Berger stepped onto the tiled floor of the Twilight Brotherhood's headquarters.
The faint echo of his footsteps carried through the vast hall. He slowed almost instinctively as his gaze drifted across the familiar arches, the balconies, the floating platforms, and the long corridors branching off into shadows.
So much was the same, yet everything felt so different…
The gnome's lips curled into a faint smile, remembering the time when Gerald Acadia had brought him to this place for the first time.
I was so young back then, Berger thought.
But the Old Man, he… he had always been old.
Memories surfaced in his mind of old arguments held within rooms, exchanges with allies that were no more, moments of certainty when the Brotherhood's purpose had felt clear and unshaken.
He walked across the vast hall. On the way, most people did not recognize him. But some did. And they couldn't help but begin to follow behind him, their eyes blazing with rekindled hope.
