Echidna studied him for a long moment, her sharp gaze flickering across his face and took in his posture, his expression or what little of it she could see beneath the blindfold. Then, she raised an eyebrow and tilted her head slightly.
"Do you expect me to just spill all my secrets to you while you refuse to tell me yours?" Her voice was light, but there was a quiet challenge beneath the words.
Chael furrowed his brows. He hated that she had a point.
With a sigh, he leaned back against the door and his fingers absentmindedly ran along the shaft of his broken spear.
"It's a strange bastard called The Blind Prophet," he finally muttered, voice low.
"When that creature at the cavern was coming for me, I lost consciousness. Or at least, I think I did. My mind was transferred to some kind of courtyard. There were countless mirrors and they all reflected everything except me. There was also two purple moons shining down. I saw a large gate that was covered by some obscure fog..." His fingers twitched slightly at the memory. "I walked through that veil of fog, and suddenly, I felt stronger. Stronger than I ever had before. Despite my injuries, despite everything. That's when I knew I had stepped into the Veiled Realm."
He left out the details about Illusory Echo. There was no need to talk about everything.
Echidna hummed and tapped her fingers against the edge of the bed. "The Blind Prophet, and the power of reflections," she mused, her tone laced with curiosity. Then, her eyes flickered toward the small window, where the soft glow of the twin moon could be seen even through the fog.
"But those twin moons… doesn't that seem awfully familiar to this place?"
She was right.
In Mirelia, there was only one moon. There may have been more beyond the Primordial Sea but no one knew for sure.
But in that strange, dreamlike realm… there had been two.
And now, here, in Nytheril - two moons again.
Echidna watched him closely. "Do you think it's connected somehow?"
Chael didn't respond immediately. His mind tried to piece together fragments of a mystery that felt too big for him to grasp. There was so much he didn't know - about this city, about the Veiled Realm, about why he had been chosen at all.
After a long silence, he let out a quiet sigh. "Maybe."
That was all he could give her.
Then, after a moment, he turned toward her. His voice was steady and cold.
"Your turn."
Echidna's fingers absently tugged at something beneath her collar and she pulled out a thin chain. A pendant that took the shape of a red apple slid from beneath the layers of fabric and caught the dim light of the twin moons outside.
Chael's frown deepened.
His blindfolded gaze lingered on the pendant, the reflection of its silver surface flickering in his spearhead. It wasn't just jewelry. He could feel the energy woven into it.
Echidna traced the edge of the apple pendant with her thumb.
"This, too, is a magical artifact. It's called the Redfall Talisman." she said, her tone quieter than before. "It protects me from high falls."
Chael's fingers twitched.
A thief with not one, but two magical artifacts? That wasn't normal.
Even among Veiled Harbingers, magical artifacts were rare. They were reserved for the highest echelons of power such as lords, warlords, and the nobility of Enir-Ilim. Not even trained warriors of the empire had regular access to them, let alone some mercenary who had been scraping by with a pack of mongrels.
"You…" Chael muttered, his voice edged with suspicion. "How is this possible? Where did you get it from?"
Echidna opened her mouth, then hesitated. Her brows furrowed, her fingers tightened around the Redfall Talisman. "It's something precious to me. Well, it was…"
Silence.
Something shifted in her expression.
She frowned deeply and pressed a hand to her temple. "Where…? Where was this from again…?"
Her breath hitched slightly, and she clutched her head with both hands. "Wait… I can't remember much about my past all of a sudden. Why is my memory so hazy?"
Chael's fingers curled against the floor.
This again.
First, she couldn't remember where she got the Interspatial Pouch. And now this?
He regarded her with cold scrutiny, watching as she rubbed her forehead, her body visibly tensing as she tried to recall something that just wasn't there.
Was she faking memory loss to avoid telling him about her past?
No, that doesn't make sense. If she wanted to avoid this subject then she wouldn't have told him about her artifacts all together.
He scoffed. "Do you have the memory of a goldfish?"
Echidna didn't react. She was too focused and too agitated, still clutching her head, as if trying to force her memories back through sheer will.
"No…" she muttered, voice tense. "I just... I can't remember it for some reason…"
Her shoulders rose and fell unevenly as frustration bled into her voice. "I know it's something important, but… I just can't."
Chael exhaled sharply through his nose.
He didn't like it.
Something about this felt off.
His fingers drummed against his knee. After a long moment, he sighed and leaned his head back against the wooden door. "You're awfully trusting of the man you tortured just a day or two ago."
Echidna finally let go of her head, her expression returning to something closer to normal. She gave him a lazy, half-hearted smirk. "Oh well. You're not the type to steal, anyway."
Chael turned his head toward her with an unreadable expression. "Where did you get that from?"
"My instinct."
Of course.
Instinct.
She had trusted her gut before, multiple times, and each time, it had turned out to be right. She had sensed the danger before the dog-thing attacked. She had a preminition about going east through the Yue Clan. She had sensed something was wrong in the ruins before the cultists appeared. And now this?
He didn't respond.
Instead, he simply shifted against the door and adjusted his position slightly. His body was too battered to stay tense for long. He had spent too much time at the edge of death, too much time ignoring pain, ignoring exhaustion and ignoring the pull of sleep.
And for the first time in what felt like days, he finally allowed himself to relax.
Echidna exhaled, rolling onto her side and pulled her cloak tighter around her body. She was still worn down was still recovering, but the tension in her shoulders had eased - if only slightly.
The wind outside continued to roar and clawed at the cathedral walls, howling through the cracks.
But inside, within the walls of this strange, untouched room, they finally drifted into sleep.