Looking at the girl in the black dress who was reaching out her arm to him, Shard sighed. After a brief exchange with the voice beside his ear, he reached out his hand to grasp hers. However, at the last moment, the girl in the black dress withdrew her hand.
"Why show such trust to someone who merely brushed past you?"
With her hands clasped behind her back, she looked at Shard, who shook his head:
"Helen, when I helped you at that banquet years ago, was there a reason?"
Helen Black gazed at Shard, her lips slowly curving into a smile. They looked at each other until Helen suddenly burst out laughing:
"Oh, sir, I thought my disguise was quite successful. It took me some effort to convince Little Zina to help me."
"A successful disguise?"
Shard said, bewildered.
"That's not important. I just wanted to see, sir, what kind of person you really were in your time."
She took a step back, hands still behind her back, moving closer to the mouth of the cave that spat black mist:
