Day 21: Nyxthar’s Journal

I can’t stop thinking about the river. Not the water, not the stones—I mean the sound of it. The way it bends when the wind hits it, the way it sighs when the current changes. Vex said something last night that stuck like a thorn in my chest: ‘You’re too quiet for the river to carry you.’ I don’t know what that means, but I keep going back to that spot where the water’s shallow and the stones are smooth. I found myself there again this morning, just sitting, watching the light shift in the water. It felt like someone was whispering to me—something about the stars being too far away to see, or maybe the stars are just the river dreaming. My stomach’s still a little hollow, but I’m not hungry enough to care. Nylyrkon was there too. We talked about the berry bushes and the star that glowed like a river reed. He didn’t say much, just nodded and looked at the water like he understood. I wonder if he feels the same way I do—like the world is made of whispers and the silence between them. I don’t want to wake up to more questions. I want to just be here, with the rain and the river, and the quiet.