The wind howls through the ruins, whispering between the broken stones, curling around us like unseen hands. The fire has long since burned down to embers, but none of us move to relight it.
Because the cold that grips us now does not come from the night air.
It comes from the realisation sitting between us like a weight that cannot be lifted.
Elias is too still. Too quiet.
Edan's mind is spiralling, his fingers twitching slightly as if trying to grasp onto something solid, something logical—something that will make this make sense.
And me?
I cannot breathe.
Because I know what I just heard.
And I know what it means.
And I do not want to believe it.
——
I push myself up abruptly, my boots scraping against the stone as I take a step back.
"No."
Elias blinks, tilting his head toward me. "No?"
I shake my head, fierce, desperate, unwilling.
"This isn't some… grand, terrible design," I say, my voice almost shaking. "This isn't a correction, or a displacement, or a war between realities."
I swallow, my throat tight.
"Maybe it's just—an accident."
Silence.
Edan's brows furrow, his calculating gaze breaking slightly.
Elias?
He just… watches me.
——
"You don't believe that," he murmurs.
I flinch.
Because I don't.
Because if this was an accident, then nothing makes sense.
And if nothing makes sense—
Then we are already too far gone to stop it.
——
I clench my fists, my nails biting into my palms.
"Maybe it's all just… random," I insist. "Maybe there's no system trying to erase you. No world trying to correct itself. Maybe it's just—"
My voice breaks.
"—a mistake."
——
Elias's lips twitch upward, but there is no amusement in his eyes.
"A mistake?" he repeats, voice low. "Do you really think this world is capable of mistakes like that?"
I cannot answer.
Because I do not know.
Because I do not want to know.
——
Edan exhales sharply, rubbing his face. "Alright. Let's say, for argument's sake, that it is an accident."
He looks at me, and there is no comfort in his expression.
"Then why is it still happening?"
——
The words hit me like a physical blow.
Because he is right.
If this was just some cosmic fluke, some random, meaningless accident, then why—
Why did the ruins try to erase Elias?
Why does he feel more connected to this world than he should be?
Why is the Black Spirit missing?
Why does it feel like something is shifting beneath our feet, unseen, unknown, moving us toward something we cannot name?
——
I wrap my arms around myself, as if I can physically hold myself together.
"Because," Elias says finally, his voice softer now, quieter, as if he already knows the answer and does not want to say it.
"Accidents don't leave holes in the world."
——
I do not respond.
I cannot.
Because I feel it.
The wrongness.
The emptiness.
Like something has been ripped out—like something is missing.
And whatever it is—
It is not done with us yet.