It is.
I see it.
The way his eyes shift. Unfocusing for a split second.
The way his breathing changes. Uneven. Too fast.
A memory trying to surface. Fighting through whatever was put into his head.
“They were behind you,” Drazan says, voice rough now. “You turned. You didn’t even hesitate.”
Kael flinches. Small. Real.
“You pushed me,” Drazan continues. “Told me if I stayed, we’d both die.”
The silence stretches.
Kael’s grip tightens on nothing now, his fingers curling in the air where Drazan had been.
“I wouldn’t—” Kael starts, but he stops because something in him knows.
Or is starting to.
Something else has taken its place.
Grief. Confusion.
Truth, trying to find its shape.
“I lost her anyway,” Drazan says again, softer this time.
Not for emphasis. Not for effect. Only because it hasn’t stopped being true.
Kael’s head lifts.
His eyes lock onto Drazan again. Differently.
Not anger. Not accusation.
Something that hurts.
“You didn’t abandon me,” Kael says slowly.
The words sound strange, like he’s still figuring them out as he says them.
Drazan doesn’t hesitate.
“Never.”
Kael exhales slowly, the sound rough and uneven.
He drops his hand. For the first time since all of this started, he doesn’t look like he’s about to fight.
He looks like he’s trying to understand how to live with what he’s remembering.
No one moves for a long moment. The world feels… paused.
Kael stands between us, shoulders rising and falling slower, like he’s forcing control back into something that doesn’t quite fit the way it used to.
