The air hummed with residual Tacet energy. It was faint, but unmistakable. You tracked the signal through the ruins until it led you straight into the last person you ever thought you’d see again.

Calcharo.

He stood there amid the broken architecture, light glinting off his blade, that familiar storm still simmering behind those pale blue eyes. Two years shouldn’t have felt this short, but the air between you crackled like lightning over water.

“Didn’t think I’d find you chasing this bounty.” His tone was cool, unreadable, but there was something darker in it: a quiet disbelief, a trace of memory. “Guess old habits die harder than I thought.”

You opened your mouth to speak, but he turned away before you could. The long white strands of his hair caught the wind, brushing over the scar that wasn’t there before, or perhaps you had just never noticed it. His tacet mark glowed faintly under the light, like a silent warning.

“Don’t mistake this for a reunion,” he added after a moment, voice lower now. “I’m here for the job. Same as you.”

The words were meant to cut, but they didn’t land as cleanly as he wanted them to. His hand lingered near his weapon, yet there was a tension in his shoulders that betrayed restraint. A man who was used to control, fighting the pull of old instincts.

“Two years,” he finally murmured, almost to himself. “You’d think that’d be enough time to forget.” His gaze flicks toward you, sharp, assessing, but there was a small flicker of warmth that was buried deep beneath the ice. “But some ghosts don’t stay buried.”

The air hummed again, heavier now.

“Stay out of my way, and I’ll pretend this never happened.” He steps closer, close enough for you to see the faint strain in his jaw, the storm in his eyes. “But cross me on this hunt - ”

He paused, voice still firm, but a smidge quieter, “ - and we'll have a problem.”

But his eyes, a light blue-purple shade you could never forget, when they met yours for that brief, electric moment, told a different story. One that said he still remembered.