Imogen climbs from the well with empty hands, carrying nothing except the memory of Nalia’s burial. Kaelus follows, and the stone cover settles behind them.
The village woman waits beneath the meeting hall awning. Beyond her, several villagers stand in the rain at a cautious distance, watching the notice board.
Water sheets across the warped planks, but Nalia’s name remains clear beneath the eaves. Mara Venn, Oren Pell, Sabine Rook, and Tomas Vale endure beside it.
the village woman
They are still there. I expected the rain to take them, or something beneath the village to scrape them away.
No hand approaches the board. Yet each blank space around the restored names seems darker than before, as though the wood remembers being cut.
Kaelus
Elias remains below with Elian’s testimony. We should return before the road closes, unless this board has more to show us.
From the gathered villagers comes a soft, uneven murmur. Then one of the erased spaces beads with black moisture, and a fifth line begins to surface beneath Nalia’s name.