The moment Ezras fingers closed around the coin, the world lurched.
Not physically. His body remained where it wasstanding beneath the flickering gas lamps, the damp air pressing against his skin. But something behind reality tilted.
A wrongness that crawled beneath his thoughts, slipping into the spaces between his heartbeat.
The figure before him didnt move.
But the shadows did.
They stretched at unnatural angles, twisting around the edges of his vision. The buildings framing Hallowmere Cross looked less like structures now and more like hollow things, waiting to be filled.
Ezra exhaled slowly.
"What did I just agree to?" His voice remained steady, but his grip on the coin tightened.
The hooded figure chuckled softly. "Understanding."
Ezras jaw tensed. "At what cost?"
The figure tilted their head, as if considering. Then
"Youll see soon enough."
The words settled in his mind like a weight, pressing against the edges of his thoughts. Not a threat. Not a promise.
A certainty.
Ezra inhaled, steadying himself. His instincts screamed that something had changed, that the world had already begun shifting around him in ways he hadnt yet noticed.
But there was no turning back now.
He slipped the coin into his pocket, the metal unnaturally warm against his fingertips.
The figure nodded once, as if acknowledging something unspoken.
Then
The gas lamps flickered.
And the figure was gone.
Ezra remained still, listening. Watching. The city around him felt different nowthinner, stretched. As if by taking the coin, he had stepped into a version of Eldenwald that was almost the same but not quite.
He turned, making his way back toward the streets he recognized.
But as he walked, he noticed something.
The signs above the shopsthe words had changed.
Not erased. Not gone.
Just different.
Letters rearranged into patterns his mind struggled to process, shifting when he tried to focus on them.
Like they had never been meant to be read.
Ezras pulse remained even, but his fingers twitched toward his coat pocket, feeling the weight of the book inside.
The First Law had been clear"Reality is consensus."
So what happens when you begin to see things others dont?
A whisper curled through the air, soft as a breath against his ear.
"You are looking too closely, Lockwood."
Ezra turned sharply
But the street behind him was empty.
Only the shadows moved.