Chapter 91

*Varis*

The fire had burned low by the time the messenger arrived.

I stood at the edge of what used to be the Council’s southern watchpost—now little more than charred beams and blood-soaked mud. The sky above was overcast, casting everything in dull grey. It had rained earlier. The kind of rain that couldn’t wash anything clean. Not the stench of ash. Not the blood staining the soil. And defini