Bagel circled back, landing on the pile of stones that Caleb pointed at and prodding through the pieces. Somewhere in his heart, he tried to hold out hope for the commander, that he had come just in time, or Katryna had shown just a little bit of mercy to him.

  The beast stopped poking at the white stones, digging deep into a single spot to haul away at the debris. He had found something.

  The gryphon stopped digging after a few seconds, shoving its head into the hole it had made. It cocked its head to Caleb, and shrieked back.

  Caleb sighed. Bagel had already confirmed his fears. “He counts.”

  Within minutes Bagel pulled the body free, ferrying the man to the scorched grass in front of him. There were cuts delivered to his body, but the blood that clotted them was well past expired. He had been dead for a fair bit of time, and the cause was obvious to Caleb.

  All he could see in the commander’s mind was a crawling curse that had hollowed out his skull. Athansi’s children had hatched and eaten their full. Soft steps approached his side as he knelt over the body. He looked to the Follower, still a few feet back as they gazed at the commander with squeezed shoulders.

  Caleb muttered a quick healing spell, more for show to the child than anything. There was nothing that would bring him back. He watched the healing threads wither in his palm, holding his head low as he closed the man’s eyes. “I’m sorry.”

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  The Follower came closer, paying Caleb hesitant glances as they cautiously knelt at the commander’s side. They reached for his belt, carefully sliding a beaten journal free. He watched them carefully sift through the pages packed with an array of crushed and dried flowers, until they reached a blank. They took a daisy from their satchel, and three colourful petals, arranging them on the page before grabbing the commander’s limp hand and using it to close the book.

  And they sat, unmoving, in painful silence.

  Caleb left them to their grief, his eyes scanning the rest of the man’s body in search of a final detail. He found his goal on the man’s other wrist, a dark tattoo that almost resembled stars wrapping around his wrist.

  It was a recent and unnecessary addition to Follower requirements for all squadrons who had one. Engineered to address the very rare issue of Followers that were able to unwind other linking spells and flee the Heroguard.

  The spell worked in such a way that even if their link perished, a follower could not flee unless they could carry the body with them. A step too far from the spell’s range and it would start to squeeze, and it would not stop until the Follower came back within range, or whatever it was wrapped around was cut through completely.

  He carefully peeled the enchantment away, discarding it in the dirt and double-checking the rest of his arm to make sure no sigils remained. The commander could be put to rest, and his Follower would be free to travel with Caleb outside of Bervolt.