Departure at Dawn Splits the Students From QUEST

Morning outside New Goblin City came quietly enough to feel unfair in hindsight.

After the long rest, Ellenthyra Mew found Ash and gave him her VQU dorm number with the awkward urgency of someone trying to make a future plan before anyone admitted the future was uncertain. Ash kept the note. It was small, personal, and exactly the kind of thing that becomes painful after a skyline starts burning.

Nell Quiv realized the VQU students were late for class and started moving the group back toward the university. Elmyra, Jonah, and Nell walked toward the distant tower while Zetch bounced on sleeping Vic near the camp, still carrying the manic afterglow of the New Goblin City field trip.

No one knew this was the clean break before the attack.

QUEST and the VQU students separated on the road split between Gravenhurst and campus life. For a moment, it was only logistics: students going back to school, the party continuing toward trial rumors and city trouble.

Then the day kept moving.

The note in Ash's hand became a hook back to VQU.

The students' survival became a question.