Liam moved northeast through the dark forest without rushing.
Eldervale's trees were older than the ones he was used to around the academy, or at least they looked that way. Their trunks were thick and uneven, bark split into deep ridges where moss clung like old rot, and their roots broke through the damp soil in heavy knots that made the ground treacherous for careless feet. The leaves above were broad and dark, layered so densely that they blocked most of the sky and turned the starlight into thin, scattered fragments.
Mist gathered in low patches near the ground, curling around exposed roots and sunken stones, never thick enough to blind him, but present enough to make distance feel uncertain. The strange mineral scent remained in the air, faint but persistent, like wet iron and crushed crystal hiding beneath the smell of old leaves.
The shadows felt deeper than they should have.
