60. Making Music

Jason confronts a pack of margolls outside a barn. He baits their charge, slips through shadows behind them, and kills the first, using its dissolving smoke to blind and scatter the rest. In the chaos he wounds, debuffs, and poisons the pack, then deliberately invites injury to unleash a leech swarm from his blood, layering bleeding and toxins.

Jason siphons life to mend his arm and continues orchestrating panic with precise strikes and afflictions, letting the monsters suffer and succumb rather than seeking quick kills. When the last margoll dies, Jason recalls the engorged leeches back into himself and walks away beneath drifting rainbow smoke, observed at a distance by Humphrey and the other candidates.

The wagon ride back to Greenstone is quiet. Even after cleaning up, Jason’s display haunts the others. Humphrey is shaken by the calculated cruelty. Jason, however, feels a powerful catharsis and newfound control, disturbed only by recognizing a part of himself that wants more of it.

At the Adventure Society yard, Vincent announces when results can be collected and challenged. Jason approaches Thadwick and publicly offers an apology and handshake. Thadwick spurns him and storms off, leaving Jason appearing measured and reasonable to onlookers.

Jason joins Rufus, Humphrey, Danielle, and Vincent. Rufus scolds him for spectacle; Danielle defends the move as deliberate social positioning. Jason explains the gesture frames him favorably before witnesses while signaling competence to those who grasp the ploy. Danielle underscores that this earns backroom credibility, then invites the group to dinner.