They walked for another stretch before Shad returned to a subject that had been bothering him.
"Rosalind."
Veyris glanced back.
"What about her?"
"Fray said she's been hunting him for some time. You seem to know her."
"Of course I know her. She's an officer stationed in Grevlyn."
"That doesn't answer the question."
Veyris smiled.
"I'm beginning to understand why people find you difficult to talk to."
"Do they?"
"Frequently, I imagine."
Shad waited.
Veyris eventually sighed.
"Rosalind is competent. More competent than most people at her level, though competence and good judgment aren't always the same thing. She has responsibilities in Grevlyn, and she takes them seriously."
"Does she know Fray is back?"
"Probably."
Fray's expression became more attentive.
"Probably? Well, that's hardly surprising. We met again in Oakhaven shortly after our arrival, during that incident with the assassins. It's obvious she recognised me."
He paused, considering the matter before continuing.
"But I wonder why she acted as though she'd never seen me before, or even remembered me."
His brows drew together slightly.
"She didn't exactly get a good look at my face when we fought, but that doesn't mean she couldn't have noticed that I was the same person she'd encountered years ago."
He let out a heavy sigh, clearly unwilling to exhaust himself over the matter.
Veyris spoke a moment later.
"Don't worry about her remembering you and your past crimes and atrocities."
"Then how can you be so certain that I shouldn't be worried?"
"Because she's not an idiot. Someone with your habits doesn't simply disappear for years, return to the same region, and leave no trace. Whether she has enough information or reason to act against you is another matter."
Fray gave a thoughtful hum.
"Yeah, of course she's fully aware I'm back. But she isn't certain she can defeat me. Or perhaps she's afraid of fighting me."
His demeanour shifted as he spoke, taking on the boastful, prideful air of someone who had begun to enjoy his own theory.
"Or she might have other priorities. You're not necessarily the most important thing happening in her life," Veyris cut in.
Fray looked offended.
"That's a terrible thing to say."
"It's also a very ordinary possibility."
Shad watched Fray's expression settle into something more contemplative.
Rosalind's behaviour did seem unusual to him. She had been suspicious, observant, and capable, yet the matter with Fray had remained unresolved even after their encounter in Oakhaven. Veyris's explanation offered several possibilities without confirming any of them.
Shad decided not to press the matter further. It wasn't as though he fully understood what the two were discussing, anyway.
There would be time to learn more about Rosalind later, provided they returned to Grevlyn.
And that was becoming a less certain prospect with every step they took toward the forest.
---
The cold continued to cling to the land, but as the Dark Forest drew nearer, Shad found himself thinking about something else.
"There's one thing you haven't answered."
The words came out a little awkwardly, but Veyris understood what he meant.
He glanced back.
"Only one?"
"About the time issue."
For the first time, Veyris did not immediately reply.
Shad continued.
"You said earlier that you didn't know much about the forest's true nature. Yet you've been speaking as though you understand it. Fray believes time moves differently inside the forest. You seemed to accept the possibility, but you didn't sound surprised."
The explanation came out more awkwardly than Shad intended. Both Fray and Veyris, however, acted as though nothing was wrong. Shad was a fast learner, Fray would give him that, even if he wasn't quite as quick as Fray himself.
Don't sell yourself short, you bastard.
The Lonely King spoke as though irritated with Shad. Shad paid him no mind.
The mental identity gave a quiet tsk.
"Now that he mentions it, you did seem rather indifferent to the idea," Fray added.
Veyris sighed.
"So you noticed."
"Were you pretending not to know?" Shad asked.
"Not exactly."
"Then what were you doing?"
"Waiting to see how much you already understood."
Fray stopped walking for a moment.
"You could have just said that."
"And you could have asked me directly instead of making assumptions."
Fray resumed walking with an irritated click of his tongue.
Veyris seemed satisfied with himself.
"Yes," he continued, "time behaves strangely inside the Dark Forest. But saying that it moves more slowly is an incomplete description."
Shad's attention sharpened.
"Care to explain?"
"Your perception of time is being distorted. Slowed, elongated, and separated from the ordinary sense of duration you experience outside the forest. The relationship between the time you experience and the time that passes beyond it isn't as straightforward as you seem to believe."
Fray frowned. Shad, meanwhile, struggled to fully grasp what Veyris meant, though he found himself understanding more of the explanation than he would have before. He rarely spoke to anyone other than Fray, but he was learning quickly.
"Are you saying the forest doesn't actually make time pass more slowly?" Shad asked.
"I'm saying that what you experience as time and what happens beyond the forest don't necessarily correspond in the way you expect. To put it simply, you perceive time at a much slower rate."
Veyris paused before adding, "I don't know precisely how it works. I don't know what causes it—or perhaps I do, but either way, that's not your concern. I can't tell you whether the forest itself is responsible or whether something deeper is involved. I only know that the difference is real."
Shad considered his words.
It was a frustrating answer, but it was also more honest than pretending to understand a phenomenon that even Veyris couldn't explain. At least, that was how Shad interpreted it.
"How long do you think we were in there, if I may ask?" Shad said.
Veyris studied him.
"By your reckoning, how long do you think you stayed?"
Shad did not answer immediately.
The Dark Forest had never been easy to measure. Its strange terrain, creatures, and ecology made ordinary expectations unreliable. He could remember stretches of exploration that felt far longer than they should have, as well as periods in which the passage of time had become difficult to judge altogether.
Fray had spent time in the forest long before Shad arrived, and his experiences were not necessarily comparable.
"I don't know, but by my count, I'd say eight years," Shad finally said.
"Neither do I," Fray admitted. "Well, not exactly. I think I spent close to six or seven years there before I met him."
He pointed at Shad.
Shad had plenty of questions to ask Fray, but he decided to hold them until they returned from their expedition and could speak alone.
Veyris nodded.
"Then I'll give you an estimate. Based on what I know, the duration you experienced could have amounted to roughly seventy-six years. Possibly eighty-two."
For several seconds, neither Shad nor Fray spoke.
Fray was the first to react.
"Eighty-two years?"
"Possibly. Seventy-six is another reasonable estimate. I wouldn't pretend that either number is exact. Although, if I had to choose, I'd settle on eighty-two. It seems more plausible."
Shad stared at him.
He had expected an unusual answer. He had not expected one that stretched their experience across the better part of a century.
The number was difficult to reconcile with the life he remembered before entering this world, with the time he believed he had spent in the forest, and with the people and settlements they had encountered beyond it.
"How can you estimate something you admit you don't understand?" he asked.
"By comparing what I know with what I've observed. That doesn't make the estimate certain."
"Then why give us the numbers?"
"Because a rough estimate is more useful than pretending no estimate can be made."
Shad accepted the distinction, though he remained unconvinced that the figures could be trusted.
More importantly, Veyris didn't seem entirely sincere about how he knew the duration or about several other things he had told them. Shad couldn't care less about that for now.
Fray, however, seemed more disturbed by another implication.
"Then what about the people outside? How much time has passed for them?"
"Roughly the same amount, as far as I can determine. After all, it's a matter of perception."
"And you know this because...?"
"Because I've lived through it."
Veyris looked toward the forest, his expression becoming thoughtful.
In truth, his Mind and Sense Flow Forms had helped him navigate the distortion. Without them, he might have become just as lost in its peculiarities as the two standing beside him.
"I trained there once. I spent a considerable amount of time within its boundaries before eventually leaving. I've seen enough to know that the discrepancy isn't merely a matter of imagination."
Shad turned to him.
"You trained in the Dark Forest?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
Veyris smiled.
"Because I wanted to become stronger. Why else would someone enter a place like that?"
It was such an ordinary answer that Shad found himself more suspicious of it than he would have been had Veyris offered some elaborate explanation.
"And when did you leave?" he asked.
Veyris's smile faded slightly.
"That's where things become interesting."
He slowed, allowing Shad and Fray to draw level with him.
"I left the forest at almost the same point in its history as the period associated with your arrival."
Shad stopped walking.
Fray turned fully toward Veyris.
"What?"
Veyris looked between them.
"Did I stutter?"
"You're saying you left the forest around the same time Shad arrived?" Fray asked.
"Approximately. The dates aren't precise enough for me to claim that our experiences align perfectly."
Shad's expression remained still, but his thoughts had become considerably more active.
He had been told that Veyris recognised him as human from their first encounter. Now the General was claiming that his own departure from the forest corresponded closely with the period in which Shad had entered it.
There were too many uncertainties to call it proof of anything. Veyris might have been mistaken about the timing, or the forest's distortion might have made comparisons unreliable.
Yet the coincidence was difficult to dismiss.
"And Fray?" Shad asked.
Veyris glanced at the Reptilus.
"Your situation is less straightforward. From what you've told me, you may have been in the forest longer than four years by your own reckoning, though I suspect your sense of duration isn't a reliable measure of how long you've actually been there."
Fray folded his arms.
"So, we're all confused about time, and you happen to have an estimate that might be wrong."
"That's a remarkably uncharitable summary."
"Is it inaccurate?"
"Not entirely."
Fray shook his head.
"Wonderful."
Veyris laughed softly and resumed walking.
"But consider this: I trained in the same forest, experienced the same distortion, and eventually left it. Now I find myself standing beside two people whose circumstances seem to overlap with my own in ways that are difficult to explain."
He glanced back at Shad.
"Tell me, human. Do you believe in coincidence?"
Shad met his gaze.
"Maybe I do, maybe I don't. It all depends on the circumstances."
For a moment, Veyris said nothing.
Then his smile returned.
"An interesting answer."
"It's a practical one."
"Perhaps."
Veyris turned forward again, and the conversation ended without either of them offering another explanation.
Shad continued walking, but his attention was no longer entirely on the path ahead.
He had entered the forest knowing almost nothing about the world. He had survived by learning, adapting, and refusing to accept every explanation offered to him. Yet the longer he remained here, the more he encountered things that appeared to connect his circumstances to events far beyond his understanding.
The possibility that Veyris's history intersected with his own was another piece of a puzzle he had not yet discovered how to assemble.
Or perhaps he was simply overthinking things.
For now, he would have to settle for remembering it.