ELLIE’S POV
The morning began like the others had. Sharp air, heavy silence, and the ache of my muscles reminding me I was still rebuilding from the inside out.
Frost still clung to the lower branches as I stepped barefoot onto the training patch behind the hut. Each blade of grass was cold against my feet, soaking through the soles until they were numb, but I didn’t complain. I welcomed the cold. It helped me focus.
Maela stood beneath the old pine tree, her silhouette a familiar shape in the half-light. Her sleeves were rolled to the elbows, revealing the veins of a woman who had worked with both pain and patience her whole life. Her hair was tied back into its usual braid, a few strands curling loose around her temples in the damp air. She held a thick wooden staff at her side, not r
