Dawn broke over the quiet forest with a gray light.
Eliza climbed into the hired wooden carriage without looking back a second time.
Her shoulders shook softly as she wept, and the carriage driver snapped his leather reins to start the horses moving.
Kai stood near the dying campfire to watch the wheels roll away until they completely vanished behind the pine trees.
His face remained a completely blank mask.
A hollow space sat right under his ribs because the sharp sting of loss had finally burned itself out into nothingness.
'She is safe now,' Kai thought, turning away from the northern road.
'That is the only thing that actually matters.'
He swung himself into the worn leather saddle of a black mare he had purchased in a nearby village.
Nudging her flanks gently, they began a long journey toward the southern borders.
Surviving this brutal reality required a place where weak men died and strong men thrived.
The Ashen Dunes fit that exact description perfectly.
