The air was colpsing. Not in wind. Not in sound. Not in light. But in existence. The figure raised its hand. Darius felt his name slipping.

  His body blurred at the edges, his thoughts dissolving before he could grasp them.

  Ais's fingers cwed into her scalp, her breath coming in choked gasps.

  She was fighting it. She was losing. And then— Something broke. Not the world. Not reality. But the erasure itself. The figure froze. And in that instant—Darius was whole again. His thoughts smmed back into pce. His name was still his own. He could still think.

  Still breathe.

  Still exist.

  And that should not have happened. The figure tilted its head. Not in confusion. Not in fear. But in acknowledgment. As if it had just seen something impossible. And in a voice that was not sound, it whispered— "Not yet."

  Then—it was gone.

  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  Darius staggered backward. His lungs heaved for air.

  Ais colpsed to one knee, gripping the ground as if to anchor herself to existence.

  For a long, shattering moment, neither of them spoke.

  Neither of them moved.

  And then, finally, Ais whispered— "That... doesn't happen." Darius turned to her, his pulse still hammering. "What?" She lifted her gaze, her expression carved from shock. "The Inquisition doesn't stop." Her voice was hoarse. "Once they find you, once they begin the erasure... there is no stopping it."

  Darius swallowed hard. "But they stopped."

  Ais exhaled sharply, still shaking. "Which means something is wrong."

  The words hung heavy between them. Darius clenched his fists. "Then we need to move. Now." Ais nodded, pushing herself upright.

  The Thanatarchy had hesitated.

  That meant there was something they had not accounted for. And that meant—there was still a way to fight. They just had to find it. Before it was too te.