They walked in silence.
The battle against the Warden had left a mark not just on Thalen's shoulder, which still throbbed from the deep cut, but on all three of them. Something about that encounter shifted the rhythm between them. The air was heavier, as though the world itself had acknowledged their presence now. Not as lost initiates stumbling into legacy, but as something becoming worthy of it.
The Wraithlands began to thin, the jagged cliffs giving way to a wide, open valley carpeted in ash and bone. Strange trees, leafless and petrified, lined the horizon like ancient guards. The sun, still veiled in permanent overcast, gave the valley an eerie, silver glow. There were no animals. No wind. Just the crunch of their boots across the desolate soil.
Selene broke the silence first. "Do you think that Warden was human?"
Corin, trudging ahead, grunted. "He bled like one."
"He didn't speak a word," she continued. "Not even to taunt us. Just tested Thalen and vanished."
