Nevara
The disturbed soil around the marker told a clearer story up close than it had from a distance.
It had not been shifted by erosion or weather. The ground was compacted in a way that suggested deliberate force. A stake that had been pulled and driven again. The dirt still held a slightly different color where it had been overturned.
Thoren straightened slowly, his expression unreadable.
“Recently,” he said.
Harlan crossed his arms. “How recently?”
“Within days,” Thoren replied.
That landed differently.
Days meant after our last report. After the council claimed stability. After the acting leadership had supposedly settled the pack into calm.
Noah stepped back toward me instinctively. Jonas mirrored him, though his eyes remained fixed on the stake as if expecting it to move a
