Everything save his racing heart froze as yet another voice rattled his mind. "Jacob." the voice shivered through him cruelly. "you tread on fatal ground." His heart pounded almost painfully and adrenaline coursed through his veins, damming their raging waters in preparation for the release of action. A cruel laugh shocked his heart into silence for a few beats. "Jacob. Prepare how you wish, but that time is past. You were given your warning long ago and your heedless rambling has brought you where you were warned never to come. Now you must pay my toll." "W-what are you talking about? Who are you? What is your toll?" his words tumbled out on top of each other until he consciously clamped his shaking jaw taught and waited, resuming his tense position. "You know the first answer and the others will make themselves apparent when Fate declares their time. But I will converse with you no longer. What comes to pass, may you know is your just reward. Blame not Fate for her cruelty, she ordered, but you chose." The voice vanished, but its cruel effects did not pass so quickly. Jacob slammed his eyelids closed and simply stood, a man disarmed by fear, with the silent darkness whirling past him. The ominous silence threatened for a time, and then found its release in the unmistakable sound of a thinly honed blade conversing with a a sharpening stone. Panic cracked the weakening dams and Jacob moved to open his eyes, preparing to meet this fatal sound. But the orchestrator of this, his just reward, held fast his heavy eyelids, rendering its captive blind and its victim crippled.