They found Corwin two days later.
He had been complaining for weeks that he felt watched. Said he saw shapes in the trees even when there was nothing there. Most of us brushed it off. Paranoia comes with the work.
They found him in a ditch near Tarren Mill. Throat cut. No struggle. Just gone.
I didn’t see the body. I didn’t need to. The look on Seth’s face when he came back was enough.
No one said much after that. The manor felt smaller. Quieter. Every shadow seemed sharper, every creak of the old floorboards sudden and deliberate. We moved through the halls like we were all bracing for the next blow.
That night I sat on the low wall behind the old ruin and let the cold air bite at my face. My arm still ached where the poison had been. I thought about Elira’s hands on the wound. About how quiet it had been in that back room. About how easy it would have been to just… stay.
I wish I’d said yes to her in Goldshire.
Not because I regretted joining. Just because I was tired. Tired of looking over my shoulder. Tired of wondering who would be next.
I stayed out there until my fingers went numb, then went back inside.
