Ezra didnt move.
Alistair Crowne sat before him, calm and composed, his fingers lightly tapping the desks surface. The dim candlelight cast flickering shadows across his face, highlighting every sharp angle, every crease of time worn into his skin.
He looked exactly the same.
Not like a man who had been missing. Not like someone who had fled or been erased.
Like someone who had never left at all.
Ezra exhaled slowly, keeping his stance measured. His mind raced through the possibilities. Crowne had been gone for weeks. His records erased. His work buried. And yet, here he was.
Waiting.
Watching.
Like he had been expecting this moment.
Ezras voice was steady. Youre supposed to be dead.
Crowne smiled, faint and amused. Youre supposed to be smarter than that.
Ezra didnt react. He had played this game beforeinterviews, interrogations, negotiations that were never really about the words being spoken. It was always about control. About who was leading and who was following.
Right now? He wasnt about to follow.
His eyes flicked to the desk. Stacks of papers, old maps with inked notes scrawled across their surfaces.
One in particular caught his attention.
A map of Eldenwald.
At first glance, it looked ordinaryfamiliar streets, districts labeled in fine script. But then Ezra noticed the marks.
Crossed-out locations. Circles around places that didnt exist.
His stomach tightened.
This wasnt just a map.
This was a correction.
Youre looking at it, Crowne said, his voice almost casual. The city beneath the city. The places that shouldnt be.
Ezras fingers twitched. And where exactly do I fall on this map?
Crowne chuckled. Right where youre supposed to.
Ezra exhaled slowly. He could walk out now. Turn his back. Pretend none of this was happening.
But that wasnt who he was.
Instead, he stepped forward. Pulled out the nearest chair. Sat down.
Crowne nodded approvingly.
Ezras voice remained calm. Start talking.
The professor reached for the map, tapping a finger against one of the circled locations. A street Ezra had never heard of, despite living in Eldenwald for years.
Tell me, Mr. Lockwood, Crowne murmured. What do you know about places that refuse to stay in one place?
Ezras pulse slowed.
Because something told him
He was about to find out.