Chapter 124: Grief's Heavy Crown
The carriage rolled into Brindles Cross as afternoon light faded into gray heavy twilight.
The town still bore faint scars of recent fear, shuttered shops, wary stares, thin empty crowds lingering in quiet streets.
Hannah headed straight for Valerius manor, the only safe haven left within the town borders.
The moment she stepped through the heavy front gates, thick suffocating sorrow crashed over her in unrelenting waves.
Mike lay rested in a guest chamber, his shoulder wounds bandaged, face lined with grief and lingering shock.
He told her the truth in quiet shaking words, stripped of all softening lies.
"Bart is gone in every way that matters," Mike said, voice cracking.
"The demon lord took his body during the altar fall. The head cultist fled with him into shadow. We could not stop it."
Valerius clung to life, saved only by constant paladin healing, yet he had lost one arm to spreading corruption, the wound sealed but irreversible.
