Sleep pulled him under like a riptide.
A phone ringing.
A girl's muffled sob.
Tiny shoes abandoned in a rain-slick alley.
"Detective… please, she's all I have."
His own voice, cold, dismissive: "Not my case."
Police tape. An empty bed. Silence.
The dream collapsed into black.
Solved jerked awake, breath ragged, chest tight with guilt that hadn't dulled. The campfire hissed low, Andrew asleep beside it.
"Not again," he whispered. "Not this time."
He rose, slow and deliberate, eyes fixed on Rulf. Grabbing him by the collar, Solved dragged him into the dark, away from camp
He stopped, turned once to look at Andrew—were he laid—then walked on.
Campoff lay hollow, stripped of its noise. The stalls stood empty, doors half-open, the smell of smoke and salt hanging heavy.
Solved moved through the ruins of the port, boots crunching over discarded nets and broken crates. His ribs burned, every breath shallow, but he pressed on.
He almost gave up the search when a sharp whinny split the silence. Not far, behind a leaning shed, the horses waited—tied in haste.
Solved ran a hand along the knots, loosening them carefully.
Before walking back to Rulf.
"Take," he said, thrusting the reins at Rulf.
"Do me a favor—don't try to escape."
He leaned closer. The night air smelled of ash and sweat.
"Because if they catch you afterwards… you'll regret it."
Rulf swallowed bile. The threat clung to his skin.
They led the horses beyond Campoff's, then mounted.
Solved watched Rulf's face as they rode, the reins trembling in the fat man's grip. His eyes darted between the road ahead and the shadows on either side, not with the intent of escaping, but the dread of a man certain pursuit would come.
Solved filed the details away. The shallow breathing.
The way Rulf chewed at his lip almost drawing blood. Not the look of loyalty, nor of courage—this was a man driven by fear, desperation, and a secret he hadn't yet confessed.
The system stayed silent, but Solved didn't need it. The truth was already written across Rulf's sweating brow.
"The moment you show me where they detoured," Solved murmured, "you can turn your horse and run. As far as you can."
For a breath, his voice almost sounded merciful. Almost.
"Thank you," Rulf choked, tears streaking his dirt-caked face. "Thank you so much."
But as they rode, the weight pressed in—the alley corpses, the canyon ambush, faces he could never forget.
Each one tangled to his name. Each one a ledger mark of failure. Guilt eating him, softened the edge of his words.
He didn't want more blood spilled because of him. Not again.
The first light of dawn bled over the horizon as their horses drummed against the soil. Rulf rode ahead, glancing back nervously as he guided Solved through the thinning woods.
At last, he slowed. "Here," he said, voice tight, pointing toward the edge.
Solved reined in beside him. His eyes narrowed. The land ended abruptly. A jagged cliff stretched before them, the rocks below shrouded in mist.
"This is where I… dropped her off," Rulf muttered, his throat dry.
Solved stayed silent. He studied the cliff, the tracks, the way the dirt scattered near the edge. Something was wrong.
A cliff wasn't a handoff point. It was a dead end.
Here's a way you can sharpen that part while keeping the detective + system feel and adding description to the interface:
---
"Are you sure?" Solved asked as he swung down from his horse, boots crunching against the loose gravel. He stepped closer to the cliff's edge, scanning the jagged drop below.
"Yes—I swear!" Rulf's voice cracked. He clutched the reins so tight his knuckles went white.
The system flickered to life.
[ Truth Sight: Fear—Truthful ]
The glowing words shimmered across Solved's vision, translucent overlays against the misty cliff. His detective's instinct already suspected it, but the system sealed it.
He exhaled, turning back. "You can go," Solved said quietly, keeping his promise.
Rulf blinked, disbelief flooding his features. Then, with a desperate nod, he tugged at the reins and spurred the horse away, vanishing into the trees.
Solved stayed behind, staring at the cliff, unease clawing at his ribs. Something still didn't fit.
He crouched near the edge, running his fingers over the disturbed earth. The tracks were wrong—too neat, too deliberate. Not the chaotic scuffs of a struggle or a handoff.
[Unusual patterns detected]
The system highlighted details his naked eye had missed. The dirt wasn't just disturbed—it was arranged. Footprints that stopped exactly three feet from the edge, as if whoever made them knew precisely where to stop.
"Why stop there?" he muttered, crawling closer.
That's when he saw it—a faint wave in the air, like heat waves rising from summer pavement.
But the morning was cool, and the shimmer moved wrong, rippling in patterns that defied wind.
[Truth Sight: Environmental Anomaly Detected]
[Recommendation: Investigate further]
Solved picked up a stone and tossed it of the cliff edge. Instead of the expected clatter of rock against stone far below, there was... nothing. No sound. No impact.
The stone had simply vanished.
His detective mind clicked into place. "Not a cliff," he breathed. "A doorway."
"Nope," he muttered, pacing the edge. Heights were the one thing he hated — just looking down made his stomach drop. What if it's a trap? What if I jump and it's actually a cliff?
But the evidence didn't lie. This wasn't ordinary rock.
The interface shimmered in his vision.
[Entry Possible]
[Warning: Domain-Level Magic Active]
[Proceed with Caution]
Even the system confirmed it.
Solved sucked in a breath. "Fine. Let's do this." He bounced on his feet — right, left, right — trying to force his body into motion while his mind argued otherwise.
Before jumping, Solved arranged three stones in a triangle at the cliff's edge - the international distress signal.
If the royal gaurds was tracking him, they'd know he went down, not back.
He slowed his breathing and forced the focus. "Give me a countdown."
A tiny, almost mechanical voice in his head answered the cadence he wanted.
[Countdown: 3… 2… 1… GO!]
He sprinted to the edge and launched himself off.
For a stupid second he thought, suicide? — and then gravity remembered him and pulled him down.