Chapter 94

*Elora*

They led me into the caverns before sunrise, when the air was still thick with mist and the scent of burned pine clung to the stone like memory. Kezar didn’t speak as we walked. Neither did the two cloaked figures who flanked me—rogue elders, I’d learned, though no one used titles here. Only roles. You either survived the flame, or you didn’t.

The tunnel narrowed, sloping downward in slow,