As if summoned by Einar's words, a sound broke the eerie stillness—a faint, slow clapping.
My heart clenched.
The sound echoed unnaturally, bouncing off the still air and the frozen horizon like it didn't belong. I instinctively turned, my gaze darting across the open meadow.
And then I saw him.
The boy.
The same child I had played with for days… the one I had watched sleep like an innocent curled in my lap, his giggles and warmth so genuine they almost fooled me into believing it all.
But now—he wasn't the same.
He stood a short distance away, hands lazily coming together in soft applause, his small frame illuminated by the golden half-light of this stilled world.
But it was his eyes that pierced me. The warmth that once sparkled within them—gone. Replaced by a cold, mocking glint that carried the weight of centuries. The illusion had shattered.
