The smile Erend gave them was steady, he was trying to be reassuring.
But none of them truly believed it was enough.
The wind cut across the frozen cave again, sharp and restless, tugging at their skins as if urging them to move.
Silence lingered a few seconds longer in that cave before reality settled back into place.
They could not stand there forever.
"I will go first and handle my business. Later, we will meet again," Erend said.
"Me too," Eccar added.
After that, Erend and Eccar returned to their respective responsibilities.
Eccar would go back to the Elf Palace. He needed to refine his control over the fragment of Time within him.
It was powerful, volatile, and still far from stable. There were more adjustments to make, techniques to reconstruct, and limits to test in isolation before he risked using it in real combat again.
Erend would return to his own world. The military experiments still required his oversight.
