Sable's POV
Rook's words stayed with me the rest of that day, settling somewhere deeper than the ache in my arms from training. I kept turning them over while I helped haul water back to camp, while I sat through the evening meal barely tasting anything, while I lay awake that night listening to the usual sounds of the Hollow settling into silence.
I still didn't fully believe him. Ten years of being told I was the weakest thing in every room didn't undo itself over one training session. But something about the way he said it stuck anyway, lodged somewhere I couldn't quite shake it loose from.
Two days later, the camp erupted into chaos before I even finished waking up.
Shouting carried across the clearing, urgent and loud enough to pull me out of my tent half-dressed, my heart already
