The bathing chamber was far larger than Eirwen had expected, large enough that the steam filling it could not conceal the opposite wall completely.
Several pools had been carved directly into the black stone floor, some wide enough to hold dozens of people, while others were smaller and divided by low partitions.
Old runes glowed beneath the water with a dull orange light, heating it from below and filling the air with a constant haze that clung to the ceiling before gathering into droplets and falling again.
Narrow channels carried excess water toward iron grates along the walls, but the floor remained wet everywhere, covered in shallow puddles disturbed by bare feet and the occasional wave spilling over the edge of a pool.
The chamber was already crowded, mostly with wounded soldiers and exhausted defenders who sat silently in the water with bandaged heads, bruised faces, and healing wounds held above the surface. Their conversations blended into a low murmur beneath the sound of moving water.
Eirwen entered with nothing but a simple dark cloth wrapped around his waist, his bare feet slapping against the wet stone as he walked deeper into the room.
All of the visible damage to his body had already disappeared, leaving behind smooth, pale skin where he had been torn open, crushed, and reduced to meat paste.
The lack of wounds did not mean he felt well, though.
A deep exhaustion had settled into his mind.
The dark pentagram on the left side of his chest and part of his abdomen remained clearly visible, its sharp lines spreading over his skin. Eirwen ignored the glances that landed on him. After everything that had happened, the curiosity of a few exhausted strangers barely registered.
He found Seraphiel in one of the pools near the rear of the chamber, away from the largest groups but not completely isolated from them. The white-haired boy sat with his back against the smooth stone edge, submerged almost to his chest, his eyes closed and his expression peaceful enough that he might have been sleeping.
His long, wet hair had been pushed away from his face and now fell over both shoulders in pale strands, some floating across the surface around him while others clung to his neck.
Without his white garments, the thinness of his frame was more apparent, although there were few visible signs of what the Ashen Gatekeeper had done to him beyond bruising along one shoulder and a faint darkness beneath his eyes.
His face remained annoyingly beautiful even when tired, the steam and silver-white hair giving him the appearance of some small angel resting in a sacred spring.
Eirwen stepped into the pool without announcing himself.
The water climbed past his ankles, knees, and waist, hot enough to sting for a heartbeat before the warmth turned comfortable.
He lowered himself beside Seraphiel and released a long breath as his back touched the stone edge. 'Fuck, this feels amazing.'
The relief was immediate enough to make his eyelids grow heavy.
"Where are the other two?" he asked after a while.
Seraphiel opened his eyes, revealing the pale, almost colourless gaze beneath his wet lashes. He seemed to consider the question before giving a small shrug, barely disturbing the water around his shoulders.
"I visited them after they woke up and told them we would be here. Raijin said they would come once Eliot stopped whining," he answered.
"I wasn't whining!"
The voice came from behind them, followed immediately by the slap of bare feet against wet stone and Raijin shouting at someone ahead of him to move aside.
Eirwen turned just in time to see both boys running toward the pool with towels wrapped around their waists. Raijin was several steps ahead, his azure hair messy and unkempt.
Eliot followed more carefully, although not carefully enough to stop once Raijin reached the edge. The two of them jumped almost together, striking the water hard enough to send a broad wave across the pool.
Hot water splashed over Eirwen's face and chest.
He stared at the place where they had disappeared beneath the surface, his expression flattening as water ran from his hair and down the bridge of his nose.
'Can't they get knocked out again?' he thought, his face twitching.
Beside him, Seraphiel had not moved at all.
The wave reached the white-haired boy and divided around his head without touching him, sliding across an invisible curve before falling harmlessly behind his shoulders. His eyes had already closed again, not bothered whatsoever.
Raijin surfaced first with a loud breath, dragging both hands through his hair and pushing it away from his forehead. Eliot emerged a moment later, wiping water from his eyes before looking toward Eirwen's soaked face.
"You could have entered like ordinary people, you know," Eirwen said.
"There was already water everywhere!" Raijin replied, then leaned back against the edge and stretched his legs beneath the surface. "Besides, after everything that happened, I think we deserve to enter however we want."
Eliot moved to sit beside him without adding anything.
'The two of them got really close, huh?' Eirwen thought to himself.
The gigantic boy looked better than he had the last time Eirwen saw him, though not well. A fading bruise darkened one side of his face, and bandages remained wrapped around his whole arm, from shoulder to fingertips. He sat slightly apart from the others, shoulders low, his attention fixed on the water rather than anyone's face.
For several moments, the four of them remained silent. The noise of the bathing chamber continued around them, soldiers speaking quietly, water dripping from the ceiling. Steam moved between them in slow currents, occasionally concealing one face before thinning again.
Eirwen turned his head toward Raijin. "So what actually happened to the two of you? I only know that you entered that forest with the tall stones before getting rescued."
Raijin sank a little lower into the water and rested both arms along the edge behind him while gathering his thoughts.
"We just wanted to see if we could find some food." He paused, glancing toward Eliot. "At first, we only felt as if something was watching us, but then, all of a sudden, strange golems started coming out of the stones. Some looked almost human, while others were just monsters. They kept appearing between the pillars, and every time we thought we had found a path out, we got trapped again."
"Even taking one out wasn't enough because they kept coming back," Eliot added, before immediately shutting up when he noticed Raijin looking at him with annoyance.
Eirwen nodded along, seeing if he could get something useful out of the story.
Raijin spoke more slowly than usual as he continued, the animation in his face fading a little.
"And as I said earlier, we had this strange feeling of being watched. Well, Eliot had it first, but I simply thought he was being paranoid."
The boy waited for a moment and continued, "Eventually, the stone creatures cornered us. There were too many to fight, and some of them were strong enough that one blow nearly broke my arm even through a Memory. Then the Saint arrived."
"Orion," Eirwen told them.
Raijin nodded. "He dropped into the forest like he had fallen from the sky. The stone creatures barely mattered once he started moving. He broke through them faster than I could properly follow, and for a moment I thought everything was finished, but then the person who had been watching us engaged him in a fight."
Eliot's fingers tightened slightly against the edge of the pool.
Raijin noticed it, but did not comment. "I have no clue who he was, but he controlled the stone around him, and he wore a mask as well. The moment they recognised each other, the whole forest became a battlefield. Every time they moved, monoliths shattered or disappeared completely. The ground kept breaking open beneath us, and the pressure alone made it difficult to breathe. We tried to get away, but there was nowhere safe enough to stand."
Eirwen looked toward Eliot. "And that is when you were knocked unconscious?"
Eliot remained quiet for several seconds before deciding to answer. "No, not really. After some time, the Saint summoned a Phoenix and escaped with us. Once we knew we were relatively safe, we passed out."
Raijin picked up the story again. "It was enormous and damn beautiful! It caught both of us and carried us away while the Saints were still fighting. I remember seeing the forest below nearly split open in two as gigantic pieces of stone shot at us. After that, I don't remember much, only waking up in this strange castle."
The four boys fell silent again. Raijin stared toward the steam, no longer looking quite as pleased with his own story as he had at the beginning.
Eirwen understood it. No matter how much he believed himself to be the best, he knew that they were nothing but cockroaches for now. There were distances in strength so vast that simply witnessing them changed the scale by which everything else was judged.
Raijin eventually looked toward him. "That is our side. What happened after you reached the fortress? We heard pieces of it from some soldiers. Both places you guys got sent to turned into ruins!"
"They're not wrong," Eirwen said.
Seraphiel opened one eye but did not comment.