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Void felt the weight of the world flash through her eyes. Sorrow, anger, regret and acceptance. Every single emotion bloomed and faded in her bionic irises, as if she'd weathered the same storm a thousand times. Except Void knew that she had probably gone through more than that. Perhaps more than he could ever imagine.
"He was a guardian. Wrestling against the world to protect everything he could. But, eventually, it all caught up to him. " Elsie shifted back to the chasm, silently watching the winds brush against the ivory cliffs.
"Did he fail?" Void uttered, watching the grim expression fade from Elsie's face as it slowly turned into a subtle frown.
"No." Her eyes slowly drifted towards him, and her voice turned heavy. "He changed."
Elsie blinked softly and let out a sigh, "Or maybe he had just switched to the next plan. I don't know, and frankly, I don't care." She snapped out of her remorse.
"What I'm more interested in is how you know me," she said, finally facing him. "Not just where I was, but who I am. And where I came from.."
Void slowly raised a brow. He parted his lips, but then chose not to speak. There was no way to answer the question. What could he do? Confess that he knew what she went through?
Impossible. As if sensing his thoughts, the system window flared to life.
[Warning! Player cannot reveal or discuss restricted knowledge with others!]
Seeing his hesitation, Elsie's jaw tightened. She waited. A moment, a second and even a minute had passed, but Void still had no answer.
Finally, she snapped.
"I am from the future," she said, like pulling a trigger, her eyes instantly watched him for the recoil.
He was a heartbeat late. "What?" Void blurted out in confusion, using the best impression he could to simulate the shock.
But it was enough. Elsie had already seen through him.
"Don't pretend, you weren't even fazed when I said that," she said. " But why would you be? You already knew. You knew who I was. You knew where I would be. You knew where I was from. How?"
She waited. Void held her gaze and weighed silence. The moment stretched thin.
[Warning!]
[Warning!]
The system screamed to life.
'Of course it's listening in now,' Void cursed under his breath. He wanted to say something, anything, but the moment the words came to mind, he'd see the ominous warning incessantly appearing in front of him. However, he knew this was the perfect chance.
Perhaps the only chance to get her on his side. Void's thoughts raced as he studied Elsie's reaction. There had to be a way to express it. A way to give her the answer she needs.
Elsie scoffed, slung her rifle, and turned away. "If you're not going to answer, consider this meeting done."
She took one step. Void's thoughts snapped to a point.
"Wait."
Elsie froze.
He made his choice. He set his palm to the hilt and drew. The blade came up slowly. Pale bled off the edge and curled around his wrist like a cold breath.
Elsie's head tipped, attention hard on the steel. "What are you doing?"
"I will show you," Void said.
She frowned. "Your sword?"
"It's not just a blade." The pale deepened, seeping into the air around it. The world seemed to grey around him.
Her eyes narrowed. "What exactly are you showing me?"
"Truth."
The pale aura uncoiled, soft at first, then cruel in a way that felt old. The world thinned. The jungle quieted as if it had been told to listen. Wind from the chasm slowed and then stopped. The lush green all around them dimmed toward a lifeless, phantasmal grey.
A wisp came up out of the line of the sword. It coiled around Void, sinuous and serpentine. Its claws rested on Void's shoulder like a claim. A long, draconic head bent downwards as if it whispered in Void's ears.
«Greetings, to the one who wanders through time,» Zamyr's voice seeped into the world, like a loud whisper or an eerie hiss.
Elsie's eyes were set on the dragon. Her eyes traced its form, as if she'd never seen one before. "An Ahamkara," she said, soft and flat.
Void nodded. "Zamyr."
She paused, but Void felt the change in her demeanour as if a knot had become undone in her mind. He had succeeded in planting possibility in her thoughts.
"Why would one of them help you?"
"Because I wished for it," Void said. "During the Ahamkara hunt, before all this. I fought it, tooth and nail. I had killed many of its kind already. Knowing what was next it gave me a chance. One simple wish to spare its life." He glanced past her at the far horizon, then back.
"I asked for it then." Void continued, "For a way to survive, a way to keep everything around me safe. To win whatever long game of light and dark I was in."
"That doesn't just happen," Elsie cut in, disbelief crept into her mind.
"It didn't," Void replied, "I realised too late that I had asked for a wish so grand that perhaps none could help me. Perhaps the Ahamkara realised it too. But there's always a twist. Always a way."
"What it gave me instead was a fickle hope, an illusion of power. A way to know what would happen, but I'd still be powerless to stop it. "
Void spoke slowly, ensuring each word dug into Elsie's mind.
"What it gave me was knowledge."
Elsie stared at the phantom's claw on his shoulder, then at the sword. "It told you about me?"
"It told me many things. Whispered them to me when I fashioned a sword out of the ones I had killed. At first, I thought it was useful. However, I soon realised that I could no longer escape the whispers. " Void said, trying his best to put on an aggrieved expression.
"I was given knowledge I couldn't act on or share with anyone. So I felt trapped. But then." Void looked at her with conviction, "It told me about you. It said that someone could help me. Someone who had travelled through time to undo all that was lost." He allowed himself a breath. "When I first saw you in the Cosmodrome, I instantly knew you were the one it mentioned. That's why I asked for your help."
Void pressed his lips into a line.
He'd painted the picture as best he could. Woven small lies, just to slightly offset the truth. Seeing as the system hadn't reacted, he had done it successfully. Void had made sure to pin everything on Zamyr; there was simply nothing that couldn't be explained once one brought in a wish dragon.
The pale aura eased, and Zamyr's phantom coiled itself back along the blade, fading as if it had simply been an illusion. Slowly, colour seeped back into the leaves and the winds remembered to move.
Elsie watched the phantom vanish. Her fingers flexed on the rifle once, then stilled. "It's...hard to believe," she replied in a low voice.
"Maybe," Void said. "But it's true. Then again, isn't it harder to believe that you really are from the future?"
His words seemed to strike her. Void knew he had succeeded.
Elsie went quiet. A moment later, she retorted.
"So the dragon whispers in your ear, and you believe it?"
"I don't, not always," Void replied with a smile. "But seeing your reaction, seems like it was right. "
She sighed and released the grip on the rifle. "Fine. I believe you, but do you really trust me?"
"I don't have a choice, Void immediately replied. "If you're from the future, you know things I haven't seen yet, perhaps things that I'll never see."
Void's voice turned low, "Judging from your aversion, you've definitely met me before." His words echoed as his voice cascaded down the chasm. Void frowned as the gears in his head turned. "It was me, wasn't it? The one who changed."
"What if I said yes?" Elsie spoke up, her eyes looked to him for an answer, any answer.
"I'd believe you." Void pursed his lips, "But then, I'd tell you you're making a mistake."
Void turned away from the cavern to face her fully, "I'd tell you that I am not him. I don't know what he did, I don't know what he sacrificed, but at the end of the day, I haven't made those decisions yet."
"I would only ask you for a chance. Whether I trust you or not doesn't matter. It's not a choice I can make. Because, regardless, I'll end up needing your help."
As his words settled in her ears, Elsie's shoulders eased a fraction. "I understand," she said.
She looked back over the chasm. The breeze caught her cloak and tugged. "If I help," she said, "I won't be able to tell you everything. There might be times you doubt my judgment. Are you fine with that?"
"I am burdened with enough knowledge," Void tapped the sheath of his blade, "Knowing less wouldn't be a problem."
"Good." She stepped back from the edge and looked down at her watch. Time was ticking. "Come find me again. I'll be waiting for you there in a few hours." Elsie pointed towards a small outpost across the chasm.
A bunker in the distance.
"For now, I am on borrowed time," she said, counting the seconds as the small hand of the clock wound to the top. "As for how to help, I think I'll know the way."
"Wait, I still have more questions-" Void blurted out, his instincts flaring. He could feel time itself tense up.
But before he could say another word, Elsie looked down at her watch; the hand ticked, and like clockwork, she vanished.
No trace of her remained, as if she'd never stood here in the first place.
Void sighed and slowly turned his gaze towards the outpost. He walked towards the edge of the chasm, his figure blurring into the wind with a jolt, and he leapt across.