Kaelith and Zevryn could not believe what they were seeing. From the shadows of the woods emerged not a threat but a woman.
She stumbled forward, her body battered, her clothes torn and stained, her steps unsteady as if the earth itself threatened to consume her with every falter.
Her eyes were hollow, glazed over, as though she were desperately searching for something.
For one haunting moment, she did not see them. Instead, her gaze latched onto the River Elandor shimmering under the pale light of the moon.
Her lips curved upward in the faintest, almost childlike smile as though the waters promised salvation. But that fragile hope shattered in an instant.
A ragged scream tore from her throat, sharp and raw, before her knees buckled. She began to collapse, her body crumpling like a puppet whose strings had been severed.
