Gabriel, Greyhand, and Aaron reached San Michon, a monastery built atop seven towering stone pillars over the Mère River. After signaling with a horn and ascending by chain-lift from the stables within the pillar’s base, they arrived on the heights, where Keeper Logan tended the winch. Gabriel, awed and uneasy with the height, beheld the Cathedral adorned with statues and a stained-glass sevenstar depicting the Seven Martyrs, including San Michon.

On the cathedral steps they met Khalid, the High Abbot of the Ordo Argent, a scarred and imposing Sūdhaemi leader who formally welcomed Gabriel as a paleblood initiate and warned of the Order’s demands. Khalid set immediate expectations: initiates must obey their masters, remain in Barracks after evebells, avoid the forbidden Library stacks, attend duskmass for their first silver, and begin training at dawn. Khalid then drew Greyhand aside to confer privately, while Aaron was tasked to show Gabriel the grounds.

Aaron conducted a brisk, condescending tour. He pointed out the Cathedral for dawn and dusk mass; the Barracks with refectory, privies, and baths; the Gauntlet for combat and marksmanship training; the Breadbasket with stores, henhouses, and glasshouse overseen by Frère Alber; the Priory where the Silver Sisters reside; and the Great Library with a forbidden section guarded by Archivist Adamo. He explained the Order’s two castes: Brothers of the Hunt (paleblood hunters) and Brothers of the Hearth (non-paleblood craftsmen and keepers). Aaron also noted the Armoury’s many chimneys and, when Gabriel asked about a stone bridge ending in a high, rail-less balcony with a Redeemer’s wheel, he named it “Heaven’s Bridge” and withheld its purpose.

Inside the Armoury, lit by hanging glass spheres, Gabriel admired racks of silver-inlaid weapons, including wheellocks inscribed with scripture. Aaron left him with an order to wait, and Gabriel, homesick and remembering his blacksmith upbringing, examined the blades. A young Sūdhaemi smith, Baptiste Sa-Ismael, Brother of the Hearth and “Blackthumb,” approached. After a brief, warm exchange about forging and secrets of silversteel, Baptiste selected a longsword he had recently crafted and placed it in Gabriel’s hands, saying he believed it was meant for him.

The sword was a silversteel masterwork with the Angel Eloise on the hilt and Testament scripture along the blade. Baptiste suggested swords are tools and discreetly admitted he calls his own Sunlight. Aaron returned, greeting Baptiste as an old friend, while continuing to treat Gabriel curtly and dumping issue gear (leathers, greatcoat, boots) for him. Baptiste completed Gabriel’s kit with a matching dagger and scabbard.

Holding the blade, Gabriel felt his doubts and homesickness lift, reading its inscription about a lion among lambs. He named the sword Lionclaw, which Baptiste approved. Gabriel vowed to slay something monstrous with it and to rise to the Order’s demands, imagining not just walking or running but flying.