Wildheart: Shattering the Warlord’s Silent Vow

The mountain shrine courtyard is quiet, its stone walls warm from the day and its flagstones washed in pale dust. Smoke from the pass lingers far behind them, faint as a bad memory.

The Wounded Survivor staggers two steps into the center of the yard, then folds to one knee and catches themself on a palm. Their breathing comes shallow and fast.

Tenda Wildheart moves in beside them, steady and close, while the Warlord's Daughter stops a few paces away with her shoulders tight beneath her armor. The soldiers keep their distance, suddenly unsure what to do with peace.

The Wounded Survivor lowers themself onto the stone, one hand pressed to their ribs. The list is still somewhere under Tenda's tunic, and the question of it hangs between everyone, unspoken.

The wind stirs through the eaves. For a few heartbeats, there is only the survivor's breathing, the scrape of sandals on stone, and the small, fragile space where Tenda can either tend the wound or ask about the names.

Tenda slips the scroll free and unrolls it against his palm. The brushwork is cramped, practical, and full of names marked for pursuit.

The Wounded Survivor leans in despite themself, eyes snagging on one line near the center. Their breathing catches.

The Warlord's Daughter shifts one step closer, pride thinning into unease as the survivor points with a trembling finger.

A hush settles over the courtyard. If this list is real, the raid was never random, and the survivor has seen one of the marked names before they were hunted.