Chapter 4 — <strong>Shattered Authority</strong>

Tallen, one of the younger scouts, had broken Kael’s order, drawn by the strange glow that flickered through the trees that night.

The hunter returned at dawn. Silent, his face pale as stone dusted with snow.

"By the spring," he breathed. "Lyric. And... a girl. White, like a ghost. They touched the tree. It... came alive."

Kael stood at the edge of the hill, staring down at the forest veiled in morning mist. Below, near the stables, the warriors whispered. Someone said the moss had glowed in the dark. Another swore they'd heard voices in the roots. Voices that weren’t his.