Cher scanned the swamp, yet she could not spot a single creature. Before she could say anything back, Lara suddenly vanished.

It happened so fast that Cher had no way to intervene and help. Lara seemed like she had stepped over a deep area of the swamp, a common and quite fatal mistake anyone traversing swamps would make.

"Lara!"

Cher screamed, yet before she would simply do the obvious, jump into the swamp to rescue her friend, Alfred stepped up and stopped her.

And again he put a finger on his lips, with a serious warning look over his face.

"She is fine," he whispered, "she just dived down to take a better look at the monsters, and make her ability work better."

"This..."

Cher moved her eyes between Alfred and the spot where Lara vanished. For long seconds, she hesitated. But when her friend resurfaced, she finally heaved a deep sigh of relief.

"Fine," she muttered, rolling her eyes. She then raised her wristwatch, prepared to send the message she had promised Silas.

"You know, a message would have been nice. We had no idea what was going on..."

"No. Turn it off."

Alfred’s response was, as always, hushed, serious, and immediate. His expression hardened as he pointed toward his own wristwatch. And when Cher looked, she noticed it was powered down.

"The monsters are extremely sensitive to the waves emitted by our watches. That’s why we’ve kept them switched off."

Cher gave him a sceptical look, but Alfred’s serious expression left little room for doubt.

"I’ll head back then and send the message from outside the swamp," she said with a resigned sigh. "But tell me something first... Did you actually succeed? I don’t see any monsters around."

"They’re everywhere."

The answer caught her off guard. Alfred gestured toward the murky water beneath them.

"They stay deep underground, digging through the mud and feeding on the crystals buried below."

His eyes narrowed slightly.

"Honestly, I still can’t imagine how Silas figured this out. There was no way for us to know that these swamps covered such a large exposed section of the mine, or that so many crystal deposits were hidden underneath. If we hadn’t come here ourselves, we would never have discovered it."

A trace of admiration appeared on his face.

"He really is something else."

"Yes," Cher replied quietly.

"He really is."

Cher’s gaze drifted across the landscape as she recalled Silas explaining why they had come to these swamps in the first place. At the time, his reasoning had sounded convincing enough, but now, in light of this discovery, those explanations felt far less significant. Not once had he mentioned that the swamps rested above an exposed section of the mine.

’It seems Darius isn’t the only one keeping secrets from us.’

The thought lingered as she moved away from the valley and the swamp. Yet whenever she remembered the secret she herself was hiding, along with everything Silas had told her before they came here, guilt inevitably followed.

’He knows I’m hiding something important, yet he never tried to force the truth out of me.’

She let out a quiet sigh.

’He instead selected to support me without even wondering about anything.’

At this moment, she realised something. Perhaps she needed to change. If nothing else, she should learn to place the same trust in others that Silas seemed willing to place in both her and Darius.

’At least I need to do it for him.’

The more she thought about it, the more she realized how unfairly she had treated him. Silas knew almost nothing about her, yet he had shown more support and understanding than people who had known her for years.

’And I barely know anything about him...’

The thought stayed with her for a while.

Beyond the fact that he was an orphan, what did she really know about Silas? Very little. In truth, she had never given much thought to how orphans lived in Eldrune.

’Life is already difficult for ordinary people. I can’t imagine what it’s like to grow up without parents or family beside you.’

Another sigh escaped her lips as she finally came to a halt. She had already walked far enough to avoid drawing the attention of the swamp’s monsters.

After sending her message, she turned around and returned to where Alfred and Lara were waiting. Closing her wristwatch, she stood beside them and watched in silence, anticipation slowly building within her, while her thoughts drifted towards the issues of trust and change.

***

Silas walked beside Darius, following him toward a distant garrison post.

They were steadily approaching their destination. After hours of travel, they had encountered neither enemies nor allies. The world around them felt unnaturally quiet, as though everything was holding its breath before the coming storm.

Neither of them spoke much.

Even after all this time, their stalkers had not given up. The hidden observers continued to shadow them from afar, and Silas had gradually become better at spotting their presence.

Then a message from Cher arrived, drawing Darius’ attention.

"They’re together," Silas summarised after reading it. "It looks like they’ll need a few more hours to finish their task."

"Told you," Darius replied with a faint smile, "we still have enough time to make a little tour around."

As he spoke, his gaze shifted beyond Silas’ shoulder, a subtle reminder that they were still being watched. Silas smiled in understanding before returning his attention to the message.

Cher had also mentioned discovering crystal deposits beneath the swamps, praising his decision to send Lara and Alfred there.

Silas couldn’t help glancing at Darius.

’It wasn’t my idea in the first place.’

He knew picking the swamps in that region was one of the many suggestions Darius had given him, and felt his curiosity deepen.

Based on Cher’s message, nobody could have learned about those crystals without personally exploring the swamps. The discovery was too well hidden to be common knowledge.

Which meant Darius had known about this secret, although it was his first time coming to this mine area.

Silas could easily tell that this piece of knowledge was likely the reason he had suggested the location from the beginning.

’How did you know?’

Without the need to think deeply about it, he knew this was related to whatever mysterious power Darius had. And he wanted to know about it now more than ever.

Silas briefly glanced toward the distant stalkers. If not for their constant presence, he would have pressed Darius for an answer.

’Sooner or later, I’ll find out.’