The Next Morning. Before Dawn.
Aldric woke to darkness and cold.
Same as always. Same as every morning for months. His body moved through the familiar routine—sit up, stretch, inventory the aches. Ribs: sore but healing. Arms: tired but functional. Back: complaining as usual.
He dressed. Grabbed his staff. Stepped outside.
The camp was quiet. Fires banked. Sentries watching. The ordinary hush of an army still sleeping.
He walked to the training ground.
Empty.
He waited.
Mirena usually arrived first. Before dawn, always before dawn, standing in the center like she'd been there for hours. Today, the center was just frozen ground and shadows.
Aldric waited.
The sky lightened. Gray became pale gray became the first hint of gold. Still no Mirena.
Strange, he thought. She's never late.
He walked toward her tent.
---
Mirena's tent was small, tucked between supply wagons for warmth. Aldric had never been inside—she kept to herself, always had. He stopped outside.
"Mirena?"
No answer.
He waited. Called again.
Nothing.
He pulled back the flap.
Empty.
Bedroll untouched. Supplies undisturbed. No sign she'd ever been there.
Aldric stood frozen, staring at the emptiness.
She's with Grog, he thought. Had to be. Left together. That's all.
But Grog had left alone. He'd said so. Walked into the trees by himself.
So where was Mirena?
---
He found Lira at the cookfire.
She was eating porridge, looking tired but normal. Aldric sat beside her, too fast, too tense.
"Mirena's gone."
Lira paused mid-bite. "What?"
"Her tent. Empty. Bedroll not slept in." He lowered his voice. "Did she say anything to you? About leaving?"
Lira set down her bowl. Her face had gone still—the look she got when something was wrong.
"No. Nothing." She thought. "Last I saw her was last night. Watching you and Grog talk. Then she went to her tent."
Aldric's stomach clenched.
"Check with the sentries," Lira said, standing. "I'll look for tracks."
They moved.
---
The dawn sentry remembered nothing.
Girl with dark hair? No. Not past midnight. No one left camp after Grog. He'd been watching.
The night sentry was asleep—relieved at dawn, already in his tent. They woke him. He was groggy, annoyed, useless.
Lira found tracks at the edge of camp.
Not Mirena's—she couldn't be sure. But fresh. Small. Heading into the trees.
Following Grog's path.
"She went after him," Lira said quietly.
Aldric stared at the tracks.
"Why? She didn't say anything. Didn't tell us. Just—left."
Lira had no answer.
They stood at the tree line, watching the darkness where two of their friends had disappeared.
---
Voren was not happy.
"Soldiers don't just leave," he said, voice hard. "Especially not my best scout and a mage I was relying on for intelligence."
Lira stood before him, Aldric beside her. The command tent was busy—officers coming and going, maps spread everywhere—but Voren's attention was entirely on them.
"Grog told me he was leaving," Lira admitted. "Last night. Said he had things to do. Personal business."
"Personal business." Voren's voice could have frozen water. "We're marching toward a Vargr army and he has personal business?"
"He didn't explain. Just said he had to go."
Voren stared at her. Then at Aldric.
"And the mage?"
"We don't know," Aldric said. "Her tent's empty. Tracks suggest she followed him."
"Followed him where?"
"We don't know that either."
Voren was quiet for a long moment. The officers around them had stopped pretending not to listen.
"Two soldiers," he said finally. "Deserting on the night before we march. If this were anyone else—"
"They're not deserting." Aldric's voice was firm. "Grog's been here for years. Fought beside everyone. He wouldn't run from a fight."
Voren studied him.
"You sound sure."
"I am."
Another long pause.
Then Voren nodded slowly. "Fine. But when they come back—if they come back—they answer to me. Understood?"
Aldric nodded. Lira nodded.
They left.
---
Outside the tent, the camp was fully awake now.
Soldiers moving. Supplies loading. The whole machine of an army preparing to march. Aldric and Lira stood in the middle of it, surrounded by people who didn't know what had happened.
"She'll be back," Lira said quietly. "They both will."
Aldric nodded.
But his eyes stayed on the trees.
---
The column formed at midday.
Hundreds of soldiers in their units. Wagons in their places. Scouts ranging ahead. The ordinary business of an army on the move.
Aldric walked in his assigned spot. Lira was somewhere ahead, scouting. He was alone among strangers.
The forest closed around them.
He thought about Grog. About their conversation last night. About the team they'd build, the family they'd become.
You have to come back, he thought. You promised.
The column marched on.
And in the trees beside the road, something moved.
Aldric caught it from the corner of his eye. A shape. Dark. Watching.
He turned.
Nothing there.
Just trees. Just shadows.
But for a moment—just a moment—he could have sworn he saw red eyes.