108. You Don’t Have the Strength

Jason visits Emir Bahadir’s floating cloud palace to hide Sophie and Belinda from Elspeth Arella and Lucian Lamprey. Jason frames it as responsibility for capturing Sophie, even if it costs him status, and considers leaving Greenstone with Rufus later. He proposes making Sophie an adventurer, starting with low‑rarity essences, while Emir hints at an imminent, lucrative exploration tied to his wider search.

Constance announces Arella’s arrival. Arella ignores the sanctuary issue to report that the expedition has begun suffering deaths, with only tracking stones returning. She requests Emir’s help, and he orders his field team prepared. Jason, deemed too weak to join the rescue, instead proposes setting up an external recovery station using an alchemist’s supplies and Healer connections; Arella grants authority and sends Vincent to coordinate.

Elsewhere, Sophie and Belinda rest uneasily in an opulent guest suite, questioning Jason’s motives even as they accept his protection.

At the expedition camp, robed living enemies lead an assault of wildly varied constructs, from wooden puppets and massive stone golems to a distant, towering steel arachnid. Danielle Geller abandons centralised command, personally intervening while pacing her mana and directing key fighters to critical points.

Thalia Mercer smashes through golems to relieve pressure. Farrah, armoured in obsidian with a segmented magma blade, burns lanes open while Gary and Hudson raise stone-and-metal barricades; Beth Cavendish funnels mana to sustain Farrah’s costly powers. Rufus blinks through the fray and, using a brief burst of accelerated time, dismembers a clockwork tiger terrorising the irons. With the automatons in growing disarray, Danielle identifies a fortified corner as a rally point and sets about organising a fighting withdrawal.