My hands tighten around the blanket. “We’ve heard.”
It’s been whispered for months—traders bringing stories from across the borders, whispers of broken wards, entire villages gone silent overnight. People gone missing without a trace. In the market square, voices would lower as rumors passed between baskets of grain and root vegetables.
But it always felt so far away.
Until it wasn’t.
My eyes fill but I blink the wetness away.
Valen watches me closely. “The weakening of the wards has allowed more Shadow Forces to cross through. The attacks have escalated. Villages like yours—” he pauses, as if weighing his words, “have suffered great losses because of it.”
A lump rises in my throat, but I force it down.
“And?” I manage, voice thin. “Why Liora? We’re just farmers . . . Earth Clan. There’s nothing there. We’re nowhere near the borderlands.”
Valen leans forward, the staff still braced in his hand. His expression doesn’t change, but something in the air tightens.
“We have theories.” His voice is too calm. “But what happened to your village wasn’t random, Amara.” He holds my gaze now, every word deliberate. “That’s where you come into the story.”
I blink. “What?”
“We believe the Shadow Forces were looking foryou.”
Cold seeps into my spine.
“No,” I whisper. “Why would they—? That’s not possible.”
Valen doesn’t blink. “It is.”
A hollow sound escapes me—half laugh, half disbelief. “This must be some kind of joke. A twisted mistake. I’m no one. Just a farmer’s daughter from a village that barely matters.”
His gaze doesn’t shift. “And yet,” he says quietly, “they came.”
My breath comes faster, my fists clenching around the blanket in my lap.
“No.” I shake my head, hard, like I can shake the weight of his words off my skin. “No, that doesn’t make sense.”
The panic threads faster now, barbed and breathless.
“I’m no one,” I snap—too quick, too brittle. “I couldn’t even—” The words catch. I swallow them, my throat tightening. “—not before that night.”
My pulse beats loud in my throat, hot and sickening.
“I’m like anyone else without a dragon bond. I can barely touch the smallest magics—earthsense. That’s it. I’m not a warrior. I’ve never even left my village before now. There’s no reason they’d come looking for me.”
The next thought scrapes like a blade along the inside of my chest.
“And even if they did . . . ” My voice drops. “The Shadow Forces don’t hunt. They don’tlookfor people. They just kill at random. That’s what we’ve always been told.”
Valen studies me with that same maddening stillness, like he’s seen this spiral before.
“There’s more to you than you’ve been allowed to see,” he says quietly.
A laugh bursts out—sharp, almost jagged. “This is absurd. How is this happening?”
He leans forward, voice calm, but there’s iron underneath it now. “I understand your shock. But I need you to listen. Because whether or not you believe it—this is happening. And if you want to survive what comes next, you’ll need to understand who and what you are.”
The floor feels unstable, the walls tilt, narrowing in. My pulse roars in my ears.
