AN: Since we finished Aloy's mini Arc I figured let's change perspectives back to Adal for a Lil bit so slight recap then Chapter continues

  Chapter 23

  The blue glow of the Focus painted Adal's face in hues of ghostly cobalt. In the quiet of the hideout, his breath came slow and measured. Then, with a soft hum, the figure of Sylens emerged, his projection flickering into being.

  "You don't call unless you need something," Sylens said, arms folded, expression unimpressed.

  Adal leaned against the stone wall, arms crossed. "Still as sharp as ever."

  "Don't ftter me. Get to the point."

  He wasted no time. "I need to know—do you have contacts in Meridian?"

  Sylens arched a brow. "Minor nobles. A few merchants. Nothing close to the Sun-King. Why?"

  Adal hesitated. "Ersa's missing. Captured. Maybe worse."

  "And that concerns you because...?"

  "Because she's valuable. If I save her, I gain leverage. If I don't, I lose it."

  Sylens’s eyes gleamed with something between amusement and disdain. "So, are you saving the Captain of the Vanguard... or are you saving Ersa?"

  Adal's jaw tightened. "What's the difference " , he asked.

  Sylens smirked. "You know the difference."

  Adal cut the transmission, the room falling back into dim silence.

  ---

  Meridian.

  Golden spires kissed the heavens, the marketpce a sea of color and chatter. Adal moved like a shadow, his cloak drawn tight, hood low. The city's brilliance cshed with the unease knotting his chest.

  He drifted through crowded alleys and sunlit pzas, overhearing fragments of conversation that painted a grim picture.

  "Did you hear? They found her body... Sunfall."

  "Captain Ersa? Dead?"

  "Erend’s been drinking himself into a grave since. Poor idiot."

  He ducked into a forge-side tavern, the air thick with smoke and sweat. In a dim corner, he spotted a hunched figure—familiar armor, dulled eyes. Erend.

  Adal approached slowly. "Didn't expect the Captain’s brother to look so... defeated."

  Erend didn’t look up. "What the hell do you want?"

  "To make sure you aren’t drinking yourself useless before your sister’s truly gone."

  That made Erend flinch. He turned, eyes bloodshot. "They found her, alright? What’s left of her."

  Adal pulled out a datapad, flicking a holographic scan above it. "But is it really her?"

  Silence. Erend stared, then stood up abruptly. "You better come with me."

  ---

  The morgue was cold. Stone walls. Flickering torches. A sb in the center held a shape beneath thick cloth.

  Guards nodded as Erend approached, but shot Adal wary gnces.

  Erend hesitated before pulling the cloth down. The face—bruised, misshapen, yet hauntingly familiar—made his hands tremble.

  Adal stepped forward. His voice was soft but firm. "Did she have a birthmark? Anywhere specific?"

  Erend blinked. "Yeah. Left side. Just below the ribs. Why?"

  Adal said nothing. He lifted the cloth further. Scanned. Then stepped aside.

  Erend moved closer, staring at bare skin where the birthmark should be. Nothing.

  His breath caught. "No... this... this isn’t her."

  Adal’s eyes narrowed. "They faked it. Why? To dey us? To cover their trail?"

  Erend stumbled back, anger and shock mingling. "She’s still out there."

  Adal activated his Focus, scanning the body again, piecing together lies.

  Outside, the sun dipped behind Meridian’s towers, casting long shadows over a city filled with masks.

  The hunt for Ersa had just begun.

  The stone hall outside the morgue was cold and dimly lit, torches flickering against sandstone walls. Adal leaned against one of the pilrs, arms folded, his Focus dim and inactive for the moment. Erend stood nearby, pacing slightly, a wineskin clutched in one hand though unopened. His face was drawn and his armor scratched from neglect.

  Adal broke the silence. “When was the st time you saw her?”

  Erend looked up, blinking as if pulled from a memory. “The night before she disappeared. We had dinner with the guards—ughs, stories, the usual. She seemed... light. Happier than she’d been in weeks. We talked about going home. To Mainspring.”

  Adal nodded slowly. “And then?”

  “She left, said she was heading back to her quarters. I figured I’d see her in the morning. Woke up and she was just... gone.”

  Adal gnced at the door to the morgue, the heaviness of what waited inside pressing against his chest. “Where was the body found?”

  “Southeast of town,” Erend said. “Near the old mining quarry. Dumped in a ravine.”

  Adal straightened. “Take me there.”

  Erend squinted. “Why? You think there's something we missed?”

  “I see what others can’t,” Adal replied. “Think of it as... a second vision.”

  ---

  The Trail of Deception

  The city gates creaked open as the two passed through, guards nodding to Erend in somber silence. They rode in silence, dust trailing behind them as Meridian faded behind a curtain of sun and wind. The mining quarry loomed ahead—rusted machines half-buried in earth, broken stone carts scattered across the slope.

  They reached the ravine where the body had been found. The ground was hard, but Adal knelt, activating his Focus.

  Lines of blue light pulsed outward, scanning the earth.

  Erend fidgeted. “Well?”

  Adal rose slowly. “There’s no sign of blood. No drag marks. Which means the body was already dead when it was dumped here.”

  He pointed to faint ruts in the dirt. “Cart tracks. Heavy ones. From the size of the indentations, they were carrying a lot of weight—and not just a body. Tools, maybe. Weapons.”

  He followed the tracks, Erend trailing behind. They moved through a grove of old ironwood trees and up a sloping ridge. The cart tracks ended in a wide, ft pteau.

  Erend crouched low, squinting. “Those aren’t Eclipse... Those are Oseram. Dervahl’s men.”

  Adal's hand was already on his spear. “Then we’re in the right pce.”

  The ambush was quick. Three Oseram thugs stepped from behind broken crates—too slow.

  Adal dropped the first with a ssh across the thigh, then an elbow to the temple. Erend crushed the second with the blunt end of his hammer. The st one tried to flee, but a thrown dagger found the back of his knee, and Erend finished him with a grunt.

  “Your turn,” Erend said, brushing blood off his gauntlet. “Second sight and all.”

  Adal activated his Focus again, moving through the camp. He noted a used power cell ,broken wheels, discarded chains, and a journal stained with oil.

  “They camped here. Used it to stage a handoff,” he said. “But there’s no firepit. No food remains. Temporary. Quick.”

  He stopped near the edge. “Look—deep boot prints. Heavier than the others. Someone important was here. Oversaw the operation.”

  Erend's jaw tightened. “Dervahl.”

  Adal stood. “Where’s his base? His main operation pce ?”

  “Old Oseram forge site northeast of here. Deep canyon, hard to find unless you know the route.”

  Adal’s expression hardened. “Then he’s preparing something big. As acting captain of the Vanguard, warn the Sun-King. Get the defenses up. Dervahl’s built a weapon—something that uses sound to destroy. I’ve seen it before.”

  Erend nodded, already turning back toward Meridian. “Don’t die out there.”

  “I’ll try,” Adal muttered, then tapped his Focus.

  Ana’s image appeared mid-stride. She looked winded, her bow slung over her shoulder.

  “Leaving Meridian,” Adal said quickly. “There’s a forge site northeast of here. Dervahl’s base. If anything happens in the city, any hint of trouble, you contact me immediately.”

  “Understood,” Ana said. “And Adal?”

  He paused.

  “Be careful.”

  He ended the transmission with a flick of his finger and took off toward the canyon, the sun glinting off his armor as the storm brewed on the horizon.