Zethar;
"I should have," I answer quickly, because that is the truth.
There's no space left in me for excuses. Not now that everything has been laid out so clearly in front of me. Not now that I understand what that name means, what it carries, what it has already done once before.
I know how I think. I know how I notice things. How I pick at details until they either make sense or refuse to. I know the way my instincts sit in my chest when something isn't right.
I felt it.
I did.
And instead of trusting it, instead of staying long enough to understand it, I turned my back on it like it was nothing.
I bury my face in my palms, my fingers pressing hard against my forehead as the weight of that realisation settles fully.
It refuses to move.
Lioran shifts slightly beside me, his hands resting against his knees as he stares ahead, and I don't need to look at him to know he's thinking the same thing I am. Maybe not in the same way, but close enough.
