Chapter 667: A Suspicion

"I don’t have a plan," Elion admitted.

Maya turned her head toward him, and the look she gave him made his mouth twitch faintly.

Under different circumstances, he might have found it amusing, but the lingering taste of disgust at the back of his throat had done little to improve his mood.

"You just told her to take us to her town."

"And I’d like to see whether it exists." He lowered his voice further as they passed the statue. "But I do have a suspicion about this master she keeps mentioning."

Mayumi moved closer on his other side, while Cole slowed enough to listen. Elion waited until Eva had turned her attention toward the road again before continuing.

"A monster, perhaps. Or a demon with some ability to mess with people’s minds. If there really are others here, and they believe the same things she does, then something could be enthralling them."

Maya’s expression darkened as she considered that.

"Making them believe being eaten is a blessing?"

"Among other things," Elion replied. "Its just a suspicion at this point. But she can’t remember her own name, but she remembers that promise of paradise perfectly. I don’t know how much of what she says is something she actually understands."

Mayumi folded her arms, rubbing one hand over the other as though the air had grown colder. "And you think this thing could have done that to an entire town?"

"If the town is real," he said. "For now, all we have is her word."

He looked toward Eva again, watching her step over a shallow fissure in the paving.

She turned to point it out to them, warning them to be careful with the same earnest concern she had shown while offering to share her food.

But then he noticed a shiny thread leading up to her.

It was little more than a faint disturbance at the edge of his vision, so delicate that he almost dismissed it as a trick of the dim light. But when Eva moved, the filament moved with her.

Elion’s steps slowed.

It was impossibly thin, far finer than a strand of hair, and so nearly transparent that even with his eyes he struggled to keep it in view.

A pallid gleam travelled along it for the briefest instant, revealing a length that extended toward the little girl before vanishing into the centre of her chest.

His gaze followed it upward.

The thread rose past her shoulder and continued toward the narrow opening between the rooftops, passing into the strip of sky visible overhead.

He focused more closely, drawing the distant portion into sharper view, but beyond a certain point, it faded from his perception.

He tried again, his brows drawing together.

’Nothing.’

He could follow it only so far before it became indistinguishable from the air around it. Whether it continued toward something above the city or changed direction beyond his sight, he couldn’t tell.

"Elion?" Maya murmured.

He lowered his gaze, finding her watching him. Eva had paused farther ahead, her head tilted curiously as she waited for them to catch up.

"There’s something attached to her," he said under his breath. "A thread of some sort. I can barely see it."

Maya’s eyes looked immediately toward the girl, but judging by her frown, she saw nothing unusual. Elion didn’t blame her; without his ocular abilities, he doubted he would have noticed it himself.

"Do you know what it does?"

"Not yet."

He resumed walking before Eva could grow impatient, though his gaze remained on the tenuous filament.

It followed her every movement without tangling or slackening, its lower end disappearing beneath the fabric of her dress as though neither cloth nor flesh offered any resistance.

’What exactly are you connected to?’

The question stayed with him as they passed beneath the remnants of an enormous arch.

Beyond it, the buildings grew taller and more densely packed, their foundations descending into narrow trenches beside the road.

Stone walkways spanned these gaps, and through the broken sections, Elion could see other passages far below, their floors swallowed by a sombre blue haze.

The city seemed to possess depth upon depth, entire streets laid beneath others, with stairways disappearing through apertures in the walls.

A few were choked with debris, while others remained unnervingly clear, their worn steps descending beyond the reach of the afternoon light.

Eva ignored them all.

She followed a route that seemed perfectly familiar to her, turning between two monolithic buildings before leading them along a narrower passage.

The air here smelled of cold mineral dust, and each footstep returned a faint echo from the walls, accompanied occasionally by the dry scrape of loose stone beneath their boots.

Overhead, a fractured cornice supported the remains of a sculpted figure. Its face had worn away, leaving a smooth hollow above folded hands, and Elion found his gaze lingering on it before he forced his attention back toward the girl.

They had been walking for roughly ten minutes when Eva finally stopped.

"We’re here!" she announced, turning toward them with a pleased smile.

Elion looked past her, then slowly around at their surroundings.

The passage ended between two towering walls. Broken masonry lay scattered along their bases, and directly ahead stood an enormous boulder, its dark, irregular surface veined with pale streaks.

It occupied almost the entire width of the space, wedged against the surrounding stone as though it had fallen there long ago and never moved again.

There was nothing else. No gate or any entrance, and certainly no sign of the town she had promised to show them.

"Here?" Cole asked, looking from the boulder to Eva.

She nodded enthusiastically, apparently finding nothing strange about their confusion.

"Follow me!"

Before anyone could question her, she turned and stepped directly into the rock.

Its surface rippled.

Elion stared as the stone yielded around her small body, the dark veins bending and distorting in widening rings. For an instant, her outline remained visible within it, blurred beneath a trembling sheen, and then she disappeared entirely.

The boulder became still and completely normal again.

"Huh?"