The light inside the pendant began to dim gradually until it vanished completely, and the little eye remained still between Kael's fingers, cold and motionless, as though it had not opened a whole door inside his head moments before, as though everything that had passed through him had been nothing more than a brief thing cut off before it could complete itself. But he did not lower his hand at once. He remained staring at it for long seconds, longer than they should have been, while his breaths came out heavy and uneven, and his chest rose and fell in a slow disturbed rhythm, as though his body had not yet understood that what he had lived was a vision and not reality, and that he was still standing where he had been, and had not truly fallen from that roof.
He slowly raised his other hand and placed it over his chest, for no reason except to make sure that his heart was still in place, because the beating inside him was so strong it unsettled him. Then he passed his fingers over his face and the side of his neck, as though dragging himself back to the present moment, but the images did not want to leave him so easily. The fall was still there. The impact was still there. The sun striking his eyes from the front was still sharp in his memory, and the line of armored ostriches, the guards standing above them, the swords pointed toward him, and the footsteps that approached him slowly—all of it remained lodged inside him as though they had not been mere flashes, but a complete ending he had been forced to see before he even knew how it began.
Kael tightened his breathing, then let it out slowly, and tried to force calm into his voice when he said:
"Calm down... calm down first."
He fell silent for a moment, then said in a lower voice, but a clearer one:
"What I saw was not normal... it was not like a passing flash or a blurred image... it was clearer than it should have been."
He lowered his gaze to the pendant again, his eyes narrowing slightly.
"I saw myself running... I saw myself fall... and I saw them before me as though it had already ended."
He shook his head once, slowly, as if refusing to let that scene impose the outcome on him before he understood the reason.
He stopped.
He was trying to rearrange the scene in his head, not as he had felt it, but as it had unfolded inside the vision. First the officer. Then the market. Then exposure. Then escape. Then the roofs. Then the woman and the child. Then the fall. Everything was present, but it did not connect in a comfortable way, as if the vision had given him pictures bound by hidden threads he had not yet managed to grasp.
Only then, as if something opened in his mind, did he remember the one thing that had remained clear without distortion.
The whisper.
It was not an image.
It was not a scene.
It was clearer than everything he had seen.
Kael raised his head slightly, fixed his gaze into the empty space before him, and said slowly:
"The whisper..."
Then he repeated it, as though fixing it in his mind so it would not scatter with the rest of the images:
"There were two whispers... no, they were not just passing sounds. They were the only thing that was said to me clearly."
He tightened his fingers lightly around the pendant, then said with quiet tension:
"Steal..."
He paused briefly.
"And run..."
He remained silent after that, then turned the two words over in his head slowly, as though afraid of misunderstanding them if he hurried.
"Steal... and run."
He repeated them again, then said to himself:
"So this is the foundation... this is the one thing that was not blurred."
He kept looking at the ground before him, his thoughts moving heavily.
"But what does that mean?"
He lifted his hand slightly in the air, as though the words were suspended before him.
"Steal what? From whom? And why run?"
Then he fell silent for a moment and took a slower breath, as though he was beginning to think more calmly this time.
"Does the escape come after the theft? Or is escape the result of something else?"
He lowered his head slightly, his brows drawing together.
"Did I see what will happen because I choose the wrong path? Or is this the only path in the first place?"
He remained silent.
He still did not understand.
And that troubled him more than anything else.
If the vision had been completely clear, he would have moved. If it had been completely blurred, he would have ignored it. But this maddening middle ground between clarity and obscurity was pressing on his head like something real.
"No... there isn't enough."
he said at last, in a low voice, but heavier than before.
"All I have are scenes... and two words."
Then he raised his eyes and said as if forcing a method upon himself:
"Then I don't think about everything at once... I think only about the clear part."
He breathed again, then said slowly:
"Steal... run."
He fell silent.
Then added:
"That means I have to choose something... and that there is danger after that."
And in that same moment—
he heard footsteps.
They were not far.
They were close enough to cut off all his thoughts at once.
He lifted his head immediately and froze for a short moment, then turned very slowly toward the source of the sound, his eyes moving ahead of the rest of his body, searching the alley for whoever it was.
Then he saw him.
Officer Kairen.
And he needed no more than a single moment to be sure.
The same officer.
The same armor.
The same shape of belt and shoulders.
The same way of walking.
Even the way he held his head while moving was exactly what Kael had seen inside the vision moments before.
Kael went still where he stood, his eyes fixed on him, as though afraid the man would vanish if he blinked.
Then he said in a very low but clear voice:
"That's him..."
And after another moment, as his certainty deepened, he said:
"The same man... this is the officer I saw in the vision."
He felt a light coldness pass through his chest.
It was no longer just meaningless images.
One of them had stepped into reality.
It was walking before him now.
"Will the vision happen now?"
The question slipped out of him before he meant it.
He kept watching Officer Kairen as he came closer. At that same time, Kairen was speaking to one of the nearby men in an ordinary tone that suggested nothing unusual.
The officer said as he passed:
"Keep the road clear. I don't want any crowding near the market at this time."
The man answered quickly:
"Understood. We'll move the goods at once."
Officer Kairen did not stop. He continued in the same direction Kael had seen him move within the vision, and that alone was enough to bring the tension back into Kael's body, but this time more sharply, because what had been a vague possibility only moments ago had now become a real scene coming toward him step by step.
Kael tightened his breathing and tried to force himself into steadiness.
"If this is the first possibility..."
he said in a low voice, then stopped.
He did not finish the sentence, because another thought burst into his mind before it could settle.
The vision had not stopped with the officer.
He had seen something else after him.
Something calm... different.
A woman.
And a child.
And shining fruit inside a basket.
And before he could finish that thought—
he heard another sound, but this time from the opposite direction.
A child's laugh.
Distant at first, but clear.
Kael turned quickly toward its source, and before he saw anyone, he began to hear the irregular patter of small footsteps, and the sound of a child speaking happily, then a second laugh closer than the first.
In that instant his eyes widened slightly.
"No..."
he said slowly.
"Don't tell me..."
He did not finish.
Because he began to see the movement taking shape at the end of the alley.
A woman.
And beside her a child.
They were still a little far away, but the sound was drawing closer, the image becoming clearer, and Kael now stood between two directions, not one: on one side, the officer he had seen in the vision, coming in the same way, and on the other, the woman and child who had not reached him yet, but whose presence alone was enough to bring the rest of the vision back to him.
He remained where he was for a moment, his gaze moving between the two directions.
Officer Kairen.
Then the child.
Then the officer again.
Then the woman.
Then he said in a low strained voice:
"Both..."
He clenched his jaw.
"The vision didn't put only one path before me... it put both before me."
He did not understand fully, but he knew one thing: if he stayed where he was any longer, he would not have time left to decide anything.
"I need to hide first... and watch."
he said quickly this time.
His eyes swept around him fast, until they landed on a nearby wall where there was a narrow opening between two close-set walls, rising upward. Tight, but enough for him if he moved carefully.
And in that moment he made his first decision.
Not whom to follow.
But where to hide.
He did not hesitate again.
He rushed toward the narrow space between the two walls. Tight, rough, but enough. He placed one foot first, then a hand, and began to push his body upward in measured slowness. His back scraped against the stone, his shoulders squeezed within the gap, and his breaths broke apart, but he smothered them and forced himself into silence. Every movement calculated. Every scrape measured. So that no stone would fall. So that no sound would be heard. Because any mistake now would not be a passing one.
"Don't make a sound... not now..."
he said in a voice so low it barely emerged.
He lifted himself higher, braced his feet against the two walls, then pulled his body up in one motion until he reached the edge. He placed his hands on the rooftop, then hauled himself up with one final quick effort and slipped onto it.
And the moment he reached it—
he did not stand.
He did not sit.
He dropped immediately, lying flat on his stomach, pressed against the roof as though trying to disappear into the surface itself. He stretched his arms slightly, fixed his body in place, then crawled a short distance away from the edge.
"In the vision... I was exposed..."
he whispered.
"This time... no..."
He held still.
Did not raise his head much.
Did not look directly.
He only tilted his face slightly, enough to see without showing himself.
Below—
Officer Kairen arrived.
His footsteps were directly beneath him now.
The slight scrape of his armor was audible, and the sound of his movement was clear. He was not in a hurry, only natural, and that made the tension worse, because nothing in him suggested suspicion.
Officer Kairen said as he passed:
"Do not leave the watch. I don't want anyone standing here, understood?"
A voice from farther away answered:
"Understood."
Officer Kairen kept going.
And in the same moment—
the other sound came closer.
The child.
Closer.
Clearer.
He laughed once, ran two steps, then came back, and the light sound of his feet became very close.
Kael tightened his breath.
He did not look directly.
He only listened.
Then—
the sentence came.
"Mother, what is the name of that big tree?"
He froze.
As though his body had been cut off.
His eyes widened, but he did not move.
Then came the answer.
"That is the Tree of Nureen. Its fruit strengthens the body and helps healing."
Kael closed his eyes for one second only, then opened them slowly and said in a very low voice, continuous and clear, as though pinning the truth before himself:
"It's the same... the same sentence... the same voice... nothing changed... so what I saw was not a distant possibility, but something that can happen now... but why is it not happening the same way... why is everything calm..."
He remained still.
But his whole body was drawn tight.
Below—
the scene crossed.
The officer passed from one side.
The woman and child passed from the other.
For one instant only—
the three of them were in the same place.
Just like in the vision.
But—
nothing happened.
He was not exposed.
No one stopped.
No voice rose.
The officer passed.
The woman passed.
The child passed.
Quietly.
Normally.
As though nothing was there.
Kael opened his eyes a little wider and looked slowly.
"Why...?"
he said in a low voice.
"Why are they here... but not as I saw them...?"
He tightened his breathing.
"Was the vision... a warning...? Or a path...?"
And before he could finish—
small grains of dirt slipped from beneath his arm.
Then more.
Then they fell.
Quietly.
But it was enough.
They landed on Officer Kairen's shoulder.
The officer stopped at once.
Stopped where he was.
Raised his head.
Looked directly upward.
And said in a clear tone, slightly tightened:
"Where did this dirt come from?"
Kael froze.
He did not move.
Even his chest stopped rising for a moment.
"Don't move... don't move... don't move..."
he repeated inwardly in quick succession.
He began pulling his body backward in extreme slowness, one inch only, then stopped, then another, every movement measured, because any scrape might send more dirt falling.
Below—
Officer Kairen kept looking.
He did not move.
His eyes stayed fixed on the roof.
And in the same moment—
the child's voice came.
Softer this time.
Hesitant.
"Mother... is there something there?"
The mother stopped.
"What do you mean?"
The child said, looking upward:
"I felt... like there was someone above..."
Silence.
A heavy silence.
Kael did not see their faces.
But he heard everything.
Every word.
Every breath.
And he felt that the distance between him and being discovered was no greater than a single moment.
"Did they see me...?"
he asked himself, in a very low voice.
"Has it... ended...?"
He tightened his breathing more.
"Did I make a mistake when I climbed up...?"
He stopped.
Then added, in a lower tone still:
"Should I have stayed below... or was this the right choice...?"
He did not move.
He did not dare.
He remained lying there.
His body tense.
His breathing so faint it could barely be heard.
Waiting.
Only waiting.
Between two possibilities—
that everything would pass as though nothing had happened...
or—
that he would be exposed in the next moment, with no chance at all to escape.