Oskar Vanishes Through the Void

The Voiling General did not stay to die beside the dragon.

A void portal opened in the lair, and the general ordered the Voiling Soldiers away in Abyssal. Oskar understood enough to catch more than the command. The soldiers resented the retreat. Whatever command structure had brought them here was not simple obedience all the way down.

Then Jeremiah moved.

He used a void step, or something close enough to one, and pulled Oskar through the Aboleth-touched passage with him. Oskar went where Ash could not follow.

That was the real wound in the moment.

Ash tried to pass through the same kind of path and struck against something else: a mind-flayer-like figure who blocked him and promised they would speak later. The message was intimate, specific, and cruelly controlled. Jeremiah and Oskar could cross the threshold. Ash, the one carrying the tentacle and the old question of the Aboleth, was stopped at the door.

The Voiling General escaped.

Oskar vanished from the battlefield.

And Ash was left with proof that his connection was not the same as Jeremiah's.