She stepped closer again, her gaze piercing into his soul.
"I am Elcasore," she said. "Your father, Axaxeal knows me well."
Her eyes gleamed with something ancient and unreadable. "Tell me, Kaisun, do you want to return to your wife?"
Kai snorted, dry and bitter. "Why is that even a question?"
"I can give you a chance," she said calmly. "A chance we've offered only once before… to your father."
She waited, letting the silence draw out like a blade across the skin.
He narrowed his eyes. "How should I believe you?"
Elcasore laughed, a clear, echoing sound, cold as a frozen mountain air. "You sound just like him. But remember, I am not a demon. I cannot lie."
She gestured toward a shimmering distortion in the distance, a shape just barely visible in the molten haze.
