The forest opened like a secret.
Thick branches arched above Jasmine, their leaves trembling in the soft hush of morning. Mist clung to the earth, curling around her ankles as she walked barefoot along the hidden path, guided only by scent and instinct and something deeper... something feral... thrumming beneath her skin.
A low rush of sound met her ears before she saw it.
Water.
And then the trees parted.
There, carved into the bones of the land, was a pool fed by a high fall... a silver sheet of liquid tumbling from jagged stone into a basin the color of dark glass. Steam rose from it, curling up like smoke from an altar. The air was warm here. Wetter. Heavier.
Jasmine stepped forward without hesitation.
She let her robe slip from her shoulders, the silk whispering down her skin i
