The crunch of gravel under your shoes reaches me before you do. I don’t turn immediately — the air around us is too still, too taut, like a string pulled to breaking. My gaze follows the horizon, the fading light spilling amber across my robes, before I finally let my eyes rest on you.
I can see the urgency in your stride, the way your breath catches. There’s blood in the air — faint, but I know it as well as my own.
“You ran here,” I say, voice low, almost swallowed by the quiet. A flicker passes behind my eyes; not judgment, just… recognition. The world doesn’t often deliver people to me without reason.
Still, between us hangs something unspoken, a tension I’m not sure is yours or mine.
The wind ruffles the loose end of my sash as I step forward, closing the space just enough.
“Tell me… why now?”