They broke camp before dawn.
The fire had burned down to embers, and the plain beyond the forest lay under a thin layer of mist. The air smelled metallic, like rain that hadn't fallen yet.
Eris noticed something strange as they walked.
The landmarks didn't stay put.
A jagged stone pillar they passed on the left appeared again an hour later—this time on the right. Shallow craters rearranged themselves when he wasn't looking. Even the horizon seemed to shift, bending subtly as if the land were breathing.
"This place is wrong," Eris said.
Kaelion nodded. "You're walking across a mobile path."
Eris blinked. "A what?"
"A stretch of land not anchored to a single outcome," Kaelion explained. "It adjusts itself based on probability. The more unstable the traveler, the more it moves."
Eris sighed. "So… it's reacting to me."
"Yes."
"Of course it is."
They continued in silence for a while, boots crunching softly against dark gravel. Then Eris spoke again.
"If the path keeps shifting, how do we know we're going the right way?"
Kaelion stopped and turned to him. "We don't."
Eris frowned. "That's comforting."
Kaelion's expression was calm, but serious. "Certainty is what the Watchers use. We rely on direction, not destination."
He tapped his chest lightly. "And right now, everything ahead of us pulls toward the eastern fault line."
Eris looked ahead. The mist thinned there, revealing towering rock formations split by glowing seams.
"What's there?" Eris asked.
Kaelion hesitated.
"A city that was never meant to exist."
Before Eris could ask more, the ground shifted violently.
Not like an earthquake—
like a decision being made.
The path beneath them bent sharply, tilting. Eris stumbled, barely catching himself.
From the mist ahead, figures emerged.
Not hostile.
Not armed.
People.
Men, women, different ages—all dressed in mismatched clothing, carrying packs and tools. Their faces showed exhaustion… and relief.
One of them raised a hand cautiously. "You're real, right?"
Kaelion relaxed slightly. "As real as you are."
The woman laughed weakly. "Good. We were starting to think we were the only ones left."
Eris stepped forward. "Left from where?"
"From before," another person said. "Before the correction."
Kaelion's eyes darkened. "You were displaced."
The woman nodded. "Our city vanished overnight. One moment it was there, the next… it wasn't supposed to have ever existed."
Eris felt a chill. "The Watchers did that?"
"Yes," Kaelion said quietly. "They erased a future that didn't align."
The group exchanged uneasy glances.
"So what happens to us?" the woman asked.
Kaelion looked at Eris.
This time, he didn't answer for him.
Eris felt the weight of the Clan's words press down on him.
Choose people over prophecy.
He took a breath. "You come with us."
Kaelion raised an eyebrow—but didn't object.
"There's a settlement beyond the fault line," Kaelion added slowly. "It's hidden. Unstable enough to be ignored."
The woman exhaled in relief. "Thank you."
As the group began to move together, the land beneath them settled—just a little.
Eris noticed.
"The path stopped shifting," he said.
Kaelion nodded. "You made a choice. The world responded."
Eris looked at the people walking beside them—tired, scared, alive.
For the first time since the vault, the Watcher's Trace was silent.
Not observing.
Waiting.