Caleb and Corin rode out within the week, tasked with investigating the outer territories firsthand rather than relying on secondhand reports that grew stranger and more contradictory with every retelling. Jasmine had wanted to accompany them herself, but Xavier and Liora had both argued, with unusual unanimity, that the Luna's place remained at the fortress until they understood exactly what kind of threat was spreading through the outer lands.

The first village they reached, a small farming settlement called Ashmere, greeted them with the particular wariness of people who had already told their story to officials who hadn't believed them.

"It started with the well," the village elder told them,...