Dawn. The Column Prepares to Move.
Mirena stood apart from the bustle.
Soldiers breaking camp. Tents coming down. Supplies being loaded. The ordinary chaos of an army preparing to march. She watched it all with eyes that saw something else.
Something beyond.
Aldric found her there.
He'd been looking for her for twenty minutes—not worried, exactly, but aware that she'd been too quiet since returning. Too still. The kind of stillness that meant deep thinking.
"You've been standing like that for an hour," he said.
"Have I?"
"Yeah." He leaned against a tree, arms crossed. "Lira said to check on you. Make sure you're not having some kind of mage crisis."
Mirena almost smiled. "I'm fine."
"You're a terrible liar."
She glanced at him. Said nothing.
Aldric waited. He'd learned that trick from Grog—silence often worked better than questions. People filled empty space eventually.
After a long moment, Mirena spoke.
"There's a place," she said quietly. "In the mountains. Far from here. Weeks of travel, maybe more. A school for people like me."
Aldric blinked. "A school?"
"An academy. For mages. The oldest on the continent." Her voice was distant, like she was seeing something far away. "I studied there once. Years ago. Before I ended up here."
Before what?
Aldric didn't ask. Some things you let people keep.
"I left before finishing," she continued. "Had my reasons. Thought I'd never go back." She paused. "Lately, I've been thinking about it."
The words hung in the cold morning air.
Aldric processed slowly. The idea of Mirena anywhere but here felt strange. Wrong. She'd become part of their strange little family—the quiet one, the smart one, the one who always had answers.
"You're leaving?"
"Not now." Mirena turned to face him fully. "Not until this is over. Every battle. Every step. I'll be here."
"But after?"
She was quiet for a moment.
"After, maybe. If we win. If we survive." She looked toward the east, where the Vargr waited. "There are things I need to learn. Things I barely understand. The magic I have now—it's enough for skirmishes, for border fights. But what's coming? What already came?" She shook her head slowly. "I need more."
Aldric thought about the Grove. The red eyes. The thing that had been waiting centuries.
"The next time," he said quietly.
Mirena looked at him.
"The thing in the Grove—it's patient. Grog said centuries. If we win, if we stop it this time—" He paused. "It'll just wait longer. For someone else. Someday."
"Yes."
"And you want to be ready for that. When it happens."
Mirena nodded slowly.
"Someone needs to understand what we're facing. Really understand. Not just stories and fragments and old women's warnings." She met his eyes. "The academy has records. Libraries. Teachers who've studied things most people don't even know exist. If I go back, if I finish what I started—" She paused. "Maybe I can find answers. Real answers."
Aldric absorbed this.
"How long?"
"Years. Maybe decades. The kind of magic I need to learn doesn't come quickly."
Decades.
He tried to imagine it. Mirena, old and wise, studying in some mountain tower while he—what? Lived his life? Grew old? Died?
The thought made his chest tight.
"But you'll come back," he said. It wasn't a question.
Mirena's expression softened. Just a little.
"When I have something worth bringing. When I understand enough to help." She paused. "And to check on you. Make sure you haven't done anything stupid."
Aldric almost smiled.
"Promise?"
"I promise."
They stood together as the camp stirred around them. Soldiers shouting. Supplies loading. The whole machine of an army waking up.
"You should tell Lira," Aldric said. "Before. Not after."
"I will."
"And Grog, when he's back."
"Yes."
Aldric nodded. Pushed off from the tree.
"Good. Then let's go fight a war."
Mirena almost smiled again. "After you, hero."
He walked toward the column.
She watched him go.
---
Lira found her an hour later, mounted and ready.
The column was forming up—soldiers in position, scouts preparing to range ahead, the whole mass of them preparing to push hard toward the Vargr position.
"You two done being mysterious?" Lira asked, reining in beside her. "Voren's pushing hard today. Wants to reach them by nightfall."
Mirena looked up at her.
"There's something I need to tell you. Both of you. When there's time."
Lira's eyes sharpened. "Bad?"
"No." A pause. "Just... later. After."
Lira studied her for a long moment. The way she studied everything—sharp, searching, missing nothing.
"You're thinking about something," she said. "Something you haven't shared."
Mirena held her gaze.
"Yes."
"Something about after the battle?"
"Yes."
Lira nodded slowly. Not pushing. Not demanding. Just... accepting.
"Then after," she agreed. "But you owe me details. All of them."
Mirena nodded.
Lira rode on.
Mirena watched her go, then walked toward her place in the column.
---
The march was brutal.
Voren pushed them hard—faster than was safe, through terrain that demanded caution. But no one complained. They all felt it now. The pressure. The timing. The sense that something was about to break.
Aldric marched in his place.
Thoughts churning.
Mirena leaving. After. When this was over.
He should be sad. Part of him was sad. But mostly, he felt... grateful. That she'd told him. That she'd promised to come back. That she'd be there for the battles that mattered.
She's doing this for us, he realized. For the future. For the next time. For people she hasn't even met yet.
The thought steadied him.
Beside him, a soldier complained about the pace. Another laughed. Another passed along a joke that made its way down the line. Ordinary moments. The kind Grog always talked about.
Aldric held onto them.
---
They stopped at sunset.
Vargr camp visible in the distance—fires, movement, the dark shapes of tents against the snow. Close now. Close enough to feel.
Voren gathered his officers.
Mirena stood at the edge of the gathering, watching. Aldric joined her.
"Soon," she said quietly.
Aldric nodded.
"You ready?"
He considered the question. Really considered it. The months of training. The weapons. The falling. The running. The voice in his head that had grown quieter but never fully silent.
"Yeah," he said. "I think I am."
Mirena looked at him. At the young face that had grown so much older in the past years. At the steadiness in his eyes that hadn't been there before.
"You'll do fine," she said. "Better than fine."
Aldric met her gaze.
"When this is over," he said quietly, "before you go—make sure you say goodbye. Properly. Not just disappear."
Mirena was quiet for a moment.
Then: "I will."
They stood together, watching the distant fires.
Tomorrow, everything changed.
But tonight, they had this.
It was enough.
---
Later, after the camp settled, Mirena sat alone.
Thinking about mountains. About towers. About books she'd left unfinished years ago.
She'd go back. Eventually. When the fighting was done, when Aldric was safe, when the immediate danger passed.
But not yet.
There was still work to do. Still battles to fight. Still a friend to protect.
After, she thought. After, I'll go.
She looked toward the east.
Tomorrow, the war began.
Tonight, she was exactly where she needed to be.