The dagger quivered in the wall beside Kael's head, its serrated edge catching the thin morning light.
Lira's grin was all teeth, her mismatched eyes reflecting the blade's dull gleam. For a moment, the room felt like the Null—weightless, charged, teetering on the brink of violence.
"I didn't come here to be a thief," Kael said, his voice low. The words tasted like ash. Kain Valtherion hadn't crawled out of the Null to skulk in shadows and pick pockets. He'd come to climb. To burn the Nexus down from its peak.
Lira plucked another apple from her coat—where did she keep those?—and bit into it with a crisp crunch.
"No? Then why are you here, corpse? Sightseeing? Prayer?"
"To climb the Nexus."
