The river was flowing backward.
Feroz stared in disbelief.
Every drop of water was moving against the natural current.
Toward them.
Toward something unseen beyond the bend.
The pressure in the air continued growing.
The younger man stood completely still.
Watching.
Waiting.
Feroz immediately noticed something.
The man wasn't surprised.
As if he had expected this.
"You knew this would happen."
The younger man nodded.
"Yes."
Feroz frowned.
"Then what is it?"
The man looked at the river.
"A lesson."
Feroz sighed.
"Everything here is a lesson."
"Because everything teaches something."
That answer sounded annoyingly wise.
The pressure grew stronger.
Then—
a figure appeared upstream.
Walking through the river.
Slowly.
Step by step.
The water moved around him.
Yet his clothes remained dry.
His face was hidden beneath a dark hood.
Feroz immediately became alert.
The figure continued approaching.
Not attacking.
Not speaking.
Simply walking.
The younger man folded his arms.
"Tell me what you see."
Feroz focused.
"A man."
"No."
"A stranger."
"No."
Feroz frowned.
The younger man shook his head.
"Look properly."
The figure moved closer.
Closer.
Then suddenly—
Feroz froze.
Something felt wrong.
Very wrong.
The figure wasn't walking forward.
The figure was retracing steps.
Every movement felt unnatural.
As if he were moving backward through time.
The realization hit him instantly.
"He's going back."
The younger man smiled.
"Good."
The figure stopped several meters away.
Still silent.
Still motionless.
Feroz looked between him and the younger man.
"I don't understand."
The younger man pointed toward the stranger.
"That is what happens when someone cannot let go."
The river continued flowing backward.
The stranger remained frozen.
Caught between movements.
Between directions.
Between choices.
Feroz stared.
Then slowly understood.
"The river moves forward."
The younger man nodded.
"Yes."
"But he's trying to move backward."
"Exactly."
Silence.
The lesson was becoming clearer.
The younger man looked at Feroz.
"Tell me."
"If you spent every day trying to change yesterday..."
A pause.
"...when would you have time to live today?"
The words hit harder than expected.
Because Feroz knew exactly what he meant.
His father.
His mother.
His lost childhood.
The visions.
The future beneath the tree.
Many times he had wished things had happened differently.
Many times.
The stranger suddenly moved again.
One step.
Then another.
Still moving against the current.
Still fighting the river.
The effort seemed endless.
Pointless.
The younger man spoke quietly.
"Some people spend their entire lives doing this."
The stranger kept walking.
Yet never seemed to get anywhere.
Feroz watched silently.
Then asked:
"What happened to him?"
The younger man looked at the figure.
"He forgot where he was going."
A pause.
"He became obsessed with where he had been."
The river suddenly surged.
The stranger stumbled.
For the first time.
The current pushed against him.
Hard.
Yet he continued fighting it.
Refusing to stop.
Refusing to turn around.
The younger man sighed.
"That's the tragedy."
Feroz remained silent.
Because part of him understood.
He thought about Zarqaan.
About the Free Masons.
About people chasing old mistakes.
Old debts.
Old failures.
Sometimes so much that they forgot the future entirely.
The river surged again.
This time stronger.
The stranger fell.
The current immediately carried him away.
Within seconds—
he vanished downstream.
Gone.
The river slowly returned to normal.
The current flowed forward once more.
The pressure disappeared.
Silence returned.
Feroz stood there for a long moment.
Watching the water.
Then finally spoke.
"So the lesson is not to live in the past."
The younger man smiled.
"Partly."
Feroz frowned.
"Partly?"
The man nodded.
"The real lesson is knowing the difference between remembering the past..."
A pause.
"...and being trapped by it."
The words settled deeply inside him.
Because those were not the same thing.
Not at all.
The younger man turned toward him.
And for the first time since the trial began—
he looked satisfied.
"You learned faster than most."
Feroz allowed himself a small smile.
"Does that mean I passed?"
The younger man laughed.
A genuine laugh.
Then he pointed farther upstream.
Toward a distant bridge Feroz hadn't noticed before.
"No."
The smile vanished from Feroz's face.
The younger man continued.
"That was only the first lesson."
Feroz sighed heavily.
Of course it was.
The younger man started walking toward the bridge.
"Come."
Feroz followed.
The river flowed peacefully beside them once again.
But deep down—
he had the feeling the next lesson would be much harder than the first.