ALDRIC.
Twenty years. That was how long I'd kept my mouth shut about the final months of Northern Vale. Surviving those days meant burying names, faces, and memories so deep that I almost convinced myself they could never hurt anyone again. But now, I stood in Killian's command center, staring at that damn map of the northern woodland while Candice was still missing and my granddaughter had pointed directly toward land that should have meant nothing to her. The room suddenly felt too small, the air too heavy with the smell of old paper and the fresh fear hanging around us.
Killian's voice broke through the silence like a blade. "Explain."
I dragged a hand over my face, feeling the weight of every one of those twenty years in my bones. "Northern Vale wasn't destroyed by rogues or some si
