Aria’s POV
The child came upriver at dawn.
Bare feet. Mud on the knees. A leaf in one hand. Not Keth’s carved one. A real mint leaf, crumpled from travel. The same green that was growing over our knife circle.
He didn’t ask for the Warden. He didn’t ask for orders. He stopped at the edge of the ridge and just… looked.
At the staff. At the stones. At the bowl with yesterday’s leaf still floating.
“Your mint found me,” he said. “Downriver. It was in the water. Smelled like home.”
No one spoke. Coren the Warden reached for his sheath by habit, then let his hand fall. Empty.
Nira knelt so she wasn’t taller than him. “Market rule,” she said soft. “What’s your name, and what are you buying?”
“I’m Tui,” he said. “And I’m not buying. I’m returning.”
He held out the mint leaf. “Thi
