The morning air cut through my thin cloak like a blade. My muscles protested every movement, screaming from the relentless drilling of the previous day, and my joints ached as if I had been broken and stitched back together in the night. But I forced myself up, biting back the urge to collapse again, and slid my feet over the edge of the rough mat I’d claimed as my bed. The training horn sounded before the sun had fully risen, shrill and commanding, reverberating across the rocky plateau. I swallowed the tremor in my throat, pulling my shoulders back, straightening my spine, and stepped out into the freezing morning.
The pack was already assembled, their bodies lined up with the precision of soldiers. My eyes flicked over them quickly. They were bigger, stronger, sharper than anyone I had
