The water elemental gestures, and a small pedestal rises from the floor with a grinding of stone, bearing what looks like a shallow bowl of silver liquid that shimmers with an inner light.

Understanding that I'm meant to place my hand in the liquid, I do so hesitantly. The silver substance is neither hot nor cold, but tingles against my skin as if alive. When I withdraw my hand, I see a mark has appeared—not the colored elemental symbols I've seen on primals or the other students, but a strange, silvery spiral that shifts and changes as I look at it, never quite the same from one moment to the next.

"Go," comes an impression from all four elementals at once, the combined force of their minds making my ears ring.

"What does this mean?" I ask, staring at the mark on my hand. "What am I supposed to do with this? What am I?"

My voice rises with each question, panic edging in as I realize they're about to send me away with nothing but cryptic warnings and a mark I don't understand.

Instead of answering, a door appears in the wall at the side of the room—one that wasn't visible before.

I hesitate, looking back at Nolan's still form. "What about them?" I gesture to the bodies. "They deserve better than to be left here like discarded trash. They had families, hopes, dreams⁠—"

With a small nod, the water elemental gestures, and gentle waters flow from the ground itself, enveloping each body in a cocoon of liquid. The water of each cocoon swirls together, forms a perfect sphere, and then collapses on itself, leaving no sign of the dead.

A gust of wind pushes me toward the door. I struggle against it, feet sliding on the stone floor, but I'm inexorably moved through the doorway, which slides shut behind me with a sound like rumbling stone.

And then I'm alone and in near silence. It's only me and the strange, silvery spiral on the back of my hand.

I lean against the wall, gasping for breath, legs finally giving out as I slide to the floor. My entire body trembles uncontrollably, the delayed shock hitting me like a physical blow now that immediate danger has passed.

I breathe deeply, feeling a newfound appreciation for the sweetness of air filling my body. For the steady beat of my heart. For the simple miracle of still being alive.

In a way, I feel a strange relief. I offered up my sins for judgment, and... they let me walk away. They let me live.

I'm not ready to forgive myself, but maybe it all means there was a reason for me to keep going. Maybe there's some purpose to my life, and I need to keep fighting to find out why the gods didn't let me die back there.