Gregor’s banishment by Astir is the moment an armed pursuit reaches the threshold of Astir’s haven and is answered not with a killing, but with supernatural punishment. As Gregor presses toward the hidden refuge, Astir’s power transforms the hall, strips the hunter of his ability to resist, and establishes that entry into the haven places an intruder under its master’s control. Gregor is expelled into the Danube, while the scene’s decisive rule is made explicit: Astir will not kill there.

Causes and Approach

The confrontation begins beyond the haven’s doorway, where Ignatius and Gregor are still fighting with swords. Ignatius is stronger than the others present, but blessed daggers have wounded him; he is slower than he should be, and Gregor comes close several times to gaining the advantage. The danger is therefore immediate, not merely a threat at a distance. Astir orders Ignatius to fall back so that the haven can be protected. Ignatius hesitates, manages to shove Gregor off balance, then retreats over the threshold while still facing his opponent.

Gregor recovers quickly. He swings his sword before him, listens, and peers into the refuge with keen eyes. At first, Astir’s companions are concealed from his sight, though he senses that someone is there. His expression registers slight surprise, but his glittering eyes and feral smile turn that discovery into renewed aggression. He advances with confidence until he steps across the threshold. That crossing changes the balance of the encounter: the hunter who had nearly overcome a wounded opponent has entered the place where Astir can command the terms.

The narrator climbs to her feet as Magda takes hold of her, and they cling together in the opulent hallway, watching Gregor approach. Magda’s son grips their legs in terror as the danger closes in. The vampires are not at full power, and Gregor seems glutted with strength; the narrator judges that a fully powerful group could have dealt with him, but that is not their present condition. The scene thus makes the refuge’s protection necessary precisely when its defenders are least able to rely on their own strength.

Astir’s Intervention

Astir’s response begins with a startling change of scale and appearance. He grows until he seems as tall as the ceiling, and his wings of flame fill the hall. His scarlet robe becomes glowing white; his long golden hair floats around his head like a halo. His face cannot be seen, but the narrator understands his eyes to be pure white flame. He lifts one hand toward Gregor and speaks in a multitude of voices, turning the haven itself into the setting for an overwhelming display of authority.

Gregor’s confidence collapses. Terror crosses his face; he stumbles backward against the now-closed door, cries out, covers his face, and drops his sword as he falls to the floor. Astir approaches while Gregor sobs and draws his knees tightly to his chest, extending one hand as if he could ward off the glowing figure. The reversal is complete: the armed pursuer who had driven the encounter forward is reduced to helplessness, while Astir remains in control without needing to strike him.

Vlad Dracula orders Astir to kill Gregor. Astir refuses, stating that they do not kill in the haven. Vlad Dracula objects that Gregor now knows where it is, identifying the practical danger the intrusion has created. Astir answers that Gregor will not remember the location: having entered Astir’s domain, he is now subject to Astir’s power. The haven’s defense therefore rests not only on concealment or force. Astir can contain the consequences of the breach by controlling what the intruder will carry away from it.

Punishment and Consequences

Astir’s punishment does not end with Gregor’s loss of his sword or his visible terror. Astir says that the hunter now knows fear, treating that experience as an important result in itself. He must then compel Gregor to look up. Gregor raises his eyes and emits a scream so terrible that the narrator flinches and looks away. Magda sobs against the narrator’s shoulder, and her son remains gripped by fear. The punishment is witnessed by those Astir has protected as well as suffered by the intruder; the terror in the hall belongs to the whole company, even though Gregor is its target.

The scream is cut off sharply. When the narrator looks again, Astir is calm, dressed once more in his red robes, and Gregor is gone. Vlad Dracula asks whether Astir has killed him, but Astir reports that Gregor is sputtering and wailing as he swims out of the Danube. This final detail clarifies the difference between expulsion and execution: Gregor survives, but Astir has removed him from the haven and cast him into the river in a state of panic. Ignatius then gently touches Magda’s cheek and kneels to ask her son how he is, returning attention from the supernatural display to the frightened people left in its wake.

Significance

The encounter defines Astir’s authority through both a prohibition and an act of power. He refuses Vlad Dracula’s demand to kill, yet that refusal is not weakness: Astir can overwhelm Gregor, prevent him from retaining knowledge of the haven, and send him away without surrendering control of the situation. The difference between Vlad Dracula’s command and Astir’s response also marks the haven as a domain governed by its own rule, rather than simply another place where Vlad Dracula’s orders prevail.

The threshold gives that rule a visible shape. Gregor’s approach and crossing expose the haven to danger, but his entry also places him within Astir’s reach. Astir’s transformation fills the hallway, and the intruder’s collapse reverses the earlier sword fight in an instant. Yet the outcome is not a conventional victory secured by killing an enemy. Gregor leaves alive, terrified, and unable to remember where the refuge is; the protected group remains together, and Ignatius turns immediately to the shaken Magda and her son. The episode makes protection mean more than keeping an attacker outside: Astir can let the threat cross the boundary, master it there, and cast it back into the world without allowing it to expose the sanctuary.