They ran down the stairs.

Not with dignity.

Dignity had been left somewhere between the torture chamber, the murder nun, and the haunted sweet-glass ceiling goblin.

Ray was still blinking too hard from the Sparkshot injector, one hand pressed to her temple as if she personally intended to strangle her own concussion. Plum kept one hand on the note from Maven like it might start whispering if she stopped paying attention to it. Pitch moved at Diana’s side, Lady Luck ready, eyes flicking constantly to Crystal’s collar.

Mezzo was running backwards every few steps.

“Are we being followed?”

“Yes,” Arcade snapped.

“By what?”

“Pick something! The building has options!”

Behind them, the upper corridor flashed gold as paladins rounded the landing.

“There!” one shouted. “Stop them!”

Ray groaned.

“Not today.”

They hit the lower stairwell and nearly crashed into another squad coming up from below.

For half a second, everyone stopped.

Paladins above.

Paladins below.

War bells shaking dust from the ceiling.

The Gwennan visible through the arched courtyard doors beyond the lower hall, engine lights burning like salvation with tyres.

Silver exhaled through his teeth.

“Well. This is inconvenient.”

Arcade looked at him.

“You think?”

The paladins below raised their shields.

The paladins above raised their weapons.

Ray lifted Heartbreaker.

“Through them.”

Then the wall exploded.

Not inward.

Sideways.

A blast of confetti, smoke, sparks, and shattered saint masonry punched through the lower hall with enough force to send three paladins tumbling into a rack of ceremonial banners.

A tiny figure stood in the breach, rocket launcher balanced on one shoulder.

Topsy grinned through the smoke.

“Miss me?”

Mezzo pointed at her.

“Yes! Horribly! Also what the hell!”

Topsy adjusted the massive launcher with both hands.

“Party Crasher says hello!”

She fired again.

The rocket screamed over Ray’s shoulder, trailing pink smoke and glittering sparks. It struck the floor between the lower paladins and burst into a concussive bloom of fireworks. Shields flew. Helmets rang. Someone shouted something extremely unholy for a holy warrior.

Topsy blinked.

“Language.”

Ray did not waste the opening.

“Move!”

They charged.

Pitch shadow-stepped through the smoke and knocked one paladin down with Lady Luck’s stock. Plum fired Dotty twice, dropping another two before they could recover. Silver caught a spear on his blade and turned it neatly aside, then shoved the wielder straight into Mezzo’s path.

Mezzo clotheslined him without slowing.

“Sorry. Emergency.”

Arcade, still half-chupacabra and furious about everything, bounded over a fallen shield and slammed both feet into a paladin’s chest, sending him skidding across the polished floor.

C.H.I.P. zipped after him.

“Good form. Dreadful emotional regulation.”

“Shut up.”

“Also good form.”

They burst into the courtyard.

Chaos had taken the cathedral steps completely.

Umbranox and her Council knights were retreating in tight formation, shields locked as loyal paladins fell back with them. Diana’s order had split the Church line badly. Paladins in white-and-gold armour were now fighting paladins in white-and-gold armour, which made the whole courtyard look like a very expensive argument had learned to stab.

Umbranox stood at the centre of the retreat, one hand pressed near her ribs, face pale but eyes sharp.

The moment she saw them, her gaze went to Silver.

Then to Ray.

Then to the Gwennan.

“Inside,” she ordered.

Tamsin’s war bells continued to thunder behind them.

Topsy planted herself between the retreating Council line and the cathedral doors.

Her rocket launcher clicked open.

“Right then,” she said brightly. “Who wants to be a cautionary tale?”

A squad of Church-loyal paladins surged down the steps.

Topsy fired.

The blast hit the stairs in front of them, erupting into a fountain of fireworks shaped like laughing jackalopes. The paladins went down in a heap of smoke, glitter, and offended doctrine.

Umbranox glanced at Topsy.

Topsy saluted.

“Council support squirrel, reporting for crimes.”

“Accepted,” Umbranox said.

Mezzo shoved the Gwennan’s side door open.

“Everyone in! Quickly! Before the cathedral grows teeth!”

“It already did,” Plum said, climbing inside.

“Bigger teeth!”

Diana climbed in with Crystal first, lowering her onto a bench with careful, shaking arms. Pitch followed, immediately checking the collar again. Plum scrambled after him. Arcade vaulted in on all fours, then seemed to realise what he was doing and awkwardly tried to sit like a normal person.

C.H.I.P. hovered beside him.

“Convincing.”

“I will bite you.”

“Less convincing.”

Ray climbed in last, one hand gripping the doorframe as another wave of dizziness hit her.

Mezzo caught her elbow.

“You all right?”

Ray glared.

“I was unconscious for three minutes and woke up to a holy civil war.”

“So… no?”

“Drive.”

Hughes was already at the front, one hand braced against the seat, blood still dark down his sleeve.

Silver jumped in behind him, breathing hard.

“Where’s Celeste?”

Mezzo pointed toward the back bench.

“Still breathing. Still hot. Not in the fun way. Core way.”

Silver’s face tightened, but he did not go to her.

Not yet.

Maybe he did not trust himself to.

Maybe nobody would have let him.

The Gwennan lurched as the driver slammed the controls forward.

Outside, Umbranox’s Council knights broke away toward their own vehicles, loyal paladins shielding their retreat. Topsy stood on the Gwennan’s rear step for one wild second, rocket launcher over her shoulder, firing into the cathedral entrance until the entire doorway vanished behind smoke and shrieking fireworks.

Then she hopped inside.

“Go go go go go!”

The Gwennan shot forward.

The courtyard blurred.

Paladins scattered.

One leapt onto the side rail.

Silver moved.

His blade flashed, cutting the paladin’s weapon strap cleanly. Topsy kicked the man’s hand with both feet, and he dropped away with a startled yelp into a hedge.

“Ten points,” she said.

“For what?” Silver snapped.

“For hedge impact.”

The Gwennan tore through the outer gate and onto the street beyond.

For one glorious breath, it looked like they had made it.

Then jet engines screamed above them.

Three paladins dropped from the cathedral roof, jet packs blazing beneath their armour, white-gold capes snapping behind them like angry banners.

Arcade looked out the rear window.

“Oh, come on.”

The first jet-pack paladin raised a rifle.

Topsy grinned.

“Mine.”

She kicked open the rear hatch, braced one foot against the frame, and fired Party Crasher straight upward.

The rocket burst into a cluster of smaller fireworks mid-air, each one corkscrewing toward a different target. The first paladin rolled away, but one firework clipped his jet pack and sent him spinning sideways into a bell tower buttress.

The bell gave one miserable clang.

Topsy winced.

“Sorry.”

Silver leaned out beside her, one hand gripping the roof rail, coat whipping around him.

“Try not to apologise to people shooting at us.”

“How rude do you want me to be?”

“Traditionally, I prefer lethal.”

The second paladin swooped low.

Silver’s eyes flashed.

For one moment, dragon heat crawled beneath his skin.

He drew a breath and released a narrow stream of silver flame across the paladin’s path.

The paladin swerved hard, jet pack coughing smoke, and clipped the roof of a passing carriage before crashing into a fountain.

Topsy stared.

“You can do that?”

Silver looked offended.

“I am half dragon.”

“Yeah, but you mostly use sarcasm.”

“It has better range.”

The third paladin fired.

The shot struck the Gwennan’s rear plating, sending sparks across the cabin.

Crystal flinched violently.

Diana wrapped herself around her daughter.

Ray dragged herself upright despite Mezzo’s protest, shoved the rear hatch wider, and hurled Heartbreaker.

The hammer spun through the air like a burning comet.

It struck the paladin square in the chest.

He dropped out of the sky and hit a market awning hard enough to vanish into striped canvas.

Heartbreaker snapped back into Ray’s hand.

She sat down immediately afterward, breathing through her teeth.

Mezzo pointed at her.

“You are not allowed to pretend that didn’t hurt.”

Ray closed her eyes.

“Watch me.”

The Gwennan sped out of the cathedral district.

Behind them, bells kept ringing.

Smoke rose over the Church in gold and black columns. Council vehicles scattered through side streets, loyal paladins escorting them away from the widening conflict. Somewhere behind the rooftops, the line between Church and Council had not just cracked.

It had broken.

Nobody spoke for several minutes.

The Gwennan drove hard through Clawdiff, then harder still as the streets thinned and the outer districts gave way to old stone roads. The dome shimmered distantly above the city, stained with sunset and smoke.

Finally, trees swallowed the road.

The forest around Clawdiff closed in on both sides, dark and wet and ancient, branches scraping faintly along the van’s armour.

Only then did Silver speak.

“Why are we not going back to base?”

Hughes, seated near the front with a cloth pressed to his shoulder, did not turn around.

“Because they’ll attack Hiraeth.”

The van went quiet again.

Silver looked toward the dark between the trees.

The Egg Tree base.

Their home.

Bonbon’s toys scattered somewhere in the common room.

Celeste’s notes.

Arcade’s workbenches.

Ray’s maps.

Topsy’s snack hoard.

All the fragile, ridiculous proof that the Knights had somehow become a family in the middle of an apocalypse.

Silver swallowed.

For once, there was no argument ready on his tongue.

“No,” he said quietly. “We do not want that.”

Hughes nodded once.

Plum climbed over next to Pitch, one hand still gripping Dotty, the other already dragging her slate from her satchel.

Her face had gone very still.

Too still.

“What are you doing?” Ray asked.

Plum didn’t look up.

“Showing people.”

Arcade’s head snapped toward her.

“Plum—”

“No.” Her fingers flew over the screen. “They don’t get to bury this. Not after that. Not after the paladins turning on Council forces in the cathedral courtyard. Not after Tamsin declared a holy march like he was ordering lunch.”

The slate flickered.

Footage loaded in jagged bursts.

The cathedral steps.

Umbranox pinned in gold-white mana.

Tamsin declaring the Church no longer aligned to Council command.

Paladins hesitating.

Diana’s order.

Weapons raised.

The first shot.

Plum hit send.

The file vanished into the broken Extranet.

For three seconds, nothing happened.

Then her slate exploded with responses.

Comments flooded in so quickly the screen became a blur.

Is this real?

That’s Lady Arcturus.

The Church fired on the Council?

Where are the Knights?

My brother’s stationed near the cathedral—

They’re saying it’s fake.

The bells are ringing near us too.

Plum, are you safe?

What is the Luminarch March?

Then the comment stream fractured.

Messages duplicated.

Names vanished.

The footage froze halfway through Tamsin raising his hand.

The slate filled with static.

Plum slapped the side of it.

“No. No, no, no.”

Arcade leaned over, eyes narrowing.

“Did the Council cut it?”

C.H.I.P. bobbed sharply beside him, lights flickering as it scanned.

“Negative. No civic shutdown issue was transmitted.”

Ray looked up.

“What does that mean?”

“It means this is not the Council pulling the Extranet relay.” C.H.I.P.’s voice flattened. “Signal pattern is wrong. This is localised interference.”

Arcade’s face went grim.

“The Church is jamming us.”

Plum stared at the dead stream.

“They saw it.”

“Some of them,” Arcade said.

“That enough?”

Nobody answered.

Diana looked toward the cathedral, visible for one brief moment through the rear window before smoke swallowed the street behind them.

Her face went cold.

“They’re going to march on the Council.”

The words hit harder than the bells.

Not a riot.

Not a dispute.

A march.

An organised holy advance through a city already half-eaten by the dead.

At the rear hatch, something slammed against the van.

Everyone jolted.

A candy zombie had caught the back rail, jaw snapping, one sugared arm hooked through the metal as the Gwennan tore down the street.

Hughes stood with a groan, grabbed the nearest length of pipe from the floor, and smashed it across the zombie’s face.

The zombie flew off the rail and bounced across the cobbles.

Hughes looked after it.

“Sorry.”

The van went quiet.

Then Topsy blinked.

“Did you just apologise to a zombie?”

Hughes sat back down heavily, wincing as his injured shoulder pulled.

“Habit.”

Mezzo stared at him.

“You are the strangest old man I know.”

“I’m not old.”

“You apologised to the apocalypse.”

“Politeness costs nothing.”

“It nearly cost that zombie its head.”

“Then it got a bargain.”

For one tiny second, despite everything, the tension cracked.

Not enough to make anything better.

Enough to let everyone breathe.

Then Celeste made a faint sound at the back of the Gwennan.

Silver turned.

His face tightened.

He crossed the van before anyone could stop him and crouched beside the bench where Celeste lay burning beneath the loose tunic.

“Celeste.”

She did not answer.

Her lashes fluttered.

Silver caught her shoulder.

“Wake up.”

Mezzo moved instantly.

“Silver—”

“What did you say to them?”

Celeste’s head lolled slightly under his grip.

Silver shook her once.

Not hard.

Hard enough.

“Wake up. Stars, wake up.”

Her face tightened in pain.

Mezzo grabbed Silver’s wrist.

“Stop.”

Silver shoved him off.

“What did you say?” His voice rose, anger breaking through the fear. “What did you say to make them do this?”

Celeste’s lips moved.

No words came.

Diana’s voice cut in, sharp enough to halt him.

“Silver. Be careful.”

He looked at her, breathing hard.

Diana’s expression was grave.

“That truth array went down her spine. If you move her too much, you may injure her.”

Silver froze.

His hand was still on Celeste’s shoulder.

For one awful second, he looked at what he was doing.

Actually looked.

Celeste lay half-conscious beneath his hand, fever-bright and trembling, with no idea what he was asking her to answer for.

Silver released her as if burned.

A low growl tore out of him.

Frustrated.

Helpless.

Furious at everyone and nowhere safe to put it.

He backed away and dropped into the nearest seat, claws digging into his own knees.

Mezzo pulled Celeste closer at once, shielding her without saying it.

Nobody spoke.

Outside, the cathedral bells kept ringing.

The Gwennan drove deeper into the woods.

Behind them, Clawdiff glowed through the trees like a city holding its breath.

Ahead, the road vanished beneath branches and mist.

No one asked where they were going.

For now, away was enough.