Liliana approaches Beledros Witherbloom with the last fragment she carries of Gideon and asks whether true restoration is possible. The Founder Dragon refuses to repeat an earlier disaster. Her answer redirects the question: remembrance is measured less by recovering the dead than by how the bereaved choose to treat people who are still alive.
Far from campus, Lukka arrives alone and is mistaken for an Oriq agent by villagers already frightened of hidden recruiters. He answers suspicion with violence and uses nearby animals to escape, then nearly dies in the wilderness. A wounded fox brings him food. When Lukka names her Mila, their bond is companionship rather than command, briefly recovering the gentler part of his gift.
The Oriq find Lukka because they understand both his isolation and his anger at institutions. Liliana, meanwhile, returns toward Strixhaven and witnesses masked mages binding a great stag. The two paths frame the coming conflict: grief can deepen attention to the living, or it can become the opening through which another person's cause takes control.