Chapter 476: The Anomaly That Shouldn’t Be

Chapter 475: The Anomaly That Shouldn’t Be

"How?" Orion asked quietly.

The word hung in the air between them.

Eldric did not answer at once.

For the first time since the conversation had begun, he looked...unsteady and unsure.

"Honestly," Eldric said at last, his voice low, "I do not know."

Eldric exhaled through his nose and lifted one hand, rubbing lightly at the bridge of his glasses.

"You are an anomaly," he said, looking at her again.

"That should not be possible," Eldric continued. "What you do...is not meant to happen. Even now, I am still trying to understand how you are able to turn the outcome of a vision."

Orion’s brows drew together.

"So these are the answers you promised us?" he asked quietly.

There was no anger in his voice.

Only disappointment.

Eldric did not flinch from it.

"No," he replied honestly. "They are not."

He paused before he spoke again.

"They are only what I have."

"I know some things," Eldric said quietly. "But I do not know all things."

His gaze returned to Sophia.

"And your visions," he added, "are something I also wish to understand."

Something in his eyes darkened.

"I want to know how you are able to change them."

Sophia swallowed.

She had never thought of it as something strange.

Not truly.

"I don’t—" she started, then stopped. Her fingers curled against her palm.

"I just don’t wait," she said softly.

"If I see something," she continued quietly, "I don’t wait until it happens. I try to change it before it does."

Her voice wavered just slightly.

"Even if it’s something small. Even if it’s barely anything. I just...do something. I don’t stand still and hope it fixes itself. If I do, then I’ll miss everyone I love, every friend I’ve made. I can’t wait for something to happen before taking action. If I can prevent it, then I’ll do everything in my power to prevent it," she said.

Eldric listened without interrupting.

When she finished, he shook his head slowly.

"Even when one attempts to change a vision," he said gently, "once it is foretold, it always comes to pass. One way or another."

"But in your case, you always change the outcome, and I’m not talking about the one where your friends died. You changed the vision of you and Orion being killed by Dolion in the cave," he told her.

The world tilted.

Sophia stared at him.

Her heartbeat slammed painfully into her ears.

"What?"

She turned sharply to Orion.

He was already looking at her.

Then she looked back at Eldric.

"I didn’t," she said.

Her voice came out thin.

"I didn’t see any vision like that."

The vision she had seen had been about Ronan.

Eldric’s gaze did not waver.

"I did," he told them.

Before either of them could speak, Eldric lifted his hand and gestured faintly around the room.

At the cluttered table.

At the stacks of parchments scattered around with drawings on them.

"I have seen many visions since my time here," he said quietly.

Sophia’s eyes followed the motion of his hand.

"Many of them," Eldric continued, "are not ones I can control."

A shadow passed through his expression.

"They arrive without warning, without context. Sometimes, without a beginning nor an ending."

He lowered his hand slowly.

"Dolion was not meant to be dead yet. But the both of you killed him..."

"Orion did," Sophia interrupted.

Eldric smiled at that. "It was the both of you," he told Sophia. "Orion knows I’m not lying."

Orion stared at Eldric. He spoke the truth.

"I know why you could kill him, but I don’t understand how you could kill him before he was meant to be gone," Eldric told them.

"I don’t know how you do it," Eldric admitted softly to Sophia. "But you change what you see. You turn the outcomes of your visions."

Silence swallowed the room.

Then—

A sudden dark line slipped from Eldric’s nose.

Sophia’s eyes widened.

"Eldric—"

He lifted his hand quickly, wiping at it with the back of his fingers.

A thin streak of red smeared across his skin.

He turned his face slightly away.

"It is time for me to go," he said calmly.

Orion took a step forward, a frown on his face.

"You’re bleeding."

"It is nothing," Eldric said quietly.

But his hand lingered at his face a moment longer than it needed to.

Sophia’s chest tightened.

Something about the way he said it made her stomach twist.

Eldric lowered his hand.

The blood was gone.

But the tension in the room had deepened.

"Before I do," he said softly, "there is something I want the both of you to know."

"I do not know why the goddess sent you now," he told Sophia. "The prophecy was foretold a long time ago. So I do not know why the prophecy chose this moment to come to pass."

His eyes drifted briefly toward the far wall, where an old, faded carving was half-hidden behind stacked shelves.

"But I suspect," he continued, "that perhaps there is a greater threat. One worse than Dolion—especially if you could kill him—one that I suspect already exists," Eldric said quietly.

Orion’s fingers curled slowly at his side.

Sophia felt a chill crawl down her spine.

"And if my suspicions are right," Eldric went on, "then the two of you cannot afford to walk separate paths."

He looked at Orion.

Then at Sophia.

"You must work together. The road will be tough, but you must work together."

A sad, faint smile touched his lips.

"In a way," Eldric murmured, "you both remind me of them."

Sophia frowned.

"Of who?"

But Eldric’s gaze was already drifting.

"The goddess," he said softly, "and Dolion."

Sophia stiffened at that. She had not been expecting those words at all.

Orion’s face twisted instantly.

His expression sharpened, irritation flaring through the tight lines of his jaw.

"That’s not funny."

Eldric’s smile did not fade.

"It is not meant to be."

Orion scoffed quietly.

"I’m not going to try to kill Sophia," he said flatly.

Eldric did not react.

"Nor am I planning to take her powers," Orion added sharply.

He glanced briefly at Sophia, then back at Eldric.

"So how exactly do you get that comparison?"

His voice rose just enough to carry the edge in it.

"How is it that you think she and I remind you of the goddess and Dolion?"