"How do you know this?" Lyara asked, her voice sharp with suspicion.
The figure's expression didn't change. "Because I have seen it."
Jude frowned. "Seen it how?"
The answer came without hesitation. "Because I was there."
A heavy silence settled between them. Jude tried to process the meaning behind those words, but his mind kept circling back to the same impossibility. If they had truly died that day, if they had truly perished on that battlefield, then how could they be here now, claiming to have witnessed what was to come?
Lyara voiced what he was thinking. "You're saying you've been somewhere else. Somewhere… beyond death."
The figure inclined their head slightly. "If that is how you choose to see it."
Jude didn't know what to believe. But he knew one thing for certain, if they were right, if the storm had truly begun, then they were running out of time.
"Tell us what we're dealing with," he said, his voice firm. "No more riddles."
