"By the look of it, we are likely standing in what's left of the Nahamun's outskirts."
"Nahamun?" Auri repeated.
"An ancient kingdom," Darius said, pausing to run his fingers on a half-shattered wall. "The place where it all began. The origin of magic and the cause of world disasters."
"Wait, hold on—what?" Auri blinked, surprised at the sudden lore bomb coming from the aloof man. "That's—that's a whole game expansion's worth of backstory right there. You're not going to drop a line like that and expect me to just move on, right? I need to know everything."
Darius turned to him and gave a rare, quiet sound—not quite a chuckle, but almost. His expression softened, and a real smile ghosted across his face. It was faint, almost reluctant, but unmistakably warm.
"I didn't know you're also interested in world history."
Auri froze, his thoughts crashing to a halt like a corrupted loading screen. "D-Did you just—?"
"What?"
