The forest had gone quiet.
Not peaceful.
Quiet.
The kind of silence that made every distant sound feel wrong.
The Traveler walked between the trees, his footsteps pressing into damp earth.
His body had healed.
The wounds were gone.
The pain was gone.
But something inside him had changed.
He could still hear Arafial's laughter.
Not in the forest.
Inside his mind.
The Traveler stopped.
He looked toward the river.
The surface was almost perfectly still.
He stepped closer.
For a moment, he saw himself.
White hair.
Blue eyes.
Pale face.
The same tired expression.
Then the reflection changed.
The eyes became dark.
The face became colder.
The reflection smiled.
The Traveler didn't move.
"You're still here."
The reflection answered.
"I never left."
The voice was Arafial's.
Dark Arafial.
The Traveler slowly turned around.
Nothing.
Only trees.
He looked back at the river.
Arafial stood in the reflection.
Black clothing.
White hair falling around his face.
Eyes darker than the deepest part of the night.
The Traveler stared at him.
"Why do you keep appearing?"
Arafial's smile faded.
"Because you keep asking questions."
The Traveler was silent for a moment.
Then he finally asked the question that had been growing inside him since the Abyss.
"What is the Abyss?"
Arafial didn't answer immediately.
The river moved slightly.
His reflection remained perfectly still.
The Traveler continued.
"I've been there."
"I've seen the throne."
"I've seen you."
"I've heard that voice."
Arafial looked at him through the reflection.
"And?"
"What is that place?"
A long silence.
Then Arafial spoke.
"The Abyss isn't a place."
The Traveler frowned.
"It has a throne."
"Yes."
"It has a world."
"Yes."
"It has you."
Arafial's expression became colder.
"It has me because I made it."
The Traveler's eyes narrowed.
"You made the Abyss?"
"I made what became the Abyss."
The Traveler waited.
Arafial finally stepped out of the reflection.
He appeared beside the river.
No one else could see him.
His feet didn't disturb the grass.
He stood there like something that had never truly belonged to the physical world.
The Traveler looked at him.
"Then tell me."
Arafial stared toward the dark forest.
"You want the truth?"
"Yes."
"You may regret it."
"I already regret enough things."
For the first time, Arafial didn't laugh.
He looked almost tired.
Almost.
"The being you call Arafial..."
He paused.
"...was never supposed to be divided."
The Traveler remained silent.
Arafial continued.
"There was once a complete Arafial."
"Not me?"
"Not exactly."
Arafial looked at his own hand.
"Not the version you're looking at now."
The wind moved through the trees.
"The complete Arafial was one existence."
"One consciousness."
"One body."
"One soul."
His voice became quieter.
"He carried creation and destruction at the same time."
The Traveler stared at him.
"Light and darkness?"
Arafial shook his head.
"No."
"Light wasn't good."
"Darkness wasn't evil."
"They were simply parts of what he was."
The Traveler remembered the two figures he had seen.
The white one.
The dark one.
Two men.
The same face.
The same eyes.
The same presence.
Arafial looked at him.
"You've already seen them."
The Traveler said nothing.
Arafial continued.
"Then you already know what happened next."
"No."
The word came quietly.
"I don't."
Arafial's gaze hardened.
"The beings above him tore him apart."
The Traveler's expression changed.
"Above him?"
Arafial looked upward.
Even though there was nothing but the black ceiling of the forest.
"Things older than kingdoms."
"Older than most gods."
"Beings who existed above the world itself."
The Traveler's voice became quieter.
"Why?"
Arafial's eyes darkened.
"Because they were afraid."
"Of him?"
"Of what he could become."
The river suddenly rippled.
Arafial continued.
"They couldn't kill him."
"So they divided him."
The Traveler stared at him.
"How?"
Arafial's voice became almost emotionless.
"They tore the complete Arafial into three parts."
He raised one finger.
"Light."
A second.
"Darkness."
Then he looked directly at the Traveler.
"And the human body."
The Traveler's face went still.
"...me."
Arafial didn't answer.
He didn't need to.
The silence answered for him.
The Traveler looked down at his hands.
"So I'm not the complete Arafial."
"No."
"I'm a piece of him."
"Yes."
"And you..."
Arafial looked away.
"I'm another."
The Traveler swallowed.
"Then where is Light?"
Arafial's expression changed.
Only slightly.
But for the first time, there was something underneath his coldness.
Uncertainty.
"I don't know."
The Traveler looked at him.
"You don't know?"
"No."
"You were there."
"Yes."
"You remember what happened."
"Some of it."
"Then where is he?"
Arafial's eyes became distant.
"I don't know."
The answer was simple.
Almost cruel in its simplicity.
The Traveler stepped closer.
"You are Arafial."
"I am Dark Arafial."
"You were part of the original."
"Yes."
"How can you not know?"
Arafial looked at him.
"Because they didn't separate us equally."
The Traveler said nothing.
"They tore me away."
He touched his chest.
"They sealed the Light half somewhere beyond my reach."
His voice lowered.
"And they left you here."
The Traveler's eyes narrowed.
"Why?"
"I don't know."
"Then what do you know?"
Arafial stared at him for several seconds.
"I know that when they tore us apart..."
He paused.
"...you cried."
The Traveler froze.
"What?"
Arafial looked away.
"You were only a body."
"But you still cried."
The forest seemed to become colder.
"They had already separated the Light and Dark halves."
"Then they were preparing to destroy the remaining human vessel."
Arafial's voice became quieter.
"You were screaming."
The Traveler stared at him.
"I don't remember."
"You weren't supposed to."
Arafial's expression remained cold.
"But I remember."
For a moment, neither spoke.
Then the Traveler asked:
"Did you try to save me?"
Arafial looked at him.
"No."
The answer was immediate.
Cruel.
Cold.
But something about his eyes betrayed him.
"I couldn't."
The Traveler remained silent.
Arafial continued.
"I was already being dragged away."
"The Light half disappeared."
"And you..."
He looked at the Traveler.
"...were thrown into the human world."
The Traveler looked toward the river.
"So that's why I don't remember."
"You don't remember because the memories weren't yours alone."
"They belonged to the complete Arafial."
The Traveler slowly looked back at him.
"And the Abyss?"
Arafial's expression changed.
"The Abyss was created afterward."
"By you?"
"By what remained of me."
The Traveler stared.
Arafial continued.
"When I was separated from the others, I had nowhere to go."
"No world accepted me."
"No heaven wanted me."
"No earth could contain me."
"So I created somewhere that belonged to nothing."
He looked toward the darkness beyond the trees.
"The Abyss."
"The place without a beginning."
"The place without an end."
"The place where nothing could claim me."
The Traveler's voice was barely audible.
"And the throne?"
Arafial smiled faintly.
"Mine."
"Why?"
"Because I needed somewhere to sit."
The Traveler almost smiled.
Almost.
But Arafial's next words erased it.
"And because I needed somewhere to wait."
"Wait for what?"
Arafial looked at him.
"For the other pieces."
The Traveler's chest tightened.
"You were waiting for us?"
"I was waiting for you."
"And Light?"
Arafial looked away.
"I still am."
The Traveler studied him.
"You miss him."
Arafial's eyes sharpened.
"Don't mistake silence for weakness."
"I didn't."
"You did."
"No."
The Traveler looked directly into his eyes.
"You miss him."
Arafial said nothing.
For several seconds, the two stood beside the river.
Then Arafial finally spoke.
"I don't know where Light is."
His voice was quieter now.
"I don't know whether he is alive."
"I don't know what those beings did with him."
"I don't know whether he remembers me."
He looked at the Traveler.
"But I know one thing."
"What?"
"If the Light half is still somewhere..."
Arafial's eyes became almost black.
"...they didn't destroy him."
The Traveler stared.
"How do you know?"
Arafial smiled.
"Because if they could destroy an Arafial..."
He stepped closer.
"...they would have destroyed me too."
The Traveler looked down at the river.
His reflection was normal again.
Only him.
Blue eyes.
White hair.
A human face.
But now he knew.
He wasn't simply a human who had strange powers.
He wasn't simply a vessel.
He was one-third of something that once stood above gods.
And somewhere beyond worlds...
another piece of him existed.
Or perhaps waited.
The Traveler looked at Arafial.
"Then what happens if the three pieces meet?"
Arafial's smile disappeared.
For the first time since appearing...
he looked genuinely serious.
"You don't want to know."
The Traveler's eyes narrowed.
"Tell me."
"No."
"Why?"
Arafial looked directly into his eyes.
"Because the last time the three pieces were together..."
The wind stopped.
"...the beings above us became afraid."
A pause.
"And when gods become afraid..."
Arafial whispered,
"...they destroy worlds."
The Traveler said nothing.
Arafial began fading.
The Traveler immediately spoke.
"Wait."
Arafial stopped.
"One more question."
"What?"
"Do you want to find Light?"
Arafial stared at him.
For a long moment, there was no answer.
Then his cold expression returned.
"I want to know where he is."
"That's not what I asked."
Arafial's eyes narrowed.
The Traveler continued.
"Do you want your other half back?"
Silence.
Arafial looked toward the night sky.
Then, almost too quietly to hear:
"I want to know what they did to him."
His body began disappearing.
"But wanting something..."
His eyes returned to the Traveler.
"...and finding it are two different things."
Then he vanished.
The river continued flowing.
The Traveler stood alone.
But now...
the silence felt different.
Because somewhere beyond the worlds...
there was another Arafial.
A missing half.
A sealed existence.
And neither the Traveler...
nor Dark Arafial...
knew where he was.
Yet something deep beneath the Traveler's collarbone suddenly pulsed.
Once.
Twice.
Then stopped.
Far away—
somewhere neither heaven nor earth could reach—
something opened its eyes.
And for the first time in countless ages...
the Abyss felt it.
A presence had returned.