[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/ki245Tk.png[/img][/center]

[color=lightgray]
Mentions/Interactions: Ezekiel [@helo]

The cargo hold was dim, colder than the decks above. Lanterns flickered in their fixtures, casting long shadows over crates and coiled chains. It was quiet. Too quiet. The only sound was the soft echo of Ezekiel’s boots on metal flooring.

Toward the aft corner, just as she said, two shapes lay curled beneath a blanket. Still. Silent.

One of them shifted ever so slightly.

He moved toward them, each step steady, guided by purpose.

Halfway there, he spoke. 

[color=FEE300]“I lost my family in The Mourning. I do not wish to see another lose theirs.“[/color]

She tilted her head slightly at his words, and for a moment, her expression softened. 

[color=firebrick]“Then you understand.”[/color]

There was a pause just long enough to feel like it mattered.

[color=firebrick]“That kind of loss stays in the bones. It never leaves you. It just waits for someone else to carry it.”[/color]

Her voice never wavered. But something in her eyes flickered, like a match held a second too long.

[color=firebrick]“You know…”[/color]

She said, still standing in the entrance behind him, her figure framed in the warm light of the fading portal. Her voice was softer now, touched by something that might have been regret.

[color=firebrick]“I’m about to admit something to you that’s never happened to me before. Not once, in all my years of doing this, have I ever felt bad for being good at my job.”[/color]

She stepped into the hold. The golden light from the portal dimmed behind her.

[color=firebrick]“Not until today. Not until [i]you.[/i]”[/color]

She walked past him, slow and composed, toward the blanket. She knelt beside it and placed her hand on the edge of the fabric.

[color=firebrick]“I’m sorry.”[/color]

And she pulled it back.

Two passengers lay beneath it, bruised and bloodied, chained at the wrists and ankles. They were alive, breathing shallowly. Between them sat a rounded arcane device, hovering an inch off the floor. It pulsed slowly beneath a translucent field of energy, covered in shifting runes that flickered with unstable power.

Dark tendrils of magic stretched from the bomb, connecting to the metal chains wrapped around them. The implication was immediate. Obvious.

Any movement. Any attempt to break the chains. And it would go off.

Liana looked at him, and for the first time, her mask was gone. Not shattered. Just… set aside.

[color=firebrick]“You can probably save one of them. If you’re lucky.”[/color]

Her eyes met his, steady and unflinching.

[color=firebrick]“But try to free them both, and all three of you die.”[/color]

She took a single step back, letting the briefest pause hang between them…one that showed a hint of regret. 

[color=firebrick]“I’m sorry it had to be a good man. You truly are a dying breed. But this is about something more important than good or evil. Goodbye, Ezekiel.”[/color]

Black smoke bloomed at her feet. Her body dissolved into shadow and vanished in a silent burst of arcane vapor.

The portal collapsed behind them with a dull thud, sealing the hold in silence once more.

And Ezekiel was left standing between the weight of two lives… [color=gold][b]and one impossible choice.[/b][/color][/color]