And the name answered.
Rea opened her eyes. The whispering shadows were still there, but they seemed smaller now, like children caught in a lie.
Rea felt a terrible cold enter her chest. Maybe they were right. Rea . What was it? A sigh? A fragment? She had always wanted a grand name like "Valor" or "Seraphina." Something solid. Instead, she had this—a name that slipped through the fingers of meaning.
Then the dark came alive with whispers. Voices without faces. The voices of those who had entered the deep forest and never left. They did not shout. They were worse than that. They were reasonable.