Lips twisted, eyes clenched shut, he lowered his head. He had lost this race against time. Worse, he had naively believed that the whispers were the root of corruption. What a mistake.
His heart drumming in his ears, he bit his trembling lips as his foot almost slipped into the abyss.
'I can blame no one but myself. I should have seen it coming, felt the distractions brought by the whispers, and dismissed the fragment the moment I defeated the poltergeists. Idiot! That's what I'm for failing to analyse the dangers. And a double idiot for still veiling my face.'
His knuckles whitened as the truth struck. The moment the chill receded. That's when he should have hurled the fragment back into a dark corner of his mind. But his gnawing fears of ghosts, worry about Karna's unknown fate, and the queen of magic's mysterious yet infuriating menace obscured his judgement.
