= Mikael =
“They’re buying time,” I said finally, my voice low, steady, though the words carried a weight that seemed to press down on the very air around us. My eyes stayed fixed on the churned earth at our feet, the tracks half-erased, the soil upturned in a chaotic, almost deliberate pattern.
The silence that followed was thick, almost tangible. The forest itself seemed to pause, holding its breath. My words settled like stones into the quiet, heavy and immovable.
Beside me, Amara shifted, her movements smooth, deliberate. Her lips curved—not into a smile, but into something sharper, more calculating. Recognition. Understanding. That slow, electric realization that strikes when the truth finally bares its teeth, when the pieces of a puzzle you didn’t fully see click into a jagged, un
