The light from Cadrel's arm didn't fade.
Lucian stood frozen, eyes locked on the glowing glyph carved into Cadrel's forearm.
It was the same jagged mark they'd just seen etched into Vel Quen's stone walls.
Alice's voice was barely a whisper. "Is that... your glyph?"
Cadrel didn't respond.
His gaze was unfocused, like he wasn't fully in the present.
Cadrel's breathing came short and fast, eyes darting toward the spiral behind them like he expected something to emerge from the shadows.
"Cadrel." Merry moved beside him slowly, voice low and even. "You're safe. You're not in the tunnel anymore."
He flinched at the word tunnel.
"I didn't write it to be remembered," he said, voice hoarse. "I wrote it so I wouldn't forget who I was. Because the silence down there wasn't empty—it pressed. It talked back."
Lucian took a cautious step closer. "You think you've been here before?"
"No," Cadrel said. "But this place knows where I was."
He dropped to his knees.
