Chapter 77 – The Trace of Prophecy

When they left the cabin, the night was no longer as wild as it had been in the first moment of escape, but it had become more dangerous. Because at first, a person focused only on surviving. Now, the weight of having survived had begun to settle over them. The wind had thinned, and the sounds between the trees had become sharper. The forest, which had been a darkness hiding them a short while ago, had now turned into a silent witness that seemed to want to see where they were going. Elara was not walking at the very front, but she was the one setting the direction now. Rowan had accepted that. Kael, even if he had not admitted it yet, had started to follow it.

After they left the stream behind, the path split in two. The right side looked safer. It was flatter, drier, a route that would leave fewer traces. The left side wound between rising rocks and stretched into a more enclosed line where the trees thickened. While Rowan instinctively looked right, Elara turned left without stopping. Kael called out immediately. "That way is worse." Elara did not even turn to look at him. "The worse place is the older one." Rowan’s brows drew together slightly. "Do you know where you’re going?" This time, Elara paused for a brief moment. "No," she said. "But I know what is calling me."

That answer did not fully reassure Rowan, but it did not stop him either. A familiar tension, however, appeared on Kael’s face. Elara was no longer moving only on instinct. She was going to the places the Moon Spirit inside her pointed toward. Kael’s distrust of that was joining with the other fear that had begun in the facility and deepened in the cabin. He was afraid of losing Elara, but worse than that, he was afraid that at some point Elara would no longer be someone who could even be found.

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