The town was wrong.

  Darius felt it the moment he stepped past the outskirts.

  It looked ordinary—stone cottages, dirt roads, torches flickering in the evening air. Merchants packed away their wares, children ran through the streets, and the scent of roasted meat drifted from a nearby inn.

  But it was too ordinary.

  Too clean. Too seamless.

  Like a story written after the fact.

  Like something that had not always been here.

  Yet, there it stood, nestled between rolling hills, with no sign that it had ever been anything else.

  Darius inhaled slowly, forcing himself to move forward. The whispers that had led him here were silent now, but he knew—this pce was connected to Solmaria's erasure. He needed to find out how. The people did not look at him strangely as he passed. They did not whisper about a foreigner, did not hesitate to go about their daily business. Because to them, he was just another part of the story. The thought made his skin crawl. At the heart of the town, he found an inn. "The Velvet Mare," the sign read, the wood polished as if freshly carved. He pushed open the door. The warmth of the tavern washed over him—the crackle of a hearth, the murmur of quiet conversations, the smell of ale and bread.

  Everything was as it should be.

  And that was exactly what made it wrong. The bartender—a broad-shouldered man with graying hair—gnced up from wiping down a mug. "Evening, traveler. Need a room?" Darius stepped forward, keeping his voice even. "Just information, for now." The bartender shrugged. "Depends on what you're looking for." Darius studied the man carefully. "Do you know of a knight named Alden?" The bartender's hands froze. For just a second. A fraction of hesitation. But Darius saw it.

  The man forced a chuckle, shaking his head. "Can't say I do. You sure you're in the right pce?"

  Darius didn't blink. "I am." The bartender's grip on the mug tightened. He knew something. Before Darius could push further, a voice spoke from behind him. "You shouldn't be asking those kinds of questions." Darius turned sharply. A woman stood near the back of the tavern, watching him from beneath a hood. Unlike the others, her eyes were sharp. She was real. His breath caught.

  She remembered.

  The moment their gazes met, she turned sharply and walked out the door. Darius immediately followed. She moved quickly through the streets, slipping between buildings, never once looking back. But Darius kept pace.

  Finally, she stopped near the edge of town, where the nterns did not reach, where the shadows were deeper.

  She turned to face him, lowering her hood.

  Dark hair. Pale skin. Eyes that knew. "You shouldn't have come here," she said quietly. Darius stepped forward. "You remember." She exhaled sharply. "Not here. Not now." Her eyes flickered to the side. Not toward the town. Toward the darkness beyond it. Darius followed her gaze. Nothing was there. But the air felt heavier. The weight of something watching. She turned back to him. "If you value your existence," she whispered, "you need to leave. Tonight."

  Darius didn't move.

  "If I leave," he said, "I forget." Her expression hardened. And then, barely audible, she murmured— "Then it's already too te."

  A chill crawled down Darius' spine.

  He felt it, now. The unnatural stillness. The way the shadows stretched longer than they should. The way the stars above seemed less real than they had before.

  Something was here.

  Something that did not belong.

  And it was waiting.

  He turned back to the woman. "Tell me your name." A pause.

  And then— She shook her head.

  "You wouldn't remember it anyway."

  Darius clenched his jaw. "Tell me."

  She exhaled, staring at him for a long moment.

  Then, finally—

  "Ais."

  Darius locked the name in his mind. Burned it into his memory. She was real. She was proof that he was not alone. And that meant the Thanatarchy had failed. But before he could say anything else— A new voice whispered through the night. Not from Ais. Not from the vilge. From the shadows beyond.

  "You should not have found each other."

  Darius and Ais turned sharply.

  And the air rippled. Something was stepping through. Something that had come to correct the mistake.

  And the first hunt of the Thanatarchy had begun.