Unknown POV
The forest whispered secrets, and he listened—like a man carved from silence, shaped by shadows.
He moved beneath skeletal boughs that clawed at the moonlight, black branches rasping like brittle fingers across the sky. Each step was swallowed by the hush of rotting leaves and the ghosts of old oaths. Mist clung low to the earth, silver and sinuous, coiling around his boots with every step like it wanted to drag him down.
His cloak no longer bore a crest.
The sigil had been scraped away—violently, down to fraying thread and torn wool. Where once there had been loyalty, there was now only ruin. Only purpose.
No house.
No honor.
Only betrayal.
He walked until the forest thinned, until the trees gave way to broken earth and blackened stone. The border had been scorched lo
