Corin finished speaking.
The fire between them crackled softly, its orange light flickering across the small clearing where the team had made camp. Dawn was still a distant promise beyond the black horizon, but the forest had begun that quiet, restless stirring that came before morning.
For a long moment, no one spoke.
Kael stood with his arms folded, eyes fixed on the ground as if the dirt itself held answers.
Corin had delivered the message quickly, precisely, just as a scout should. No wasted words. No embellishment.
Belphegor had stayed behind.
He had told Corin to return to the team.
And he would wait.
Kael exhaled slowly.
"That idiot," he muttered.
Not loudly.
But not gently either.
Jarek blinked.
"You mean Belphegor?"
"Yes," Kael said flatly.
He began pacing.
Each step slow, deliberate.
Corin watched him quietly. Lyra stood with her arms crossed, studying Kael's expression with growing unease.
Because she understood something the others did not.
Kael wasn't angry.
He was calculating.
And the calculations were not going well.
"If he stayed," Kael said after a moment, "then two outcomes are possible."
He raised a finger.
"First outcome: he is captured."
Jarek snorted.
"Belphegor? Captured?"
Kael shot him a look sharp enough to cut cloth.
"Yes. Captured."
Jarek shut his mouth.
Kael continued pacing.
"Second outcome," he said, "he decides patience is boring and burns the entire manor to the ground."
The fire popped loudly.
No one laughed.
Because none of them doubted Belphegor was capable of exactly that.
Kael rubbed the bridge of his nose.
"Neither outcome helps us."
Corin nodded once.
"That manor is heavily warded," he said. "Not just guards. Magic. Organized magic."
Lyra's eyes narrowed.
"How organized?"
"Contracted mages," Corin replied. "More than one. I didn't see all of them, but the wards reacted too quickly for a single caster."
Kael stopped pacing.
"That matches what I suspected."
He crouched near the fire and began drawing rough shapes in the dirt with a stick.
A square.
Walls.
Inner corridors.
"The manor isn't just guarded," he said. "It's layered."
He tapped the outer edge.
"Human guards, predictable, replaceable."
Then he tapped inside the walls.
"Detection wards. Pressure lattices. Probably anchored to a central focus."
Corin nodded slowly.
"That silver-chained man."
Lyra looked up.
"What about him?"
Corin shrugged.
"He wasn't a normal guard. He felt the ward disturbance immediately."
Kael's eyes sharpened.
"Exactly."
He began sketching small marks along the edges of the crude map.
"If they have one mage like that, they probably have more. Ten, maybe fifteen. Spread across the manor to monitor the arrays."
Jarek scratched his head.
"So… that's bad, right?"
Kael gave him a long look.
"Yes, Jarek. That is extremely bad."
He stood again.
"Because if Belphegor triggers those wards too many times, they won't keep dismissing it as birds."
Lyra spoke quietly.
"And when they realize it isn't a bird?"
Kael answered immediately.
"They'll lock the manor down."
Silence fell again.
The implications were obvious.
If Belphegor was trapped inside a sealed magical fortress, things could escalate very quickly.
Kael looked toward the faint grey line forming in the eastern sky.
"We still have a narrow window," he said.
Corin tilted his head.
"How narrow?"
"Before dawn fully breaks, the manor will shift rotations. Guards change posts. Servants start moving. Patrol patterns loosen."
Kael pointed to the rough map again.
"That's when we move."
Jarek frowned.
"Move how?"
Kael's eyes gleamed.
"We don't storm the manor."
Lyra relaxed slightly.
"Good."
Kael raised another finger.
"We fracture it."
Now everyone was listening.
Kael began outlining the plan.
"Step one: distraction."
He pointed to the outer courtyard.
"Jarek, you and I will approach from the eastern treeline. Loud enough to pull attention but not enough to trigger full alarm."
Jarek grinned.
"That I can do."
"Your job," Kael continued, "is to break their outer formation. Guards will converge on you."
Then he looked at Lyra.
"Step two: pressure relief."
Lyra raised an eyebrow.
"Meaning?"
"You stay outside the walls," Kael said. "Hidden. If things go wrong, you keep us alive."
Lyra smirked faintly.
"Finally, a role that makes sense."
Kael turned to Corin.
"Step three: infiltration."
Corin didn't react.
But his eyes sharpened.
"You go back in."
Jarek blinked.
"Again?"
Corin shrugged.
"I know the patrol routes now."
Kael nodded.
"Exactly. While the guards focus on us, you slip through the northern wall again."
"And Belphegor?" Corin asked.
Kael's voice grew quieter.
"That depends on what we find."
He looked at the map again.
"If Belphegor is still moving freely, we regroup and continue the original plan."
"And if he isn't?" Lyra asked.
Kael paused.
His gaze drifted briefly toward the distant silhouette of Greywatch Manor beyond the trees.
"If he's been captured," Kael said carefully, "then we adapt."
Jarek frowned.
"Adapt how?"
Kael's expression hardened.
"We steal him back."
The firelight flickered across his face.
"And while we're doing that," he added softly, "we gather the proof we came for."
Corin looked down at the crude map again.
Then he asked the question no one else had voiced.
"You're still planning to expose Lord Veynar."
"Yes."
Corin gestured toward the manor.
"Even if Belphegor tears half the place apart?"
Kael didn't hesitate.
"Yes."
Then his voice dropped lower.
"Because if we fail, and that manor falls without evidence…"
He looked at each of them in turn.
"The Crown won't see justice."
"They'll see treason."
The weight of that settled over the group.
Destroying a noble house without proof wasn't rebellion.
It was execution-worthy crime.
Lyra folded her arms.
"And Belphegor?"
Kael's gaze turned back toward the manor again.
For a brief moment, something almost like reluctant admiration crossed his face.
"Belphegor," Kael said quietly, "is a masterpiece."
Then his voice hardened again.
"And I am not letting my masterpiece get himself executed before the real game even begins."
He looked back at the team.
"Prepare yourselves."
The faintest light of dawn crept across the horizon.
"We move now."