Lucian left the freight wagon at the mining junction with enough witnesses to remember that he had gone north and no reason for any of them to care.
The road beyond the junction divided around a weathered post. One branch followed the river east toward three working mines. The other climbed into the northern mountains before disappearing beneath a fall of loose stone. The damaged sign still carried the name of a settlement that existed on current maps. Blackwater Reach did not appear anywhere.
Lucian took the northern branch until the wagon sounds faded behind him. Then he left the road.
