“I was there that night,” Ludo said.

Bryony frowned, not understanding his cryptic words. “There where? What does this have to do with your augury?”

“Everything. It has everything to do with it. Sorry, let me start again. When my augury began, I saw my brother, my twin…”

Bryony listened intently to every word as he described what had happened in Oath, how he’d tried to save the childhood version of his twin brother from the spiked walls. How he’d failed. “I’m sorry you had to go through that,” she said, when she thought he’d finished. She felt for him; she knew what it was like to have someone she loved so close and yet be unable to save them.

He shook his head. “That was nothing compared to reality.”

“Because your brother died when you were children.” He hadn’t explicitly said that during his story, but the truth was obvious in the emotion in his voice.

“When I’m around people, I feel like I’m made of knives and everyone I get close to will eventually be stabbed by them, that they’ll all bleed.” To Bryony, his words felt like the very knives he spoke of, mostly because she’d felt that way before too. She swallowed the lump in her throat and let him continue. “I was there that night,” he said again, as if that explained everything. This time, he continued immediately. “During the Nightdawn. I was there. In Last Dawn. I grew up in Last Dawn.”

Bryony heard his words but couldn’t really comprehend them. “But that’s impossible. That’s where I’m from. It was a small town. I didn’t know you, or your brother.” She’d avoided thinking about the past for years, even more so because it haunted her while she slept, but now she racked her brain for any memories of this man’s face, how it might’ve looked when he was younger, much younger, and still had two whole eyes.

Nothing came to her. “Why are you making things up?” she asked. “What game are you playing?”

“No game. And Last Dawn wasn’t that small. As I said, I was there. I don’t know why our paths didn’t cross more often. Maybe because we lived on opposites sides of town. Maybe because my brother and I were always working to help my father after my mother died. I saw you the day before, but only in passing. You were with your mother and father. You looked…happy. The next day was the Nightdawn. Our village burned. My brother, Gado…your mother… I saw you there. I heard you screaming for your father to come and help you. Your father, Cainan. The Fire Eater.”