Chapter Forty-Five

In Loptra, Mikail visits Gambria’s apartment, where she extends polite hospitality but makes clear her reservations. He questions her about the Marnans, who live in ice caves west of the city, confirming estimates of eight to ten thousand people and their subterranean expansion. He presses for burial practices, seeking a way to reach Staraheli’s remains.

Gambria refuses at first, warning that Mikail’s idea is suicide, then relents and reveals that Staraheli lies in a glass coffin within a mausoleum at the cave entrance, guarded day and night. Mikail immediately imagines a raid in which Sora and Euyn neutralize the guards while he smashes the coffin and removes Staraheli’s head—another step toward Quilimar and freeing Gaya.

As snow falls over foreign-feeling Loptra, Mikail asserts that Gaya is home. Gambria counters that they are now from but not of Gaya, changed by exile and years away, and that the Gaya they love exists in the past. The exchange shakes Mikail, but he deflects by asking why she settled in Loptra rather than near Fallador; Gambria says she wanted her own life and wishes Mikail peace he cannot yet accept.

Despite her caution, Gambria’s information cements Mikail’s intent: the mausoleum is vulnerable only through risk, and the heist may be their best chance. He leaves unsettled by her challenge to his identity but fixed on the dangerous plan to take Staraheli’s head.