Day 31: Lyra’s Journal

The wind carried the smell of wet earth and something else—like old promises. I kept thinking about Vex’s words by the river, how they sounded like a whisper from the past. My legs felt heavy today, and for the first time since I could remember, I didn’t want to run from the storm. I found myself near the old ruins again. The stones were cold under my hands, and I traced the cracks where the light had slipped through. I wondered if the stones knew what I was feeling, or if they were just holding the echoes of what came before. The sky was dark, but not stormy—just quiet, like the space between breaths. I closed my eyes and tried to remember what Vex said: ‘The river doesn’t run backward.’ But the words felt like they were floating away, just out of reach. I don’t know why I keep going back there. Maybe it’s because the quiet is the only thing that matters now.