VALERIE.
The winds shifted the moment Jason and Jasper returned.
They rode hard through the eastern pass, cloaks torn, faces tight with silence. I felt their approach before the scouts even announced them—my magic stirred uneasily, the way a lake trembles before lightning strikes.
I waited at the gates.
They dismounted and came straight to me. No greetings. No breath. "We found her," Jason said. Jasper nodded. "Alive. Hidden in the Ruins of Elenwood. Chained with spellsteel." My chest tightened. "Lyra's sister?" "Yes. But that’s not all." Jason pulled something from his satchel: a blackened talisman, scorched at the edges, and thrumming with residual corruption. "We found this buried in the soil near her prison. A trigger stone. Meant for communication—or detonation."
Jasper added, "S
