⚔️ **CHAPTER 16 — The Long Road Between Breaths**
Morning came without light.
Mist clung low to the ground, thick enough that Kael could barely see his own boots as he walked. The ruins faded behind him, swallowed by silence as if they had never existed at all.
He followed no road.
Just a direction.
Hunger had changed from pain to presence—a quiet companion that walked beside him, never speaking, never leaving. His stomach no longer growled. That was worse.
*You should eat,* the second voice said.
"I will," Kael answered. "When it's worth stopping."
They crossed open land by noon. The grass here grew pale and brittle, bending easily beneath his steps. No birds. No insects. Even the wind felt cautious.
Kael slowed.
Places like this didn't stay empty by accident.
He drank sparingly from his canteen, counting each swallow. Water still tasted like water, but it didn't satisfy. Nothing did anymore—not fully.
By afternoon, his legs burned. Old blisters reopened. His cloak felt heavier than it should.
Kael stopped near a shallow ravine and sat, back against stone. He closed his eyes—not to sleep, just to *rest*.
That was when he felt it.
Not a presence.
An **absence**.
*Someone is watching,* the second voice warned.
Kael didn't move.
Watching wasn't the same as hunting. Yet.
He tore a strip from his last piece of dried meat and chewed slowly, deliberately. If someone was observing, he wouldn't give them fear to study.
Minutes passed.
Nothing happened.
But the absence remained, circling just beyond his awareness.
Kael rose and continued walking.
By dusk, clouds gathered, thick and bruised. The land dipped into shallow valleys where shadows pooled unnaturally. Kael chose the high ground, even though it cost him strength.
A mistake made while tired was still a mistake.
Thunder rumbled far away.
Kael reached a narrow stone bridge spanning a dark stream. The water moved too smoothly, reflecting no sky.
Halfway across, he stopped.
The hairs on his neck rose.
"You can come out," Kael said calmly.
Silence.
Then a figure stepped from behind a standing stone on the far bank.
No armor.
No weapon drawn.
Just a traveler in dark cloth, hood low.
"I wasn't sure you'd notice," the stranger said.
"I did," Kael replied.
They studied each other from a distance.
"You're walking like prey," the stranger said. "But you don't smell afraid."
Kael exhaled. "Are you here to collect something?"
The stranger smiled faintly. "Not today."
Lightning flashed. For an instant, Kael saw markings along the stranger's wrist—faded, deliberate.
Exile marks.
Another one.
"You shouldn't stay in open places," the stranger continued. "Especially when the Council's eyes are waking."
Kael tightened his grip on the bridge's stone edge. "Then why are you here?"
"Because danger doesn't always move," the stranger said. "Sometimes it waits to see what you'll do."
The figure stepped back into shadow.
"When you reach the black soil," the voice called softly, "don't eat what grows there."
Then they were gone.
Rain began to fall.
Kael crossed the bridge slowly, every sense alert, but no attack came.
Only the sound of rain, steady and patient.
*They're circling,* the second voice said.
Kael pulled his cloak tighter and kept walking.
"Let them," he murmured. "I'm still learning how to walk hungry."
Night closed in.
Somewhere far behind him, something shifted its path.
Not closer.
But **parallel**.
And Kael understood—
The danger wasn't rushing.
It was learning his pace.
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