Gabriel came back to the gully to find Chloe Sauvage and Père Rafa debating their route. Rafa argued for a nearer stop at San Guillaume to resupply, while Chloe insisted their answers lay at the fortress of San Michon, despite the distance. Gabriel, indifferent to destination for his own purposes, warned that they needed one leader and one course. Chloe asserted command and chose San Michon; Rafa yielded.

The party—Chloe, Rafa, Gabriel, Dior, Saoirse, Bellamy, and Phoebe—set out with Saoirse scouting ahead. They pushed through snow and deadwood into the Ossway over several days, passing grim signs like a gibbet labeled “WITCH.” The march was monotonous and miserable, though Gabriel had prepared potent sanctus from fledgling blood.

Five days in, they met streams of refugees growing into hundreds, dragging carts through the snow and ignoring Rafa’s calls. Among them, a man recognized Gabriel: Lachlunn á Cuinn, a former hammerman from Triúrbaile, now crippled and traveling with his young daughter, Aisling. Lachlunn explained that the Dyvoks had taken Dún Cuinn last winter, making the region too dangerous; he and others were fleeing over the Ūmdir into Sūdhaem before wintersdeep.

Gabriel learned that while no bloodlord directly led local wretched, packs roamed widely, and the Dyvok lords were pushing toward Dún Maergenn. Lachlunn warned that anyone killed might rise as wretched. Gabriel cautioned him not to stray west, where the Chastains held territory beyond Sul Adair. The exchange turned somber when Gabriel’s questions revealed the deaths of Lachlunn’s wife and his son Gabrael, who had been named in Gabriel’s honor.

Watching the refugees trudge past, Gabriel felt contempt for Dior’s prophetic hope, rejecting the notion of a miracle cure or Grail ending daysdeath. Despite the dire news and visible suffering, Chloe reaffirmed her decision: one captain, one course—north to San Michon. Gabriel accepted the choice, and they pressed on into deepening gloom.