The mountain path narrowed into a jagged ridge, its edges scorched black where lightning had kissed the stone. Kael's boots crunched over brittle gravel, the echo of each step devoured by the open sky. Behind him, the valley slept again, quiet as a breath held too long.
He should have turned back. But something in him—something raw and restless—pressed onward.
Not the System.
Not a quest marker.
Just… instinct.
"Sometimes the way forward is the step no one told you to take."
Elijah's voice, maybe. Or a ghost of it. The kind that lingers in old bones.
Kael reached the ridge's crest—and stopped.
Across the wind-carved expanse stood a figure.
A man, wrapped in a gray cloak, hood low, posture casual—too casual. His arms were crossed, but the slight bend in his knees betrayed readiness.
"Didn't think you'd make it this far alone," the man said.
Kael said nothing.
The man tilted his head. "Not gonna ask who I am?"
"I don't need to," Kael murmured.
There was no recognition. No memory shard triggering, no System ping. And yet… Kael knew him. Like a dream you forget until it's standing in front of you, wearing your brother's face.
[System Error: Identity Link Fragmented.][Recalibrating...][...Unable to resolve.]
"Still broken, huh?" the man said with a grin. "Guess some echoes take longer to reach."
Kael's hand drifted toward the hilt at his hip. Not out of threat. Out of grounding.
"I've fought things that wear my face before," he said. "If you're here to test me, don't waste your time."
The man shrugged. "Test you? No. Just watching. Curious, mostly. To see if you're really him."
"Him?"
The man tapped his chest. "The Kael I knew wouldn't have flinched from truth. Wouldn't have let grief become a mask. He would've torn the sky down if it meant saving someone."
Kael's heart tightened. "Then maybe I'm not him."
The wind blew hard across the ridge, sending the stranger's cloak fluttering.
"That's the trick, isn't it?" the man murmured. "You never were just one of us. You were all of us. The best and worst. The wrath and the mercy."
Kael stepped forward. "And who are you?"
The man gave a soft laugh. "Still figuring that out. But I think you'll need me soon. Things are waking, Kael. Things older than the System. Things even the Scorched King ran from."
He turned to leave.
Kael's voice caught in the wind. "Wait—"
But the stranger had already vanished. No flicker. No portal. Just… absence.
[System Recalibrated. New entry logged: Unknown Observer — Classification: Possible Past Life Fragment.][Memory Thread: Inaccessible. Locked behind Echo Protocol II.]
Kael stood there a long time. Listening.
Not for the System.
Not for ghosts.
But for himself.
And when he finally moved again, it was not because he knew where he was going—
—but because he knew what not to run from anymore.