As Aldric stood atop the cliff, his body froze, and his next breath died in his lungs as he looked down at the floor. Then he inhaled, his nostrils filled with the metallic, thick, and tangy scent. He saw the texture, sharp and red—what both men looked at, spilled generously on the floor, was the blood of a man, not a creature.
What truly sent terror through them was not the blood, but the words that were written in it.
"I saw you."
The howling wind accompanied a shocked silence that had settled before Aldric and Lerai as they gazed down at the blood spilled on the rocky ground. Their minds became a stage for multiple crippling questions, each possible answer terrifying them even more than the last.
Of course, the most obvious question was why there was blood spilled, and furthermore, whose blood it was, as it didn't belong to a creature. However, the most terrifying question was the meaning of what had been written in the blood and who could have done it.
