder, but tighter.
“And then… something in me answered it.”
Lewd leaned in.
Lenora didn’t move, but her grip turned iron.
Vemi’s eyes stayed locked on him.
Derpy’s jaw worked.
“It wasn’t Celica,” he said. “It wasn’t the book talking like it usually does.”
He looked down at his own wrists, like he could still see the black crawling there.
“It was me.”
He corrected himself.
“It wore my voice.”
A beat.
“It wanted a target.”
Lenora’s breath caught.
Derpy pushed through it.
“It kept saying things like they were obvious. Like hurting people was the simplest solution.”
He swallowed.
“It wanted me to stop caring.”
His eyes lifted to Lenora.
“To you. To Lewd. To… all of you.”
His throat tightened.
“And it kept circling back to the same place.”
Lewd’s voice came out low.
“The Elven Kingdom.”
Derpy nodded.
“It said they threw her away,” he whispered. “Like disposable income. Like she was nothing.”
His shoulders shook once.
“And part of me—part of me agreed so hard it scared me.”
Lenora pressed her forehead to his again.
“We’re here,” she said.
Lewd’s voice cut in, blunt.
“Did it tell you what it is?”
Derpy’s eyes went distant.
“No,” he said. “But it felt like… permission.”
He swallowed.
“Like it’s been waiting for me to be angry enough.”
Beyond the wall, that distant cracking sound rolled again—wood splitting, metal ringing, something bright and violent moving through the trees.
Vespera’s fight.
Already costing time