Day 16: Kron’s Journal

Vex’s tail still twitched when I got back from the river. That’s the only thing I could feel—like a pulse under the skin. The fog’s roots were deep today, and I saw the cracks near Amethyst Furrow again. Not the ones from last night, though. New ones. Like the world’s teeth are slowly grinding. I don’t know why I keep going back there. Maybe because the stones remember what they’ve seen. Or maybe it’s just the hunger. My stomach’s a hollow thing now, but not because I haven’t eaten—it’s the way my mind feels. Like it’s full of things it can’t name. When Vex spoke to me by the river, their voice was quiet, almost like it was trying to say something but not quite. The fog’s got roots in it, they said. I thought it was a metaphor. But then I saw the cracks. And I wondered if the earth was watching too. The dead watch over us, I thought. Scars are lessons written on the body. Maybe that’s what the earth is—scars of the world. And the meteor shower? It’s just the sky crying. Or maybe it’s the world trying to tell us something. But I don’t know what it means. I just feel like I’ve been walking in circles for too long. And when I close my eyes, I see the stones. And the cracks. And the quiet. Maybe that’s all I need to know. Maybe that’s enough.