The forest outside the academy was old.
Older than the walls.
Older than the rifts.
Trees grew thick and twisted — trunks black with age, branches heavy with moss that glowed faintly in the dusk.
The path Kael led them on was barely a path — more a deer trail, narrow and overgrown.
They walked for hours.
Miko's legs ached.
Her mind wouldn't stop spinning.
The seal had been silent since the scar.
She didn't trust the silence.
Kael stopped at a small clearing.
A stream ran through it — clear, cold.
He knelt, cupped water in his hands, drank.
Miko did the same.
The water tasted like iron and pine.
She sat on a fallen log.
Kael stayed standing — scanning the trees.
"You think they're following?" she asked.
"They're searching.
Not following.
Not yet."
Miko looked at him.
"How long can we stay out here?"
"A week.
Maybe two.
Long enough to breathe.
Long enough to plan."
Miko stared at the stream.
"I don't know how to plan for this."
Kael crouched in front of her.
"You don't have to plan alone."
She met his eyes.
"You really think we can beat it?"
Kael didn't answer right away.
Then he said:
"I think we can make it regret choosing you."
Miko laughed — soft, tired.
"That's the best pep talk you've got?"
"It's the only one that matters."
He stood.
"We rest here tonight.
Move again at dawn."
Miko nodded.
Kael walked to the edge of the clearing — shadows spreading around him like a shield.
Miko lay back on the log — staring at the sky through the canopy.
The auroras were brighter here — vivid, almost violent.
She closed her eyes.
The seal pulsed — once, gentle.
She didn't fight it.
She just let it sit.
And in the silence, she heard it whisper — soft, almost kind.
Soon.
Miko's eyes snapped open.
She looked toward Kael.
He was watching the trees — back to her.
She didn't tell him what she heard.
Not yet.
To be continued…