Jason found them faster than he expected.
Ylva had made sure to leave subtle clues—a torn piece of cloth tied to a railing, a scratch mark on a wall that looked accidental but wasn't, a specific smell of wolf fur that lingered in doorways. Jason had no idea how he knew it was her. He just did. His feet seemed to move on their own, following a trail his conscious mind couldn't quite see.
It became harder to spot the clues later on—the scratch marks faded into the general damage of the district, the torn cloth could have been anyone's, the smell was drowned out by fish and garbage. But Jason kept walking, kept trusting his gut, and eventually found himself standing in front of a rundown boarding house on the eastern edge of the adventurer's district.
He climbed the creaking stairs to the second floor, found the room at the end of the hall, and knocked twice.
No answer.
He knocked again. "Thalion. It's me."
