Kelvin stared at Walker for a long moment, as if trying to decide whether the guy was hiding something or if he genuinely didn't remember. Eventually, he sighed and shifted his gaze away.
Closing his eyes, he leaned his head back slightly, his fingers absentmindedly tapping against his armored knee. The air inside the shelter was heavy—thick with exhaustion and unspoken fears.
Hope studied him for a moment before finally voicing the question that had been clawing at his mind since he arrived.
"What is this thing—the 'Veil'?" he asked.
Kelvin's eyes slowly opened, his sharp gaze settling on Hope.
"I don't understand a damn thing. Why is it happening to people?" Hope continued, his voice carrying a frustrated edge.
Kelvin exhaled, his breath steady but deep, like someone carrying the weight of knowledge he wished he didn't have.
"The Veil…" he began, his voice low, as if the very name held power.
"It's been in existence for hundreds of years. Maybe longer. But we never truly noticed how it worked. For the longest time, when people suddenly collapsed in the streets, we thought they had simply died. No signs of illness. No cause. Just—" he snapped his fingers, "gone."
Hope listened, his body tensed as Kelvin continued.
"For a long time, the world thought of it as a mystery—an unsolved phenomenon. People grieved. They buried the 'dead.' But then… some of them started coming back."
Hope's eyes narrowed.
"Back?" he echoed.
Kelvin nodded.
"Days, weeks, sometimes even months later—those who had disappeared would return. But they weren't the same. They had changed. Stronger. Faster. Some with abilities beyond human understanding. It didn't take long for people to notice. Some saw them as miracles. Others…" he trailed off for a second before continuing, "as threats."
Hope swallowed. He had heard rumors before, strange stories from the outskirts—people vanishing, only to return with power. But he had always dismissed them as exaggerations, nothing more than desperate fantasies told by people who had nothing else to believe in.
But now?
Now, he was sitting in the middle of the Ashlands, a world beyond reality, with two strangers—one of whom had just killed a monster that by all means shouldn't exist.
"So… what happens to the ones who don't come back?" Hope asked, his voice quieter now.
Kelvin's expression darkened slightly.
"They stay here," he said.
"Or they die trying to leave."