Northern Lights

The Paladins barely manage to escape the Imperial Army's pursuit from Moonshade. But escape doesn't mean safety — they still have to get home to Dagal, and the route runs straight through the most difficult crossing on the continent. After much thought, Iyolin decides to seek out Duke Moselle, a friend of the late King Ashur and ruler of Bifrost, to ask for his help getting the rest of the way.

Welcomed by Moselle, the Order catches its breath but has no clear way home. Strider suggests crossing the Gigantes Mountains, and the Duke recommends his resident mountain expert, G.S. G.S very nearly refuses, sure the nobles won't follow his lead out in the wild — but can't turn down Iyolin's earnest request, and reluctantly agrees to guide them. It's the first time the conqueror-turned-guide stands face to face with the kingdom he destroyed and the woman who has sworn to avenge it, though of course none of them know that yet.

The climb proves far more grueling than expected. Exhausted, the party takes a break — but an anxious Iyolin wants to push on immediately, until G.S persuades her that rest matters as much as speed. Watching this, Locarno Stanley tries to pick a fight, calling G.S's manner disrespectful; Iyolin steps in before it escalates, the first crack in a running friction between the two that lasts the whole crossing.

The route continues through the Bashi Slime Cave — the first underground test, fought through in freezing conditions — and the sacred territory of the Caliper tribe, a hostile mountain clan. G.S's years as a Bifrost ranger have given him detailed knowledge of hostile tribes like the Caliper and friendlier peoples like the Laika to the north — knowledge that lets him navigate through rather than simply fight through, though combat proves unavoidable more than once.

Sheltering from a blizzard in the Basi Cavern, the Locarno/G.S friction finally boils over, and G.S turns back — it looks like abandonment, but isn't. He can't stand the nobles' arrogance, but can't bring himself to leave them either; he's gone to track down Wheelgrass, an herb needed to counter Basi Meltgel, a slime-type enemy secretly draining the Corps' energy. By the time they realize what's causing their mysterious exhaustion, they're already deep in a fight they can't win without him.

Certain that finding G.S is now the only way to protect her people, Iyolin sets out alone to search for him and collapses from exhaustion herself. G.S — whom she believed had abandoned them — finds and helps her, and only now does she learn the truth: he'd gone alone because there hadn't been time to talk the Paladins into trusting the plan. She apologizes for misjudging him. With the Wheelgrass in hand, the two of them together pull the Order back from the crisis, and the Order apologizes to him in turn.

Past the Basi Cavern, the Order runs into the Kelifer. G.S tries to find a way through without a fight — but Locarno loses his temper at the Kelifer's rude words and kills one of them outright. Unwilling to let the killing go unpunished, the Kelifer mass for an attack, and the Order makes its stand at the Kelifer Sanctuary. The first wave is beaten back, but G.S warns it isn't over — and he's right: the Kelifer keep coming even after heavy losses, and only now do the Paladins understand why he never wanted to fight them in the first place. Once the Kelifer are finally spent, the Order flees toward Laika Village.

On the way, the Corps finds a hut of Kelifer civilians. Locarno insists they have to be eliminated as a danger; G.S objects that they're just civilians. The argument escalates until Locarno draws his sword — and despite Iyolin's explicit order not to, massacres everyone in the hut. G.S is disgusted by what he's done.

Lacid finds G.S struggling with what just happened and comforts him. Consoled, G.S tells him to come find him if he ever needs help in the future — a small, quiet promise that plants the seed of the bond between them.

Through enduring these dangers together, the proud, vengeance-hardened Iyolin slowly comes to rely on — and quietly warm to — the memoryless guide she has every reason to keep at arm's length. It's the beginning of a bond that will make the Black Bridge devastating rather than merely surprising.