She studied him for a long moment, and something in her expression softened, though the worry never fully left it. "You need to heal first," she said. "You can barely sit up on your own. Whatever waits for Kael out there will still be waiting once you've regained your strength. Rushing out now, weak as you are, helps no one."
He knew she was right, even as every instinct in him strained against the sense of it. He forced himself to nod, to accept the broth she pressed back into his hands, to eat slowly and rest through the remainder of that day, though his thoughts never fully settled, circling always back to Kael, to the fractures, to the woman outside time with her hand lifted over ten thousand shifting futures.
It took another week before he felt strong enough to leave the house on his own, and the first place he went, once his legs could reliably carry him, was to the small clearing behind Liora's family home where his beasts had been kept and cared for during his long absence.
