Chapter Thirty-Four

Lore, Bastian, and Gabe move the statue in the stone garden and reveal a hidden well entrance into the catacombs. Gabe realizes they may need keys for any sealed chambers below, but Lore insists she can get in, guided by her uncanny certainty that nothing beneath the earth will stay closed to her. Bastian covers for Lore by claiming her poison-runner past taught her to pick locks.

Bastian proposes that Bastian and Lore descend while Gabe keeps watch, and Gabe objects to leaving Lore alone with Bastian. Lore sides with Bastian because Gabe’s presence in the garden is less suspicious. When Gabe warns that Lore would be safer alone than with Bastian, Lore confronts Gabe for leaving after their near-intimate moment the night before.

Before Lore descends, Gabe admits he did not want to leave or stop, but says being with Lore felt dangerous, like a mistake he had made before and knew would end badly. Lore hears only the word “mistake” and pulls away hurt, entering the well after Bastian. The descent leads into the familiar catacomb tunnels, where Lore senses abundant Mortem and notices that Bastian no longer dulls her power; instead, his presence sharpens it.

At the bottom, Bastian calms Lore through a surge of panic and makes torches for them both. Lore uses her internal map of the catacombs to locate the concentrated Mortem of the hidden bodies they are seeking, while also sensing deeper white lights and another Mortem knot connected to the Night Sisters and Nyxara’s corpse near the obsidian tomb. Lore chooses the path toward the bodies.

As Lore and Bastian pass old bones, Bastian asks why Lore has not told Gabe about growing up in the catacombs and presses her about trusting him. Bastian admits he feels compelled to know Lore and feels as if their connection has happened before, echoing Gabe’s earlier language about repeated mistakes. Lore recognizes the same inexplicable bond among Lore, Bastian, and Gabe, and when Bastian asks whether Bastian is alone in feeling it, Lore admits she feels it too.