The elder sister reached the settlement just before dawn.
She expected lanterns.
Voices.
People moving through the streets.
There was nothing.
Every house was sealed.
Wooden shutters covered the windows.
Doors were bolted from the inside.
Even the small market at the center of the settlement was abandoned.
The elder sister stopped.
Her breathing was heavy.
She looked around.
"Everyone..."
No answer.
She tightened her grip around the Traveler.
"Why is everyone hiding?"
A faint sound came from one of the houses.
A lock being checked.
Then another.
Someone was watching her through a gap in the shutters.
The elder sister raised her voice.
"It's me!"
The shutter closed immediately.
Her expression fell.
She looked down at the Traveler.
He remained unconscious.
"Don't tell me the Blood Moon..."
She stopped.
Something moved against her shoulder.
The Traveler's fingers twitched.
She froze.
His breathing changed.
Once.
Twice.
Then his eyelids moved.
The elder sister lowered him carefully against the wall of an empty house.
"Traveler?"
His eyes opened.
Blue.
Clear.
Human-looking.
He stared at the unfamiliar sky.
Then the buildings.
Then the woman kneeling beside him.
Confusion crossed his face.
He slowly sat up.
"Where..."
His voice was rough.
He looked around again.
"...am I?"
The elder sister stared at him.
"You don't remember?"
The Traveler frowned.
"Remember what?"
She hesitated.
He touched the side of his head.
His expression tightened.
"I remember the mountain."
A pause.
"The creature."
His breathing became slower.
"The dead."
Then silence.
He looked at her.
"And then..."
Nothing.
A blank space.
The elder sister watched him carefully.
She remembered Arafial's warning.
Do not tell him what you saw.
The Traveler looked toward the sealed houses.
"Why is everyone hiding?"
"The Blood Moon."
His eyes narrowed.
"What happened?"
She didn't answer immediately.
The Traveler looked at his hands.
They were clean.
No black smoke.
No strange darkness.
Nothing that suggested what had happened.
He touched his face.
Then stopped.
Something seemed to bother him.
"My eyes..."
"What?"
He looked at her.
"I couldn't see."
The elder sister's heart tightened.
"You can see now."
The Traveler stared at her.
"How?"
She had no answer.
He slowly stood.
His body was still sore, but surprisingly stable.
He looked toward the settlement.
Every door remained closed.
Every window remained dark.
Then—
one door opened a fraction.
An old man looked through the gap.
His eyes landed on the Traveler.
The door immediately slammed shut.
The Traveler stared at it.
His expression became colder.
"Why are they afraid of me?"
The elder sister looked away.
She didn't know whether they feared him.
Or what had followed him home.
Behind the Traveler's shirt—
the Abyssal Mark pulsed once.
Neither of them noticed.