The air between them was still thick, clinging to the skin like smoke after a fire. Eron sat cross-legged on the ground, his fists pressing into the dirt hard enough to make his knuckles ache. He didn’t even notice. His eyes were fixed on the old man leaning against a warped cane a few steps away.
For minutes—maybe longer—they hadn’t spoken. The silence wasn’t exactly hostile anymore, but it was far from peaceful. It was the kind of silence where every unspoken word pressed against the back of your teeth, just waiting to spill out.
Finally, the old man broke it. His voice was quiet, almost like he was talking to himself."I never thought I’d have to explain all this to anyone," he said. "People ca, they lived, they... disappeared. And the land swallowed the rest."
Eron’s jaw flexed. "You brought them here." His voice was calr than before, but the accusation was still there—sharp, bitter.
The old man didn’t flinch. "I did." His eyes drifted across the crooked walls, the way the ground seed to pulse faintly underfoot if you looked too long. "And I already told you the reasons because the land called to . Not in words you’d hear with your ears—no, nothing so plain. It whispered into my bones. Promised shelter. Promised safety. And I believed it."
There was a dry laugh, but it wasn’t humor. It was the kind of laugh you made when you rembered the exact mont you ruined everything.
Eron’s voice tightened. "And when the first families suffered? You still brought more?"
The old man lowered his gaze. "Yes. I thought maybe it was their fault. Maybe they’d broken so rule. Offended the land sohow." His grip on the cane tightened until the wood creaked. "When you live under sothing’s shadow long enough, you start thinking its rules are truth. You bla the victims because the alternative, that you’re powerless, is too much to bear."
Eron wanted to lash out again, to call him a coward, a liar, but... there was sothing raw in the man’s tone. No excuse. Just a confession.
"How long," Eron asked slowly, "before you realized it wasn’t them?"
The old man closed his eyes. "Too long. By then, half were gone. The rest... broken. And I was bound here."
"Bound?" Eron’s brow furrowed.
"This land isn’t land," the old man murmured. "Not really. It’s a... shadow. Like I have told you this is a mory of a place that still exists sowhere else. What you see now isn’t the true cursed ground—it’s only an echo. But the real one?" His voice lowered, almost reverent. "It’s still out there. Still feeding."
Eron blinked. "An illusion?"
"More than that. Illusions can be dispelled. This is tethered to the real thing—just a fraction bleeding into this part of the Realm.
For the first ti since arriving, Eron’s anger cracked into curiosity. "If this is just a shadow, then what happens if soone finds the real one?"
The old man’s eyes t his, and there was no hesitation in his answer. "The one who finds it won’t leave the sa. If they leave at all."
The words sat heavy between them.
Eron looked down at his calloused hands, turning the old man’s words over in his mind. He’d seen strange things in this ga—beasts that warped logic, magic that bent reality—but this? A cursed land existing in two places at once, one as a lure, the other as the trap... it felt strange. More scarier.
He glanced back at the old man. "So you stayed here because you can’t leave?"
A slow nod. "This place has my na woven into it. My shadow, my breath, my life. I leave, I fade. It keeps ... as its keeper." His mouth twisted into sothing like a smile. "Or maybe its prisoner."
Eron exhaled through his nose. "You’re a fool."
The old man actually chuckled at that. "Aren’t we all, in so way? You ca here chasing that quest, didn’t you? You have gained enough knowlege to complete it."
Eron didn’t reply.
The silence stretched again, but it felt different this ti. Not as jagged.
When the old man spoke again, it was softer. "The land doesn’t just kill. It changes people. Sotis... they don’t even realize they’ve changed until they’re unrecognizable. I’ve seen n turn into shadows, won vanish in the blink of an eye, children speak in voices that weren’t their own. And every ti, the land hums. Like it’s satisfied."
Eron’s shoulders tightened. "And you kept bringing people here knowing that?"
A pause. "I thought I could... outsmart it. Pick the right people. Bring ones strong enough to survive. But it wasn’t about strength. It was about... taste. The land chose who it wanted."
Eron swallowed hard. There was a bitter taste in his mouth. "You’re not telling everything."
The old man’s eyes dropped. "Because I don’t know everything. That’s the worst part. I’ve been here longer than I can rember, and I still don’t know what lies at the heart of the real cursed ground. I’ve never seen it. Only felt it. Like a heartbeat far away, waiting for to walk toward it."
The image lodged in Eron’s mind—a heartbeat in the earth, pulsing slowly, patiently.
For a long while, neither spoke. The hum of the land filled the silence. Not loud, but persistent, like sothing ancient breathing beneath them.
Finally, Eron stood, brushing dirt from his hands. "I can’t forgive you," he said, his voice level. "But I think... I understand you."
The old man looked up. "That’s more than I deserve."
"Maybe," Eron replied. "Or maybe it’s exactly what you deserve. Understanding doesn’t an forgetting. It just ans I know why you’re here—and why you can’t leave."
The old man’s gaze followed him as Eron turned toward the faint shimr of the exit that had suddenly ford in the center of the room. "If you ever find the real one," he called after him, "don’t go in alone."
Eron didn’t answer. But his pace slowed, just slightly.
As he stepped through the shimr, the hum of the cursed land faded behind him, replaced by the cool quiet of the outside world.
And though he wouldn’t admit it out loud, a small part of him already knew—soday, he’d be going there.
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