Elias is now wide awake, his mind no longer groggy, and his body feels off.

  Not bad—but not right.

  His muscles ached, but only in a dull, lingering way, like he had just woken up after a long sleep rather than collapsed from exhaustion.

  Which was wrong.

  He had spent enough time pushing his body past its limits—playing gigs sick, running on fumes, waking up hungover in alleyways. He knew what recovery felt like.

  This didn't feel like recovery.

  It was something else.

  His eyes flickered open, scanning the apartment again.

  And immediately, he frowned.

  It was a disaster zone.

  The fridge hung open, its contents spilled everywhere and he means everywhere. The floor was stained with what he assumed was food—and honestly, he didn’t want to know what kind. His blanket was soaked in something suspiciously water-like.

  And the couch was missing cushions.

  Elias exhaled sharply.

  Then turned to Sera, who was avoiding his gaze.

  Alright. Yeah. She did something.

  "What did you do?"

  —

  Sera hesitated.

  For a second, Elias thought she’d try to change the subject.

  Then, finally—

  "I fixed you."

  Elias frowned at the unexpected answer. "You fixed me???"

  Sera folded her arms. "I used my power. That’s all."

  Elias narrowed his eyes. "And?"

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  Sera shifted uncomfortably. "...I may have rewound your body a day or two."

  Elias stared at her.

  Then exhaled slowly. "Okay. Explain to me—" subtlely looking at the absolute wreckage of his apartment "—why fix, not heal? You didn't do anything strange, right?."

  Sera looked away.

  "...Because it isn’t?"

  —

  "Healing is fixing what’s broken," Sera muttered, crossing her arms. "I FIXED you—I erased the damage."

  Elias frowned. "So… time MANIPULATION!?!?"

  "No!" Sera groaned. "it’s not time manipulating in the direct sense."

  She exhaled.

  "Reality is like a thread," she said, voice measured. "Every event, every injury leaves an imprint. A change. Normally, your body would recover naturally—it follows a path, step by step."

  Her fingers flexed slightly at her sides.

  "What I did wasn’t healing. While I used fixed, to be exact—I erased the path. I made it so your body never took damage in the first place.”

  Elias blinked.

  "...You make that sound way better than normal healing."

  Sera ignored him.

  —

  Elias exhaled, rubbing his temples. "If you can affect reality, why don’t you just fix the loss? Or give me my memories back?"

  Sera’s expression darkened.

  "Because reality doesn’t just accept change," she said quietly. "It fights back."

  Elias narrowed his eyes. "Explain."

  Sera inhaled, steadying herself.

  "The Lost aren’t just missing something, Elias. Their state is already accepted by reality and deeply intertwined with it. Undoing it wouldn’t just change them—it would change everything connected to them."

  She hesitated.

  "If I tried to bring one back, reality wouldn’t accept it. It would correct the contradiction caused by this. And whatever came back… wouldn’t be them."

  Elias’ stomach twisted. "Then what would it be?"

  Sera’s voice was quiet.

  "A mistake that reality wouldn't accept and erase or return to something else, something it deems logical."

  Elias swallowed hard.

  —

  "So… if you didn't turn back time on my body, what did you do?."

  Sera sighed. "Not time. Change."

  Elias frowned. "Are they not similar."

  Sera sighed. "It’s not."

  She pushed a hand through her hair.

  "Time is just a measurement of change. If something changes, time moves forward. If nothing changes, time stops. Rewinding you wasn’t about time—it was about altering the sequence of changes your body experienced.”

  She tapped her fingers against her arm.

  “I didn’t push time backward. I forced a different version of ‘you’ into place—the ‘you’ from a day ago.”

  Elias stared at her, blood boiling from all this mind-breaking explanation.

  —

  Sera sighed. "The difference between me and Valen is that I can only enforce changes within what’s possible. I can’t create something from nothing. I can’t rewrite reality on a large scale. I can only shift things within their limits."

  Elias frowned. "Then how does Valen do it?"

  Sera’s expression hardened.

  "Because Valen doesn’t change reality. He convinces reality to change itself."

  —

  Elias hesitated. "That… sounds like the same thing."

  Sera scoffed. "It’s not."

  She crossed her arms.

  "If I wanted to create a fireball, I would have to find a way to manipulate the conditions to make fire naturally. Increase the temperature. Create the right chemical reaction. I can't break the rules—I can only adjust them to my needs."

  Her gaze darkened.

  "But Valen? He doesn’t need any of that. He just tells reality that the fireball was always there. And if the lie is good enough, or if he trades enough for it—reality believes him."

  Elias’ stomach twisted.

  "...That's terrifying."

  Sera nodded. "It is."

  —

  She exhaled, regaining her composure.

  "That’s why you can’t rely on this."

  Elias blinked. "On what?"

  Sera’s expression hardened. "On my Power. You can't see it as a shortcut. Thinking you can just fix yourself with something beyond you."

  Elias exhaled sharply but didn’t argue.

  Because the truth was—she was right.

  For a second, he had considered it.

  The idea of having something he could use to undo mistakes.

  But that was exactly how the Pawn Shops worked.

  And he wasn’t about to make that mistake.

  —

  Sera stood, brushing dust off her coat. "We need to prepare."

  Elias raised an eyebrow. "For what?"

  Sera glanced at him. "You wanted answers. I told you where to start."

  Elias frowned. "The temple?"

  She nodded.

  "But we’re not going with you looking half-dead."

  Elias blinked. "What do you want from me now?"

  Sera shot him a look. "Considering your survival skills? I want you to properly rest for two days and prepare for the trip."

  Elias exhaled, rubbing the back of his neck. "Fair."

  —

  Two days later.

  Elias looked better—his usual disheveled charm returning.

  Sera had packed his bag properly after seeing what Elias had planned to bring.

  He had a knife knife, muttering something about him being invincible.

  Sera's brow furrowed, but she didn’t fight him on it.

  As they stepped out, heading toward their next destination, Elias glanceRrd at her.

  "Hey."

  Sera glanced back. "What?"

  He hesitated.

  Then smirked. "Thanks. For everything."

  Sera rolled her eyes. "You better not make me regret it."

  And just like that—

  They were on their way.