"Then it already knows how to kill me." They continued to walk, every step weighed with silence. The mist grew until what surrounded them was no longer world, but moving light and shadow. And then the air changed. The ground trembled, and out of the river a monstrous form rose. Neither flesh nor spirit, but something in between, a mass of flowing water in the shape of a man with silver eyes. The Keeper of the River. It moved in a voice that shook through the air, serene but with an old anger. "Living flame," it spoke, its eyes fixing on Kiara.
