Matter-of-factly, Northern had expected her to turn down his offer to go back home. Based on the steady pattern of her fierce reactions since the first day of their troubled meeting, he suspected she would do the opposite—defiance had become her nature.
He could have scolded her for her brute, unreasonable behavior. But exhaustion weighed on his body, and he found no reason to waste the effort. Even after witnessing the bitter acerbity of battle, she remained stubborn.
What little effect would his words have now?
Instead, he focused his remaining energy on carving a path forward.
With Gareon gone, the battered caravan had lost its leader, yet they still had direction. That man, Jezter—he had been close to the stern Gareon.
He would know the way forward.
The immediate concern, however, was the fractured land ahead. The mountainscape had been reshaped, raw and unrecognizable.They had to survive it first.