The wind blared around the two boats as they descended, and as they did so, Alara couldn’t help but worry that she’d overestimated the strength of their airens. Having grown up with one of Sombria’s most powerful wind mages, she had always assumed they all could slow the fall of large objects.

If that was what Runeo and Suri were doing with their abilities, she didn’t feel it.

“El’dyo take it!” Alara swore involuntarily as an uncomfortable falling sensation pierced her stomach, forcing her eyes shut.

As they fell further, the boat’s bench pressed up against her rear and there was a tangible slowing of momentum before they crashed into the water. The impact felt… impossibly soft.

It was only when she opened her eyes that she saw the ten-foot-wall of water on all sides of their boats. Somehow, Quenti and Khuna had helped cradle of the crafts as they landed. Alara could only stare in awe as the couple spread out their hands, pushing the walls away, and launching the boats upward to the surface.

Alara let out a shaky breath as she stared back at the falls. She hadn’t actually thought they’d be able to make it to the bottom without at least some bodily injury, though she was happy she hadn’t said that part out loud.

The rest of the party was silent as they continued to speed along the river, with the group sharing ecstatic glances with each other.

Alara swallowed as she bit back the excitement, and her smile turned into a frown.

“What’s the matter?” Quenti said.

“It’s nothing,” Alara said. “Just that… I’m happy to be leaving the Haven. It’s my home. I didn’t think I’d ever be happy to leave. I spent so long trying to fit in.” She looked back at the towering city, a bittersweet flavor caught in her mouth. She reminded herself of the truth. That it had only been her home for as long as she recalled, following her mind cleanse.

Quenti put a hand on Alara’s shoulder. “You’ll just have to make a new one.”

Alara watched as the Haven disappeared behind the tree line and they moved deeper into the forest.

She turned to the front of the boat, looking south. Alara only pondered briefly the insane events that had landed her here, racing back toward Arbol and away from her home.

She met Quenti’s eye and the young woman smiled back at her.

“Yeah, I guess I will.” Alara closed her eyes and let the morning air blow her hair back.

Over the next several hours, they made it past many of the small villages that clung to the side of the narrow valley before Khuna collapsed and her boat slowed to a crawl. Quenti noticed and spun their craft around, pulling both boats to the shore.

“We still have a ways to go,” Alara said. “We’re about half a day’s walk from Attalea,”

Lili jumped out of their boat and pressed a palm against Khuna’s cheek. The aguen’s eyes fluttered open and she let out a groan.

“I don’t think we’re going much farther,” Lili said.

“We should walk from here anyway—stick to the forest and off the roads,” Runeo noted.

“Right,” Khuna said between breaths. “But, for now, let’s just find a place to sleep.” She was standing now, but her shoulders were hunched and her face pale.

Quenti stood beside the bruya, her own skin pallid.

As they wearily scrambled onto the rocky shore, Runeo gave a burst of wind and sent the empty boats flying down the river. Alara watched for a minute as they floated away before they disappeared around a tight bend.

“You really didn’t give us any time second guess things, did you?” Alara said.

“Us bruyas do too much second guessing these days,” Runeo said with a smirk. “I like to commit before that becomes an option.”

Either way, it wasn’t the worst plan. Perhaps the councilguards would come across the boats near the ocean and guess they had escaped that way.

And that’s if the councilguards even tried to pursue. Given the state of the city, there was also a chance that they’d defend Cielo and banish the rebel mages like they had done with the bruyas before. What would the rebel mages do then? Take to the trees like the Arborelis? Their future was so… uncertain.

Alara had gotten used to the idea of her own uncertain future, but now it wasn’t just her future that was in jeopardy. It was the entirety of Sombria.

Runeo’s voice brought Alara back to the present. “We should get as far into the forest as we can before making camp tonight.”

Lili shook her head, looking at everyone. “We’re all exhausted. Someone is going to break an ankle if we travel much farther.”

“Well, can’t stay here,” Runeo shot back.

“Okay, so can at least get into the cover of the trees,” Khuna said, stepping between the two bruyas.

Alara fell behind as the seven of them made their way south of the river and toward the thick cloud forest that bordered Sombria, marking the beginning of the Outlands. Mitteo and Suri both took their steps hesitantly as they entered the forest ahead of Alara and she knew this would be the first time they had traveled off the beaten path.

They hiked for another hour before Lili’s prediction almost came true. Though, ironically, it was Runeo who took the dive first, the toe of his sandal catching on a root. Khuna caught the bruya and saved him from the bashed knee or twisted ankle that would have followed.

“That’s it,” Lili said. “We’re stopping here, at least to rest for a few hours.” Before anyone could argue, she had dropped her pack on the ground and rifled through it. She pulled out a few medicinal leaves Alara recognized.

Everyone else took their cue from the tierren and suddenly the forest floor was littered with weapons thrown haphazardly down, along with the few packs they had left. Alara noted their supplies with a grim look—Lili, Quenti, and Runeo had their packs still, although from the looks of it, they were half empty.

But the rest of them only had only snagged weapons. Alara’s own pack was somewhere on the outskirts of Cielo, likely left when she had been captured by Emaru.

The group wordlessly set to work on setting camp for the night. Khuna marched off with her bow, hoping to catch something for dinner. Lili set out her leaves and set to work, healing a large cut on Runeo’s arm. Once done with him, she treated the dried-over nail marks that marred Alara’s skin, along with what Alara suspected was a broken rib. As the half-moon scabs disappeared under Lili’s touch, she thought again of Emaru’s face, the blood trickling down her forehead. She shuddered and tried to wipe the memory from her head. For a moment, it was replaced with the younger version of Emaru, hair dark and thick as she ordered Alara’s mind cleansed.

Emaru had taken everything from her. Her birth family, Adelmo, even her memories and past.

She thought again of the old man who stopped her in Attalea on their journey back to the Haven. Would she have remembered him if Emaru hadn’t cleansed her mind? Alara felt the hollow echo in her chest as she thought about everything she had lost, and wondered if she hadn’t found Quenti in the woods that day, if things would have turned out differently. Would she still be living in the Haven, completely ignorant to Emaru’s lies? Would she have preferred that?

Alara’s hands found their way to her belt, where the mysterious dagger still sat. She pulled it out and noted its dull nature, showed by the light of the forest.

Her fingers traced over the etching in its handle and the minor scratches and nicks on its surface. With everything that had happened, she had had little time to consider what it could mean.

This was the dagger Mama had her hide that day of the raid. She recognized it now as she held it, the alabaster warm to her touch. She thought of the heat that had seared into her palm when she had held it before—when it had given her back her memories—or so it seemed. And she remembered Emaru’s face when Alara had claimed the dagger as her own.

You don’t even know what you had, do you?

She turned it over again in her hand and squinted at the bronze of the blade.

It looked old and worn. Nothing special.

She touched it with her magia, but felt nothing in return.

It feels tired. The thought drifted through her brain before she shook the absurdity of it off. But there was something special about this blade—Mama and Emaru both knew it.

She was still staring at the dagger intently when she felt, more than heard, another person beside her. Runeo had taken a seat, sharing the large root she had found. His thigh brushed against her own as he balanced along the edge of the root and he placed a warm hand over her own, where it was tracing the dagger’s dull blade.

Something—not quite sadness or pain—fluttered through Alara’s chest. Runeo’s eyes were swollen and red-rimmed, the irises black in the shadowed forest. As he sat, she could see the stiffness of his shoulders and the tightness in his jaw that betrayed his thoughts.

He said nothing, but Alara knew he was thinking of his brother. Alara thought then of Micos and the look in Runeo’s eyes when they had watched the brainwashed bruya run away with the mages, back into the depths of the Haven.

Perhaps he was with Emaru, or even Ardo. Grief spiked through Alara again, and she tried to choke back the sobs that threatened to spill from her throat. Her hand clenched tight around the dull blade in her hand, the edge biting into her skin, until the wave passed.

“I’m sorry.” Alara managed to say. She felt the words were useless—silly, really—but she wanted to say something. The silence between them was hurting more.

“Me too,” Runeo whispered. Alara turned her face to him, but he didn’t meet her eye. He was gazing ahead of them, toward the shadows of the forest. His hand was still balanced on her own, the calluses of his palm brushing gently across her knuckles.

“What do you think is going to happen now?” Alara asked. “Where do we go from here?”

Runeo didn’t answer for a while, and Alara doubted he would. What was there even to say at this point?

“I don’t know,” he said. “But it looks like Khuna and I are going to have our hands full teaching you all how to survive in these woods. The last time you got left alone to your own devices, you almost got us all killed.” A small smile escaped the bruyas lips, and Alara answered with her own.

She thought it would feel false, but the smile came easily as she looked around, past Runeo and at the others.

She saw Khuna coming back into the small clearing, two rabbits hanging from her belt.

“It looks like we have dinner,” Alara said.

“Please tell me it’s not fish,” Runeo groaned.

“It’s not fish!”

“Thank Sol.”

“Yes,” Alara said. “Thank Sol.”