Enemy

Isla reaches Sunling’s canyon gates exhausted when daggers—her own discarded blades—pinpoint Oro closing in. She tries to vanish using Grim’s Nightshade shadows, but Oro senses her presence, exposes her, and slams her against the rock, binding her wrists with stone drawn through her Starling power.

Oro confronts Isla for stealing from and abandoning him, torn between rage and love. He reveals he kept her golden rose necklace and pleads for her return. Isla denies any lingering feelings; Oro calls her a liar and stalks away, leaving her restrained.

Rounding the bend, they see Lark’s bloodless army—Sunling, Starling, Skyling among them—blocking the gold gates. Isla’s flames dissolve on contact with the impenetrable metal, trapping them in deadly heat. Realizing time is against them, Isla triggers her necklace to summon Grim.

Grim lands in a rift of shadow and instantly reduces the bloodless to ash. He hurls a shadow scythe at Oro, checked only by the gate, but Isla orders both men to stand down. Oro opens the gate with blood, and an uneasy pause settles as they face the wider threat.

With Lark present and commanding the dead elsewhere, Isla tells Oro and Grim they cannot defeat Lark while divided. She insists their only chance is to work together, forcing a fragile, necessary alignment against a common enemy.