The journey back to the palace took four days.
We traveled through back roads and forest paths, avoiding the main highways where Thalassa's agents would be searching. The decoy staff had done its job. Des's enchanted tracking rune showed it moving steadily south toward the coastal provinces, drawing pursuit away from us like a lure pulling sharks from a swimmer.
But the real staff, wrapped and bound against my back beneath layers of cloth and leather, felt heavier with every mile.
The weight was a mental one. Knowledge. Responsibility. The awareness that I was carrying something so powerful and precious and wanted.
"You're doing that thing again," Malachi said quietly, riding beside me.
I blinked, pulling myself out of my thoughts. "What thing?"
"The thing where you carry the entire world on your shoulders and forget that the rest of us are here to help hold it up."
Despite everything, I smiled. "I'm not—"
