Footsteps sounded in the tunnel, steady and unhurried. Not guards running late, not men responding to panic. Each step carried weight, armour moving the way it did when the man inside it had nothing to prove.
Gabriel shifted once. He didn't turn. He stepped forward instead, placing himself between the sound and the space behind him. The apprentice slipped out of sight without being touched, hidden by Gabriel's body as if he had never been there at all.
The footsteps stopped.
A Paladin stepped into the chamber, white armour dulled by quarry dust, a cloak that had avoided the blood on the ground by habit rather than care. His sword remained in its sheath. He took in the bodies with a glance that lasted only as long as it needed to, then lifted his head.
His eyes found Gabriel and stayed there.
