"Doesn't remember the difference between being rescued and being consumed," Gad repeated, the words settling heavy and terrible in the quiet room. "Mira, are you certain that's what it showed you."
"I'm certain of what I saw," Mira said, her breathing slowly steadying now that the vision had passed. "Whether it's telling the truth, I don't know. But it felt real. It felt like grief, Gad. Old, exhausted grief, from something that's been alone for longer than any of us can imagine."
Bellan sat forward, urgency overriding his exhaustion. "Two guardians. If that's accurate, it reframes everything. The entity bound to you and Doran might not be the original threat at all. It might be the surviving half of something that was meant to exist in pairs."
"And the other half," Doran said slowly, "
