When Alaev arrived home in the dead of night with another boy from the army, he didn’t speak, right away, of what had happened.

Thalaea rested on her back beside the Lorekeeper, who looked on with as much shock as she felt.

The mountains whispered to the witch, telling her the knowledge that was her birth right.

Alaev sat by the fire, wondering why he’d joined the army in the first place.

This world was too heavy.