Lindarion didn't touch the blade.
Didn't move.
Didn't blink.
He stared at it for a long moment, then let his hand fall back to his side.
"I'm not taking it."
His voice didn't echo.
Because this place didn't allow echoes. It absorbed them. Like it ate sound the same way it swallowed light.
Behind him, the veiled figure didn't speak.
Didn't scold him.
Didn't try to change his mind.
It just waited for a while then turned and left without ever saying a word again.
The moment they vanished, the platform beneath Lindarion pulsed once.
That was all the warning he got.
The world snapped sideways.
Like being yanked backward through a tunnel he hadn't seen.
One blink.
Then—
SLAM.
He was back in the same cell as before.
The walls were the same. The unnatural black stone. The humming silence. The fake door that wasn't a door.
He was back where he started.
Only this time, his legs buckled.
He caught himself before he hit the floor—but just barely.
