We rode out before sunrise, the new blade strapped securely at Elara's side, forged clean through the night under Elder Mira's careful watch.
Nobody spoke much during the three hour ride. The forest thinned slowly into rockier terrain, trees growing sparse and twisted, until we crossed into land that felt wrong beneath the horses' hooves, quiet in a way that had nothing to do with peace.
"This is it," Ronan said finally, pulling his horse to a stop at the edge of a wide clearing.
The ritual ground stretched before us, circular, marked by stones half sunken into the earth, worn smooth by centuries of wind and rain. At the center stood a single blackened altar, cracked down the middle, as if something long ago had shattered it from the inside out.
Elara stared at it, her expression unrea
