21. Tessa

Tessa wakes to Theon’s cold resolve: they are leaving for Rockmoor for her reassessment. Theon, Luka, and Axel are distant, and Tessa braces for the aptitude tests she has tried to avoid. At the sterile facility, Priestess Zefira prepares an advanced assessment, forbidding Theon’s presence during testing; he reluctantly agrees to observe from a deck.

In the prep room, a Fae medic, Rhett, confirms Tessa will face a Level Five room. After Theon authorizes the procedure, Zefira administers a gold elixir to make Tessa compliant. Rhett carries and straps Tessa into the chair, where gas induces agony and separation from Theon intensifies her distress.

The test shifts into a vivid scenario: Tessa finds herself in the Dreamlock Woods confronted by Dagian Jove. He mocks her, claims to have targeted her Celeste friends, and tortures her with golden power to force a revelation about the garden incident. The bond pain magnifies everything, and Tessa denies knowledge, nearing collapse.

As Dagian prepares to strike again, thunder rolls and a barefoot, ash-wreathed huntress manifests, warning him away. Tessa snaps back to the lab. Zefira, shocked by the apparition, demands to know how Tessa summoned it. When Tessa insists she did nothing, Zefira orders a harsher injection, now a black serum, and the pain becomes overwhelming.

Bleeding and restrained, Tessa screams as Zefira escalates the procedure, intent on forcing results. Theon watches from beyond the glass, barred from intervening. The chapter ends with Tessa losing consciousness, her inexplicable manifestation deepening the mystery of her latent power.