The mountain path was dark and winding. Khione and Elreth moved in silence, their battered bodies protesting every step. Elreth's broken arm, stabilized in a crude cast of reinforced ice, was pale but she remained determined. Khione's remaining prana was barely enough to keep going and to sustain the ice shelter for the rescued villagers.
Behind them, terrified and huddled together, the Oakhaven villagers followed. They were weak, starving, and traumatized. Children clung tightly to their mothers. Old men leaned on younger shoulders. They had been captives of goblins for days and now found themselves refugees in their own homeland.
Khione had made a quick, cold decision: they couldn't afford to search for Nero with civilians in tow. Their priority was to get these people to safety first—specifically, a ranger station three miles down the eastern ridge, which was out of the way and would delay their search, but was the only option.
