Ryn didn't answer.
For a moment, he wasn't sure he could.
The words echoed in his head, stripped of context, stripped of sense. Not because they were unclear, but because they fit together too cleanly, like pieces that had never been meant to be assembled all at once.
Like you…
Why?
He had come here chasing power, but hadn't expected to uncover something like this.
Ryn exhaled slowly, steadying himself. The breath came out in a thin mist that lingered longer than it should have.
"…I don't understand," he admitted quietly.
Ryn didn't look back.
His thoughts raced, colliding with everything he thought he knew.
The Evernight had happened before. The world had ended, and was rebuilt. The Cult wasn't a new threat, but a remnant.
And the Hero… hadn't won.
He had delayed the inevitable.
Ryn's fingers curled slowly at his side.
If all of that was true…then this place wasn't a reward.
It was a contingency.
