Andrei quickly brought down his ax onto Jean’s head. He let out a small exhale of air before falling over onto his side. Andrei retrieved his ax, quickly wiping it off of blood. Despite how annoyed he was, Andrei couldn’t bring himself to make him suffer. After sheathing his ax, he kneeled down in front of Jean’s corpse. Despite being dead, the glass eye still moved around, looking at its surroundings before looking back at Andrei. He thought Jean had somehow found to make the eye move with some mechanism, but that theory appeared to die with him. Even in his death, the whisperings still called to Andrei. Using his gloved hand, he carefully opened Jean’s eye socket and gently grabbed the eye, pulling it from its fleshy home. The eye came out of the socket easily, allowing Andrei to examine it more closely. Despite his protected hand, the eye felt cold and uncomfortably smooth. Fresh blood coating the back of the eye, implying Jean had lost his eye relatively frequently.

“Hmmm, what a shame…” Emil said in a dispassionate tone, gently nudging the corpse with his boot. After being lost in thought, he shrugged, “oh well, one less thing for us to haul back.”

Andrei’s attention returned to the eye. “Did he steal this to replace it? Or maybe…” Andrei trailed off, wondering the motivations of the man. He shivered at the thought of Jean taking out his own eye to replace it with this one.

The eye rolled in his hand, turning to look directly at Andrei, interrupting his musings. The whisperings grew stronger the longer he looked at it. They felt louder and more violent, compelling him to do… something. He didn’t know what, but he could feel the pit in his stomach at the mere suggestion. Suddenly, he appeared in a different place just as he felt an understanding of the words that gnawed into his consciousness.

He looked up from the eye to see a sprawling kingdom, one he didn’t recognize. He found himself in a sturdy, stoic, watchtower, or perhaps castle. To his left was an amorphous shadow, trying to take shape. Below him, countless buildings made up shops and homes, the architecture was both foreign and familiar to him, something about the method behind the construction looked wrong. In the distance, he saw a seemingly endless, lush forest, even denser than the forest he was in mere moments ago. Birds danced above the forest canopy, and Andrei could faintly hear the birds singing as they fluttered about on the horizon. He breathed deep, smelling a mixture of smoke and freshly baked goods. It brought him a sense of peace. 

To his left, the shadow finally took form. Standing next to him was a woman about his own height, staring out into the horizon with him. Black robes and hood obscured most of her figure with gold trimmings. Despite having so many questions, her mere presence alone commanded silence, ordering him to take in the view. The two were silent for a while, staring off together and listening to the jovial sound of the people below them.

The woman suddenly giggled, holding a hand up to her mouth. “you wanted this, you know that, don’t you?” Her voice carried a lingering sinister tone that coasted just beneath her inquisitive words as she continued to stare out at the scene.

Andrei was confused, shaking his head. He closed his eyes and reopened them, but he was still in the unknown land with this stranger. He turned to face her, the mysterious woman’s gaze still fixed on the horizon. “What… are you talking about? Who are you?”

Nothing was making sense. His head felt weightless and hazy, trying to understand. He closed his eyes again and opened them, praying to see Emil in front of him, but despite his hopes, the foreign land and the woman only greeted him. His heart raced, unsure of what to expect or what to do.

An exasperated sigh escaped the hooded figure’s lips, “you wanted this, you know that, don’t you?” she repeated her question, her voice evoking sorrow and regret.

Andrei looked out at the scene once again, the smell of smoke quickly overtaking his lungs, suffocating him. He coughed repeatedly, looking away and waving his hands in front of him in a desperate act to dissipate the smoke as his eyes watered. He tried to clear his eyes, but the smoke was too powerful. He looked back at the scene to find it in chaos. Through his teary eyes, he could see countless of the proud buildings were on fire, the flames engulfed nearly everything and the sound of a thousand angry voices slowly marched towards him. Red orange flames tainted the night sky. Fear and confusion paralyzed him; he wondered if that’s what the runt must’ve felt in his final moments.

“You wanted this…” the woman said in a solemn voice, her voice rising again to an amused, capricious tone, “until the inevitable comes, do your best to entertain me, won’t you?”

The woman laughed as she lost shape, turning back into the shadowy blob. It seemed to turn to face Andrei before retreating into the castle, leaving him alone. As her laughter faded into the distance, the only thing he could hear was the yelling and screaming of those who lived in this enigmatic land. Just like with the eye, the longer he concentrated, he felt like he could understand the meaning of her words, of this vision, but did he want to? No, what he wanted most was to not feel the anxiety that was stuck in his throat, the feeling of being able to move freely from the stone he felt cemented into.

“Andrei? Andrei!” He could faintly hear Emil call out to him as the smoke obscured everything. He closed his eyes and after a moment, he could feel himself being shaken out of the vision. “Andrei! Are you okay?” He opened his eyes to see Emil kneeling to match his gaze, hands on either side of Andrei. He shook away the vision and blinked multiple times, confirming he was in with Emil. His partner hesitantly let go as Andrei collected himself. 

“What in Azdros’s grace was that?” Andrei asked himself. This certainly wasn’t his first time encountering odd items, but nothing had elicited a response like what he just felt. “I’m fine… just… a weird vision.” He looked down at the eye that was, for the moment, still. Before it could cast its foul magic again, he shoved it into his bag with the force of an owlbear and the fear of a small child.

Emil raised an eyebrow in doubt, crossing his arms as he bit his lip in worry. “Some vision then. You looked like you just stumbled into a nest of giant centipedes. Wha-?”

Before Emil could question further, the sound of rustling bushes caught the attention of the two men. They both readied their weapons, preparing for the worst. There wasn’t supposed to be anyone else with Jean, but who knew who’d be out there? After a moment, a brown fox jumped out of the bush looking inquisitive, her head tilted to the side as she looked between the two men. They both relaxed as they observed the fox together. The most striking thing about this fox was it had tail rings similar to a raccoon. The fox slowly approached Andrei and stared up at him with begging eyes.

“What?” Andrei asked in annoyance. “I have nothing! Go on, shoo…” he tried to wave off the fox, but it remained planted in the ground, whining softly, having her tongue lolling out and standing on her hind legs, revealing her dark brown stomach.

Emil suppressed an amused laugh, covering his mouth with a hand. In doing so, he caught a flash of the burn marks on his whole arm and the corner of a tattoo attempting to cover the scars. As Andrei shot a glare at him, Emil looked away, pretending to be enthralled by a nearby tree.

“Ugh, fine… can’t catch a break today, can I?” Andrei said. Caving in, Andrei dug around his bag and retrieved a handful of tree nuts he was saving for the arduous chase he’d just completed. After placing them in front of the eager fox, Andrei crossed his arms.

The fox sniffed at the tree nuts before hastily eating them. Even Andrei had to admit that it was a rather cute sight, and hearing the small crunch of the food made him show a small smirk on his stoic face. Once the fox finished eating, she looked over at Emil before looking back at Andrei. Andrei had never had a staring contest with a fox before, but this must’ve been what it felt like to have one. Appearing satisfied, the fox opened her jaw slightly, mimicking a smile directed at Andrei before letting out a coy chortle, dashing off into the forest. It would appear this day would just keep getting weirder.

The two men shared confused looks. After a moment, Andrei took out his own leather-bound journal. Cracked in a few places, the ends of most of the pages were water damaged and carried a musky smell. Despite the rough shape of it, looking at it always gave him a sense of peace. He flipped to a page near the middle of the book. On the page was the description of Jean, along with the bounty tied to him. He crossed out Jean’s name, giving another glance at the body, considering the vision again.

He’d never seen that castle or that landscape before in his life, and neither did he recognize the woman next to him. Was he supposed to know them? What exactly was the eye showing him? And did it show Jean the same thing? With just that one vision, it was hard to know anything with certainty. That was, of course, assuming he should believe such visions as a visage of truth. For all he knew, it was an illusion or some malignant curse.

He gave one more cursory glance at Jean’s still body, blood now pooling around the three of them. He couldn’t help but wonder if Jean had gone mad because of the eye’s influence, though he tried not to linger on the thought. Andrei cautiously looked inside his bag, finding the eye that continued to stare at him, still murmuring unknown and arcane phrases to him. Without another thought, Andrei closed his bag, causing the murmurings to cease for a time. He let out a small sigh of relief and grabbed the book Jean stole from Emil. The curious Half-Lílakdal flipped through some pages, but nothing of significance stood out. It just seemed like a normal book to him.

Emil furrowed his brow and hunched his shoulders slightly. “Andrei, are you sure you should keep that eye on you?” He sized up his friend in a manner that conveyed concern, “you looked completely entranced by it.”

Andrei tried to give him a reassuring smile. “I’ll be fine. We’ll see if Nerelle knows anything about it, and if not, to the enchanter.” He patted Emil on the back, pretending to shrug off the haunting vision. “c’mon, let’s get to Valeaux.”