Nobody moved after Elias spoke.
Sarya looked at him, waiting for the sentence to make sense on its own, and when it didn't, she asked directly.
"What do you mean, we're too late?"
Elias didn't answer immediately. His attention remained fixed on the Nexus, on the second light now pulsing gently beneath her skin, visible even through her clothing in the dim evening air. Beside him, Aren stared at the same light with an expression that wasn't panic, exactly, but something worse.
Recognition.
Sarya caught it. "You've seen that before."
"No," Aren said.
He paused.
"I've seen what happens after it."
---
She repeated the warning the Nexus had spoken through her, the words still ringing strangely in her own ears.
"Don't let them open the First Road."
Father stepped closer, his voice sharp with the particular urgency of someone trying to hold onto solid ground. "Who's *them*?"
Nobody answered.
