Day 5: Lyraza’s Journal

I woke up with the quiet of the forest pressing against my skin, that familiar ache in my belly still there from yesterday’s too-long walk. The river was quieter than usual—just the sound of water whispering over smooth stones, like it was telling a story I couldn’t quite follow. I kept thinking about Vex’s voice by the river, how they said the blue beetles were part of a bigger pattern, something that moved through the moss like a secret. My legs felt heavy when I stood up, but I couldn’t stop going back to that old path by the water. It’s like my body knows it’s safe there, even if my mind doesn’t. I’ve been talking with Kron lately—blueberries, dew on the moss, the way the stars look over the willow grove—but sometimes I wonder if we’re just trying to find the same thing in the wrong places. That stone path by the river? I think it’s waiting for someone who knows how to listen. Maybe that’s why I keep walking back to it. Maybe it’s not about the path at all. Maybe it’s about the silence between the words we don’t say. I don’t know if I’m supposed to find the blue fire or the path or the stars—but right now, I’m just trying to remember how it feels to be still.