Whispers Forest—the vast primordial woodland stretching from east of Melvina Village to west of Solenia—had given way to a changed sky as they passed its southeastern edge. Beyond the trees, the rolling hills spread out in gray. Not green. Gray grass and twisted shrubs clustered together. The Vanishing—Vanari Kors—had left its mark most heavily here: the Hollow Hills. The aftermath of Arathun's disappearance eight hundred years ago remained carved into this land, unhealed. Elara stopped and looked at the landscape before her. Last night, after Orion fell asleep by the campfire, the earth-pattern ink had trembled. A pressure that seemed to possess intention, as if observing. She hadn't told him about it. Even now, she couldn't articulate a clear reason why. Only the sensation lingered in her fingertips even after dawn. "...It's far stranger than I imagined." Orion murmured beside her. His hand went to the frame of his glasses—his usual gesture. The surveying map he'd been carryin