Chapter 4

"But what about you, Corinne?

"You took a childhood friend whose diagnosis doesn't even hold up under scrutiny, and used him to destroy our wedding. You moved him into our home. And now you're taking the trip I've dreamed about my entire life and handing it to him as a gift.

"You feel sorry that he has regrets. You feel sorry that he's sick. So who feels sorry for me? For the man who spent ten years surviving in a world he doesn't belong to, with no one to hold on to but you?"

Corinne stumbled half a step back under the weight of everything I had just said. Her eyes darted, but her voice stayed stubborn.

"Emric, do you have to keep spouting this nonsense? A strange world? You're just some small-town nobody who’s never seen the real world and likes to make up bizarre stories for sympathy.

"Soren's diagnosis is right there in black and white. The doctor said his condition is critical. Why won't you just believe it?

"And don't forget, all these years, I'm the one who took you in. I'm the one who put food on your table."

Every word landed like a hammer blow on whatever warmth I had left.

Ten years of companionship. Ten years of devotion. By her own words, all of it amounted to nothing more than charity handed down from above.

Soren tugged gently at Corinne's hand, putting on a soft, conciliatory tone. "Corinne, don't be upset. Emric just can't bear to let you go, that's all. Once we're back from Wyndmere, we'll sit down and talk it through with him."

The words sounded like comfort, but every single word stabbed me like a knife.

I did not say anything more. I placed the last item in the suitcase in silence and closed it.

"There. Everything's packed. Don't be late now."

Corinne had not expected me to back down so quickly. She let out a cold scoff, her face settling into an expression that said she was glad I had come to my senses, and walked Soren toward the door.

On her way out, she did not even glance back at me. She simply tossed a careless line over her shoulder. "I'm having the locks changed. We'll deal with your situation when we get back."

The door slammed shut.

It sealed off ten years of dreaming. It sealed off every last shred of devotion and delusion along with it.

The system's voice arrived on schedule, ringing through my mind.

[Emric, the remaining time is 00:01:00. The temporal corridor is about to open. Please confirm your return.]

I walked to the window and looked down.

Corinne had just finished helping Soren into the car, her arm looped through his, when she suddenly stopped. She turned around and looked up, and for a brief moment our eyes met through the glass.

For just that instant, I thought I saw something in her. I thought maybe she did care about me after all.

Then she called up to me, loud enough to carry. "Em, don't forget to pay the water and electric bills. And water the flowers on the balcony. Soren loves that gardenia, so if anything happens to it, you'll have to answer to me when I get back."

I searched her eyes. I tried desperately to find even the smallest trace of love in them.

The car had already started.

The woman I had loved for ten years disappeared from sight just like that, and the last words she ever said to me were not to take care of myself, but to take care of a flower.

It was laughable, really. What had I still been hoping for?

So be it.

I raised my hand and tapped the air, lightly, just once. A pale blue doorway of light that only I could see unfolded slowly before me.

It was the road back to the era I came from. There were no gleaming cities there, no smartphones, no Corinne Whitford. Yet there was the land I was born in, the people I was meant to protect, and the work I was truly supposed to do.

Ten years ago, I had stumbled into this world by accident and made her my salvation, my home. Ten years later, she had pushed me away with her own hands, in the cruelest way possible, and shown me that this dream had run its course.

So be it.

I took one last look at the place I had lived for ten years, then one last look at the road where the car had vanished.

There was no longing. There was no reluctance to go.

There was only lightness, and a clarity that stretched as far as I could see.

"System. Take me back."

[Confirmed, Emric. Temporal corridor activated. Departing the present world immediately.]

As the light wrapped around me, I whispered to myself.

"The dream is over. No more love. No more ties. No more looking back. From here on, I'll return to my homeland, guard what's mine, and never lose myself in old dreams again."