A Choice in the Now

The air in my tower had always been still, a perpetual twilight where dust motes danced in sunbeams that never truly set. But since Elias, a tremor had begun. It was a subtle thing at first, a faint vibration in the ancient stones, a whisper of wind where there should be none. Now, it was a palpable thrumming, a discordant note in the symphony of my eternal silence. He stood before me, his eyes, the colour of a summer sky just before a storm, reflecting the flickering candlelight. In their depths, I saw not the usual awe or fear that greeted my legend, but a raw, unyielding hunger for understanding. It was this hunger that both unnerved and drew me in, a mirror to the void within my own ageless heart.

"You said… you said you see everything," Elias murmured, his voice hushed, reverent. He gestured vaguely at the swirling patterns on the floor, the celestial charts etched into the obsidian walls. "Every sunrise, every falling leaf, every kingdom rise and crumble. But you… you don't *live* it, do you?"

His question hung in the air, heavy with unspoken implications. I could feel my magic, the very essence of my curse, thrumming erratically. It was a familiar sensation, a discordant symphony that played whenever something, or someone, threatened the delicate balance of my existence. Elias, with his earnest gaze and his boundless curiosity, was a significant disruption.