Aria’s POV
She came at first light.
No bark. No Warden’s armor. Just a woman with Tui’s eyes and mud on her knees that matched his. She didn’t follow the river. She followed the green.
The mint path. Five paces became ten. Ten became twenty. A thin vein of leaves winding up the slope straight to our stone circle, like the ridge had been drawing her a map.
Tui ran first. Then stopped. Didn’t speak. Just held out his bowl. Still empty. Still waiting.
She knelt in front of it. Set her own bowl beside his. Also empty. Clay, cracked, old.
“I buried a knife last winter,” she said.
No preamble. No _Why?_ “In dirt behind our house. It stayed metal. I came to see what you did different.”
No one answered with words. Ridah stepped aside. Showed her the circle. Steel under soil. Cl
