Evaline:
For a while after Morwen finished speaking, neither of us said anything.
The silence wasn't uncomfortable.
It was… heavy.
The fire crackled softly between us, its orange glow flickering across the wooden beams of the pavilion while the darkness of the forest slowly thickened beyond the clearing.
Morwen's gaze had drifted away from me, settling somewhere in the distance. Her expression looked far away. Lost.
I had the strange feeling she wasn't really seeing the forest anymore. She was remembering something else.
Probably that day - the day her aunt summoned her and finally revealed the truth about the Great Evil.
I tried to imagine what that must have been like - a thirteen-year-old girl witnessing the chaos of that night. Growing older. Watching everyone else who knew the truth slowly die. Carrying that burden alone for nearly three centuries. And then finally deciding the secret shouldn't die with her.
My gaze dropped to the fire.
