It happened during training. Three days after the tree line.
Maren had been pushing me harder since the Ashborne's appearance — two sessions a day instead of one, the work moving from passive sensing and basic direction into something more demanding. Suppression. The ability to not just amplify a wolf's gift but to quiet it — to close the channel instead of opening it, cleanly and without damage.
It was harder than amplification. Amplification felt like opening a door. Suppression felt like holding one closed against something that wanted to push through, and the effort of it was a different kind of exhausting.
We were working with Finn again — informed consent, as he had offered, with the cheerful willingness of someone who had decided that being part of something historic was more int
