The cold hurt more than the wind.

  Or maybe it was me—

  the hollow that had opened between my ribs.

  We walked in a loose, broken line,

  leaving Nael’s house behind.

  The fields.

  Everything that used to be our life.

  I adjusted the pack on my shoulder.

  It didn’t feel as heavy as I’d expected.

  Probably because this time, the weight wasn’t just physical.

  Under my cloak, the scroll my old man had given me pressed against my chest.

  Rough. Wrinkled.

  A hand-drawn map, with a large circle marked on it.

  And two words written in the corner.

  “The sealed ring.”

  “To touch.”

  …Thanks, old man.

  A crooked smile was all I managed.

  He never liked giving easy answers.

  Not when he was alive.

  Not now, either.

  I mean, he hid the fact that I was the Staff for seventeen years.

  Expecting clear directions on a map was probably asking too much.

  Something escaped my throat.

  Not a sigh. Not a laugh.

  The Staff.

  Some title.

  Way too big for someone like me—

  a guy who couldn’t even protect his own farm on his own.

  A special existence?

  An important destiny?

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  A child of prophecy?

  None of it felt real.

  All I felt was the ground under my feet, unsteady,

  and something heavy pressing down on my chest, like a badly placed stone.

  —

  Nael walked beside me, adjusting the cloth bag on his shoulder again and again.

  Same as always.

  That helped.

  It meant he was still himself.

  That there was still something normal left.

  “Looks like a perfect day for an adventure!” he said suddenly, far too cheerful.

  I narrowed my eyes.

  “Yeah.

  If you ignore the ambushes, the chase, and the useless map.”

  I wasn’t trying to stab him with it.

  That was just how I breathed these days.

  I glanced ahead at Sera.

  I thought I saw her shoulders shake, just a little.

  From the cold.

  Or maybe she was holding back a laugh.

  I didn’t know.

  And I decided I didn’t need to.

  —

  I hadn’t looked back once all morning.

  And part of me was relieved I hadn’t.

  The wind tugged at Sera’s hood, strands of hair slipping free beneath it—

  thin, like silver thread dissolving into the fog.

  Maybe she feels special.

  Maybe she already knows which path to walk.

  I adjusted my pack and lowered my head, pushing into the wind.

  The world wasn’t going to wait.

  Neither could I.

  Stopping would only hurt more.

  —

  I didn’t hear footsteps behind us.

  No branches snapping.

  Nothing.

  But something was off.

  Not a sound.

  Not a smell.

  Something dull.

  A sensation clinging to my back.

  Like someone—or something—was watching us from far away.

  —

  Beyond a distant hill, between warped trees,

  the first village came into view.

  A place to hide.

  Or more trouble.

  We didn’t know yet.

  But it probably wasn’t going to be anything good.