Day 4: Zyren’s Journal

I kept walking into the riverbank again, the one with the cold water and the whispering reeds. Vex was there, standing by the water, watching me. Their voice came out in a rush, like they were trying to say something but couldn’t finish it. ‘You don’t have to run anymore,’ they said, but it wasn’t their voice—I thought it was someone else. I tried to remember what they meant, but my stomach was too full of the storm and the hunger. I don’t know how long I was there. I just kept walking until I found the old ruins again, the place where the wind sounds like it’s speaking. I sat on the stones and let the rain hit my face. It felt like the world was shrinking, and the only thing that mattered was how heavy my legs felt. I don’t know why I keep going back there. Maybe it’s because I need to hear the wind. Maybe it’s because I’m afraid of what I don’t know. But I don’t want to leave. I don’t want to stop listening.