Kieran POV
The trail had finally led somewhere real.
After weeks of dead ends, false sightings, and the devastating discovery of that torn shawl fragment, we finally uncovered something concrete. A trader passing through a remote mountain settlement mentioned an elderly lone wolf healer who occasionally purchased supplies, always accompanied by a young, silver-haired woman who kept mostly to herself.
The description matched too precisely to dismiss as coincidence.
We tracked the trader's directions for three additional days, following narrow mountain paths deeper into unfamiliar wilderness, my exhaustion and determination both intensifying with each passing mile. Marcus and two other warriors accompanied me, their own weariness evident even their continued professional composure.
"The
