The masked figure stopped just outside the reach of Yegr's blade. No weapon was drawn, yet the air between them felt charged — as if the ground itself was waiting to shift.
Elen whispered, "Do you know this man?"
Yegr didn't answer. His mind raced. In the war, the Shadowed Path hadn't revealed themselves until years later. None of their masked sentinels had spoken his name before the fall of Ralstone Keep.
But this one had.
"Step aside," Yegr said, his voice steady.
The mask tilted again, slow and deliberate. "I could. But then I would not learn what I came to learn."
Darin muttered, "Why is it always the creepy ones who talk like riddles?"
The figure ignored him, raising a pale, gloved hand. "Tell me, Yegr — when the walls fell, and the fire took your captain, did you hesitate before you ran?"
The words hit like a blade through the ribs. That moment — the one he never spoke of — wasn't recorded anywhere.
Yegr tightened his grip. "You've been watching me."
The masked figure chuckled softly. "Not quite. You left… echoes. And I can read echoes."
Without warning, the figure's hand swept forward. The world around Yegr shifted. The cliff, the oak, Elen and Darin — gone.
He stood in the middle of the siege of Vardun. Smoke and screams filled the air. Darin lay on the ground before him, bleeding out. His younger self — the one who'd been here originally — was nowhere in sight.
The masked figure walked calmly through the chaos, untouched by arrows or flame. "This is the truth you run from. Will you make the same choice again?"
Yegr's instincts screamed illusion, but the heat on his skin and the iron smell of blood felt real. Darin's eyes locked onto his.
"Go," Darin gasped, voice identical to the real memory. "Get them out—"
Yegr moved. This time, he pressed his hands to the wound, shouting for a medic. The scene trembled like a reflection in disturbed water.
The masked figure's head tilted. "So… you will try to change it."
The battlefield shattered. They were back at the cliff, the real Darin at his side, staring at him in confusion.
The masked figure stepped back into the shadows. "Every change comes with a price, Yegr. And you've just chosen to pay it."
Before Yegr could move, the figure was gone, leaving only the cold wind and the sound of his own pounding heart.