Vyan froze for a moment as the whisper slithered through his mind like smoke laced with caution.
"Don't do it."
His eyes snapped wide, wine-red irises flashing with a flicker of rage. "Don't do what?"
"Don't go into the past and try to change it."
A bitter laugh escaped him. It echoed in the stillness around him like a mockery of hope.
"Oh, now you speak?" he snarled. "Now you decide to grace me with your divine wisdom? I've been calling for you—begging—for days. Screaming into the void, into the church, while time slipped through my fingers like sand and nothing changed. And suddenly, here you are... just because I'm doing something forbidden?"
"Where were you," he whispered, voice cracking, "when the dark mages were slaughtering innocent people for their rituals? When villages burned and people bled in the name of dark power? You didn't stop them. You didn't stop Jade or Sienna—so why me? Why now? Just because I want to save someone?"
