The figure did not move.

  And yet, its presence was expanding.

  Darius felt it before he understood it. A wrongness creeping through his bones, an absence pressing against his lungs. A knight behind him muttered a curse, gripping his sword tightly. Another took an uneasy step backward. Darius held his ground. The thing standing before them was not human. But it was watching. The silence between them stretched. Then the figure spoke again.

  "You do not remember me."

  The words did not reach Darius' ears. They pced themselves inside his mind. Like a memory that had never been his. Darius' grip tightened around his sword hilt. "Who are you?" The figure tilted its head slightly. Its form shifted—not moving, but adjusting. Like a thought trying to reshape itself. "Who are you?" it echoed. Darius exhaled slowly, keeping his stance firm. "I am Captain Darius Vaelthorne of the Imperial Knights." The figure remained silent. Then—

  It ughed.

  No sound. No vibration in the air. Just the memory of ughter, pced inside Darius' mind. The knight behind him gasped, his breath catching in his throat. Darius took a step forward. "What have you done to these people?" The ughter stopped. The figure moved. Not walked. Not stepped. It simply was in a new pce. Standing inches from Darius. His breath froze. His body refused to react. Because for a single, horrifying moment—

  He did not remember how to move.

  The figure leaned forward, though it had no face. And then, it whispered. "What is a knight?" Darius' mind buckled. His thoughts twisted, his memories recoiling as if they had been caught in a storm.

  What was a knight?

  He knew the answer. He had been trained since childhood. He had lived by the code of chivalry, by honor, by duty. And yet— The words would not form. The meaning of knighthood was unraveling inside his mind. Darius gritted his teeth, forcing himself to move, stepping backward, breaking the thing's hold on him. The moment he did, his thoughts smmed back into pce.

  His sword was in his hand before he even registered drawing it.

  The figure did not react. It simply turned its head toward the other knights. The youngest among them—Sir Alden—stood frozen, his eyes gssy, his lips moving silently. Darius grabbed his shoulder. "Alden." The knight's breath hitched. He turned, eyes unfocused. "C-Captain... I—" He stopped. His hands shook. His body trembled. And then, he dropped his sword. It cttered against the ground. Darius watched in horror as Alden fell to his knees, hands pressed against his temples.

  "I—" His voice broke. "I don't... I don't know... what I am."

  Alden looked at his own hands as if they were foreign to him. His breathing grew erratic. "What... is a knight?" Darius felt ice crawl up his spine. Alden was forgetting himself. Not his name. Not his life. The very concept of what he was. Darius grabbed his arm, shaking him. "Alden! Look at me!" But Alden's eyes were already empty. Darius turned back to the figure. "What have you done?" It did not answer. It simply tilted its head. Then—slowly, carefully—it raised a single hand. And pointed toward the sky. Darius followed its gesture—

  And the stars were gone.

  His breath caught in his throat. The sky above Solmaria was hollow. No stars. No moons. No consteltions. Nothing. A void that had never been. The knight beside him colpsed. Darius turned just in time to see Alden's body fall sideways. He caught him before he hit the ground. The young knight's chest still rose and fell. His pulse still beat beneath his skin.

  But his eyes were bnk.

  And Darius knew. Alden was no longer a knight. Not because he had abandoned his duty. Not because he had betrayed his oath. Because the idea of knighthood had been taken from him. Darius slowly rose, turning to the figure once more. His grip tightened around his sword. "Who are you?" This time, it answered.

  "I am IX'ZYRETH."

  Darius' pulse stopped. Because he recognized the name. Not as something he had heard before. But as something he had always known. Something buried deep within his soul. Like a name that had existed before nguage.

  IX'ZYRETH raised its hand once more.

  And this time, it pointed directly at Darius. Then, in a voice that had no sound, it whispered: "What is a hero?" And Darius' mind began to break.